The Bulldogs have their seed. Now comes a familiar foe.
The Artesia boys’ soccer team earned the No. 6 seed in the 2026 Class 4A state tournament. They will host District 4-4A rival and No. 11 seed Lovington at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The New Mexico Activities Association released the brackets at 10:30 p.m. Monday.
The road to the final
The Bulldogs need three wins to reach the championship game.
The Bulldogs (11-5-3) and Wildcats (7-7-4) split their two regular-season meetings.
If Artesia beats Lovington, it will face No. 3 Santa Teresa or No. 14 Goddard in the quarterfinals.
Artesia enters the tournament with four wins in its last five games.
A familiar foe
Before the brackets were released, Artesia coach Phillip Jowers expected the sixth or seventh seed.
What he didn’t want was a district opponent in the first round.
“I do not want to play Lovington in the first round,” Jowers said. “I would not want to play Goddard in the first round either. I don’t want to play anybody in our district in the first round.”
Lovington has ended Artesia’s season before, beating the Bulldogs 4-0 at Robert Chase Field in the first round on Oct. 31, 2023.
Jowers said his concern wasn’t facing those teams again. He believes district opponents shouldn’t have to meet in the opening round of the state tournament.
Artesia senior Samuel Nielson looks to score in an earlier-season game. The Bulldogs will be the No. 6 seed in the 2026 State Soccer Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Robert Chase Field.
Win or go home
The approach stays the same: one game at a time. Only now, a loss ends the Bulldogs’ season.
Under Jowers, Artesia has won back-to-back District 4-4A championships and hosted a first-round state tournament game each year since 2021.
Jowers said he can’t change the bracket. He’ll control what he can control.
For the Bulldogs, the bracket puts a familiar opponent between them and the quarterfinals. Hosting gives Artesia another chance to extend its season at home. The seed is settled. So is the opponent. Now the district rivals meet again, with a spot in the next round on the line and no second chance afterward.
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