Rio Rancho blanks Cats in opener

Rio Rancho didn’t wait long to strike on Saturday, and it took a little of the steam out of Clovis High.

Sophomore Nico Muniz scored the first of his two goals only 71 seconds into the match and the Rams went on to a season-opening 6-0 win over the Wildcats at Yucca Complex.

Junior Ryan Bennett also had a pair of goals for Rio Rancho, which had a 17-4 edge in shots on goal and a 10-1 margin in corner kicks.

“We came out ready to play, but that team was well-prepared,” first-year CHS coach Greg Trujillo said. “They got us spread out and got us down with a couple of goals.”

After the quick strike by Muniz, the Cats weren’t able to mount much of an attack.

“I thought we played with good confidence after that,” Rams coach John Shepard said. “Sometimes (a quick goal) can help and sometimes it can hurt.”

Juniors Devin Potter in the first half and Tom Guarino in the second combined on the shutout for the Rams, turning away only a handful of shots.

Clovis had one brief flurry toward the end of the first half, with one shot hitting the crossbar and Potter stopping another just before it crossed the goalline.

After Julian Roberts’ goal made it 3-0 midway through the half, the Cats held their own until Rio Rancho pumped in a pair of goals in just over a minute’s time early in the second stanza.

“It was a good start,” Shepard said. “We worked on some things this week (in practice) and we put them into play today, but we also saw some things we need to work on.”

Trujillo noted the Cats played a bit shorthanded, with senior midfielder Baron Fillpot nursing a tight hamstring and junior defender James Conley not having the five required practices to be eligible after transferring back to CHS this fall.

Still, there’s much work to be done, Trujillo acknowledged.

“This is probably one of the better teams in the state,” he said of the Rams. “Defensively, we got exploited big-time.

“They controlled probably 80 percent of the game possession-wise. We did some things good, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The Cats return to action with a 4 p.m. contest against New Mexico Military on Tuesday in Roswell.