Valencia beats Belen in girls soccer to open district play

The Valencia High School girls soccer team came from behind on Tuesday night to beat county rival Belen High, 2-1.

The Jaguars improved to 3-9 on the season with the victory and 1-0 in district play, while the Eagles fell to 1-10 and 0-1.

Belen struck first, taking a 1-0 lead early in the first half and

The Jaguars answered back before long, though exactly how long is unclear, as the scoreboard wasn’t working. It was not clear who got the final touch on the goal, but Valencia evened things up with a goal scored after Belen’s goalkeeper Grace Romero spilled the ball following a long shot into the box. Romero got her hands up and was able to knock down the shot, but couldn’t hang onto the ball, which rolled to back towards the VHS forwards who had followed the shot. The score would remain 1-1 through the rest of the half despite VHS putting plenty of pressure on the Eagles back line, but it was unable to convert that pressure into many good chances.

The second half was a similar story, as the Jaguars were comfortably in control of the match despite the score still being tied.

VHS broke through with its second, the game winning goal, on another ball that Romero had trouble hanging onto after it had been launched into the box. Morgan Sanchez was in the thick of things in the box once again and took the rebound and scored to put the hosts up 2-1.

BHS had some chances on the counter attack to tie up the match, but only managed to force one save from VHS keeper Kylee Ashley-Kurtz in the second half.

Next up for the Jaguars, they will travel to Albuquerque tonight at 4 p.m. to take on St. Pius X. The Sartans took on Grants on Tuesday in its district opener, but a final score was not reported.

As for Belen, the Lady Eagles will host Los Lunas at 4 p.m on Thursday. The Tigers are coming off a 4-0 win over West Mesa on Tuesday and will open district play with their rivals.

Meanwhile, across the county, the Belen and Valencia boys team matched up at BHS. Jerson Reyes recorded the hat trick for the Eagles in a 3-2 win. BHS head to Los Lunas on Thursday to take on Los Lunas in what will be the Tigers district opener.