La Cueva edges Rio Rancho in championship game

ALBUQUERQUE — No. 1 at the start. No. 1 at the finish. No. 1 every step of the way.

La Cueva High School’s boys soccer team opened the 2025 season as Class 5A’s team to beat, on this point there was little pushback. But it was a label the Bears wore more as a badge of honor than an anchor around their neck.

Affirmation of their brilliant season came late Saturday afternoon at the University of New Mexico Soccer Complex, with the top-seeded Bears closing out a near-perfect campaign as they edged No. 3 Rio Rancho 1-0 in the 5A state final.

After several teams that La Cueva coach Easy Jimenez felt were championship worthy in the last handful of seasons, it was this one that got over the top.

“We all as a program needed this monkey off our back, and finally it’s off,” Jimenez said. “Tonight, we’re back.”

La Cueva’s win capped a day at UNM in which all three boys teams that finished second at state last year — the Bears, plus St. Pius and Santa Fe Prep — came back to win a title a dozen months later.

For La Cueva, (20-1-2), the buzz officially began in the summer, with La Cueva winning the inaugural New Mexico United elite tournament for top high school teams.

The Bears followed that with other trophies: the metro title, the district title and then Saturday’s result against the Rams (15-5-2). A four-trophy season.

“Honestly, it’s heart,” standout La Cueva senior forward Winston Starr said as he assessed what separated a brutal 2024 setback in the championship game to Centennial (on a stunning goal in the 100th minute), and Saturday’s climactic victory. “One of our sayings was, we have to hit first and punch hard. We always brought that.”

The difference Saturday, at the end, was one finish. La Cueva got one from super freshman Brice Clark in the 54th minute, while Rio Rancho was unable to get one for itself.

“That was a fantastic game. If you didn’t like that game, you don’t like soccer,” longtime Rams coach John Shepard said. “La Cueva has been hot all season, they’ve had a magical season. I feel like that game could have gone either way.”

Clark’s shot from close range was a bullet, and just trickled over the goal line after going through Rio Rancho goalkeeper Kenneth Graves.

“It was almost a great save, luckily it went through,” said Clark, La Cueva’s leading goal scorer who burst onto the scene last season as an eighth-grade sensation. He added, “I feel like one (goal) was gonna do it for us and that was it.”

Said Jimenez of Clark: “Brice has just been magical.”

At the other end, senior Isaiah Orozco stepped between the pipes for La Cueva for the first time this year, and was outstanding on Saturday. When the final whistle blew Saturday, a large number of Bears made a beeline for their goalkeeper.

“He’s a dawg,” Starr said. “He saved us so many times. He always has our back.”

Orozco was playing behind a senior last season, so he had to patiently wait his turn to shine.

“I had to step up for this team. We had so much talent, I couldn’t let them down,” Orozco said.

Of course, this was part of the challenge for the Bears. They were always the team everyone was targeting this season.

“It was a lot of pressure on our back,” Clark said. “Everyone wanted our best, and we just went out there and put up a fight.”

Rio Rancho was playing in the state final for the first time since 2020, when the Rams won it all.

La Cueva had great chances for a blue trophy both last year and also in 2017, when the Bears only lost one game: the championship game to Albuquerque High. AHS was the only team to beat the Bears this season, but that was back on Sept. 10.