Cavemen take down Lovington

LOVINGTON – It didn’t take long for the Lovington boys soccer team to get on the scoreboard Thursday afternoon, scoring just 21 seconds into the match against Carlsbad.

The Cavemen quickly responded, however, as junior forward David Soto scored three straight goals in the first half to give his team a 3-1 win.

“(Soto) is a big scoring threat, he’s had a couple of hat tricks this year,” Carlsbad coach Rick Castillo said. “He is a phenomenal athlete, he has the speed and the touch on the ball. He reads the field well and because of his (scoring) threat, he kind of opens it up for some other players as well.”

Wildcat sophomore Ronaldo De Haro wasted little time to start the match, scoring at the 39:39 mark off a cross from teammate Bryden Rodriguez. Lovington was unable to hold onto the momentum though, as Soto scored his first goal at the 31:13 mark to tie the match. He then added another goal at the 30:43 mark and completed the hat trick with 26:46 remaining in the first half.

“They conceded that goal really early and I wasn’t happy about that. But they kind of found their groove and got back into it,” Castillo said.

Lovington began fighting back with consecutive scoring opportunities to start the second half, but were unable to capitalize.

“I actually felt that we outperformed them,” Lovington coach Joe Gomez said. “We worked the ball a lot better, we found the seams, we connected more than they did. They just had some back-to-back goals that just snowballed on us again. It was another time we struck first, but we couldn’t hold on to the lead or do anything with it.”

Carlsbad out-shot the Wildcats 10-7, including 8-1 in the first half.

The consecutive first-half goals, however, proved to be enough to shift the momentum in Carlsbad's favor. The Cavemen improved to 5-5-2, whereas the Wildcats fell to 5-9.

Carlsbad will host District 3-6A foe Mayfield at 3 p.m. Saturday, while Lovington will open District 4-5A play at 4 p.m. Tuesday against Artesia.

CARLSBAD 3, LOVINGTON 1

Up next for Carlsbad: 3 p.m. Saturday vs. Mayfield

Up next for Lovington: 4 p.m. Tuesday vs. Artesia