Runners’ sixth season ends with OT loss

RIO RANCHO — Any team manager or owner can tell you it’s hasn’t been a successful season when the team has had more head coaches than victories.

Such is the case for Andres Trujillo, the owner of the New Mexico Runners, who inhabit the Rio Rancho Events Center for their home games. The finale of the 2024-25 season was Sunday, March 23, ending in a 7-6 overtime loss to the visiting Empire Jets (4-7-1).

It left the indoor soccer team with a dismal 1-11 record for what was their sixth season in the City of Vision, but Trujillo is still looking forward to a seventh season. In fact, several of Sunday’s fans won season tickets for next season.

“Definitely, it was a frustrating season,” Trujillo said. “We’re always looking to the future for everything. Our plans are for Season 7, but it would be safe to say this was one of the most-difficult years we’ve had — that I’ve ever had — with this franchise.

“We had a lot of different things happen during the season, a lot of adversity,” he said. “The thing was, maybe there was a case of expectations being set too high, maybe that’s probably what it was — that everything was going to work out as it needed to in time, but it didn’t happen that way and changes had to be made.

“(We gad to) try to get back on the right track, because we weren’t having any success on the field,” Trujillo said. “We made some adjustments on the coaching side of things, and we’ve seen a glimmer of hope and a change in the positive direction as we rounded out the season, so there’s hope — there’s always hope.”

The most-noticeable change came Jan. 17, when the team announced its original head coach, Steve Famiglietta, was stepping down. Through the Runners’ first five seasons of existence, the team had 17 wins, 40 losses and two ties; the team never won more than four games in a season, and it did that three times. The Runners were also 1-11 in the 2023-24 campaign.

In Famiglietta’s defense, although he once tallied a goal in a Runners’ game, he never let one between the pipes; the Runners allowed 168 goals — only 10 fewer than the 178 surrendered by the top three teams in the standing at that time combined.

Trujillo surmised Famiglietta’s interest or energy level changed with time; he began coaching the team in 2018, “and I think he was frustrated, too. (There was) friction between players and his coaching style … When those things don’t get addressed and worked out, it kind of leads down, really, a bad hole that gets deeper and deeper.”

Trujillo said since new coach Brad Weems’s arrival two months ago, “the chemistry in the locker room has been tremendously better — there’s a lot more energy, more appreciation for the game, appreciation for the team, appreciation for the organization. I think there’s appreciation for the players feeling they’re getting something and getting a full coaching staff for the first time, helping these guys become better soccer players. We’re seeing a change.

“Beating Oklahoma City (Certified Lions 9-4) a couple weeks ago (March 9) proved we’re making steps in the right direction. … We’ve had a full active roster, even after the coaching change and added a few players,” he said.

Sunday’s game was one of the closest in team history, as neither led by more than a goal and the game was tied six times, leading to what was slated as a 10-minute overtime. That didn’t last long: Only 22 seconds of it elapsed before the Jets scored.

Benji Rogers led the Runners with two goals, their final two of the season. Earlier, the team got goals from Nicholas Cashmere, Michael Stephens, Terry Zamora and Atif Azimi.

Attendance this season, for the team’s half-dozen home games, has averaged a 1,000 or so, Trujillo said, “and we’re getting a lot of new people coming to check it out, see what it’s all about. That’s been really cool, to see new people.”

With the NCAA basketball tournament coinciding with the season finale, Trujillo wasn’t counting on a huge turnout Sunday, especially with the University of New Mexico Lobos having a second-round game televised Sunday evening, but he noted his pride in the local partnerships his team has

enjoyed.

Many of them had a role in the finale, dubbed Hispanic Heritage Day.

“A couple home games ago, we had 1,200 people,” he added. “I’m always looking for silver linings in everything I do, no matter how negative things are, but the real big takeaway is adjustment is necessary, and so if things are sort of a torn in the side and things aren’t working in the right direction, taking a proactive step in the right direction is a big takeaway for me.”