Rio Rancho girls fall to Eldorado in soccer championship

ALBUQUERQUE — Booming shots from 40 or more yards out are, at best, low-percentage endeavors. Fortunately, Eldorado’s Aliyah Nivanh has made something of a habit of it. And because of it, the No. 2-seeded Eagles enjoyed a relatively seamless run to the Class 5A girls state soccer championship on Friday, beating No. 4 Rio Rancho 2-0.

“I took the ball, took a touch to my right, and then I shot it,” Nivanh said. “I think I’ve learned and practice it all the time and it’s just kind of something I do. I think it was just in the moment. I got my head down and put my foot through it. It felt real good.”

The shot came after a pass from Siena Montoya in the eighth minute and soared toward the goal, ducking just under the crossbar and barely clearing the upraised arms of Rams goalkeeper Tegan Chaves.

It can be the type of goal that really juices up the team, said Eagles coach Aaron Forrester.

“Alaya has done that a couple times this year. She did that against La Cueva, too,” he said of Eldorado’s (19-2-1) pivotal win over the Bears in October. So she’s got a great midfield shot, and that really helped us. When it goes in, it works. It lights everybody up.”

Just 23 minutes later, Eldorado leading scorer Emma Gurule buried a ground-hugger through traffic to put the Rams (16-5-2) into a deep hole.

“The first half, we were a little disconnected,” Rio Rancho coach Jenna Sievers said. “Eldorado came out strong. We played more of our game the second half, but they got those two goals the first half. We had chances. We had opportunities, really quality ones. It didn’t go our way. It was a tough game and the girls battled hard. They fought till the end.”

Rams’ forward Sophia Smith, in particular, was quite the nemesis for the Eagles in the second half, using electric speed and a deft touch to create issues — once sending a ball rolling just wide, then another time sending a shot just over the crossbar.

The game plan for Eldorado coming in was to try and utilize their depth and flood the Rams end with constant pressure.

“We were trying to play the ball in behind their back line as much as possible,” Forrester said. “We felt that was our biggest advantage over them with our three forwards. So playing the ball forward, getting in around them, that’s what we were trying to do. Oh, yeah, I think we had some success doing that.”

For the Eagles, it’s their 13th state championship and second under Forrester after winning in 2022.

“This is two in (four years) for us, so I think we’re always at the top,” he said. “We made the semis the last four years, so we’re always there.”

But coming into the season, Forrester wasn’t quite sure how the team would perform.

“I don’t think any of us expected it to be that good,” he said of the season. “We thought we’d be good, but I didn’t think we’d be that good. So, very happy with that.”

That first win against La Cueva gave Forrester an inkling of what was in store.

“It was after we played La Cueva the first time and beat them. Beat them 2-0,” he said. “That was like, ‘Oh, we got something here.’ It was a light bulb. This team is very different. It’s not a team of really one great player or two great players. It’s a team that all plays together, and they’ve really come together as a unit, which is why we’re here.”