Storm win first battle in Rio Rancho rivalry

CLEVELAND 1, RIO RANCHO 0

RIO RANCHO (Oct. 9, 2024) - A dozen games across hundreds of miles and finally, the Cleveland Storm and the Rio Rancho Rams girls soccer teams met up for their first clash of this year’s Rio Rancho rivalry. This time, it was Coach Gregory Rusk and his Storm squad who came out on top, defeating the Rams 1-0 at Rams Field.

The match was exactly the kind of physical affair this rivalry is known for. The Storm (8-7, 3-2 in 5A-1) used their size and strength to pressure the Rams (7-7-1, 2-2-1 in 5A-1) and win contested balls. The Rams responded with their speed, precision and tactics.

“This was an improved performance,” Rusk said after the game. “We went to the ball a lot better this time around. It was nice to get to the ball first and, if we didn’t get there first, we put immediate pressure on the ball.”

Both teams got numerous shots on goal, but it was the Storm who found success, a strike from Aaliyah C’deBaca with 21.30 left in the first half.

“The game was a little bit frantic, but it worked out in our favor and the girls were able to hold on to that 1-0 lead for 60 minutes, and that’s something else,” Rusk said.

The second half saw a much more physical Rams team who were able to respond quickly with big counterattacks, but ultimately, they just couldn’t pull all the pieces together.

“Overall, I think the girls responded well to the physicality,” said Rams head coach Jenna Sievers. “They weren’t backing away. I was proud of the way they responded to the physicality.”

Most of the game was spent with the teams battling for possession in the midfield in a brutal back-and-forth that included three separate injury stoppages.

Fortunately for CHS, a physical battle in the midfield is where they excel, thanks to the leadership of defensive-midfielder Taylor Williamson, who was a brick wall across the midfield at points during the match.

Rams striker Sophia Smith took three shots in the closing minutes of the game but couldn’t connect and Storm goalkeeper Maddie Johnson continued her stellar handling of a tough assignment.

After a few stumbles out of the gate this season, the Storm look to be back on track and were certainly a match for the #10-ranked Rams.

Class 5A-District 1 is a notoriously difficult district, often possessing numerous elite teams fighting for top positioning in the state championship.

As of Oct. 10, Volcano Vista (11-4, 5-0 in 5A-1) sits atop the district, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon. But Rusk says all his squad needs is a solid seeding in the state tournament and the Storm will be ready.

“We understand that Volcano is probably the best of our district, but we also know that if you finish second or third in this district, you’re going to go to [the State Championship] and that’s what our goal is,” he said. “So, we need to beat teams like Rio... because second gets you a high seed and third gets you in, and in the State Tournament anything can happen, which our boys proved a couple of years ago.”

On the other side of the field, it was a tough loss for the Rams, who have been on a roll lately, only losing one of their last five matches and finding themselves in the Top 10 in the latest MaxPreps.com ranking.

Sievers has her squad in rhythm at the right time, despite the loss, and says learning to rebound is part of becoming a great team.

“I tell them we need to come back stronger,” she said. “We need to come back with that intensity.”

The Rams may have been in the Top 10, but they came into this match with a comparable record to the Storm, so this was bound to be a tough fight.

“I think we came back stronger in the second half. We just couldn’t find the back of the net today. And Cleveland played well,” Sievers said.

Next up...

The Storm and the Rams will meet again for the second half of the home-and-home Rio Rancho Rivalry on Saturday, Oct. 26 at CHS. It is the final game of the regular season and kicks off at 11 a.m.

First however, the Storm will play head into Albuquerque on Saturday, Oct. 12 to play the Cibola Cougars (8-5-2, 2-2-1 in 5A-1) who defeated Farmington 6-0 two games ago before falling 3-0 to the vaunted Volcano Vista Hawks in a match that was closer than the score suggests.

At the same time, the Rams will look to bounce back against Farmington on Oct. 12 at home. Farmington boasts a solid 9-6-1 record but has dropped four of their first five district games. The desperate Scorpions look down and out, but there may still be some punch left in their sting.