The Lady Bulldog soccer team got its second season off to a solid start Saturday at the Mack Chase Athletic Complex, blanking Portales by a final of 5-0.
The match nearly went scoreless through its opening 40 minutes of play, but in the final two seconds of the first half, freshman Abigail Jowers was able to secure the ball just inside the top of the box and send a hard shot high into the net to make it 1-0 Artesia at the break.
From there, the onslaught was on.
Junior Isabel Irvin notched the Lady ‘Dogs’ next goal in the 15th minute of the second half, punching the ball between two defenders and the Ramette keeper and into the open net to make it 2-0. Exactly two minutes later, sophomore Casey Dickson split two more defenders in the box and tapped it past Portales’ goalie to put Artesia up 3-0.
The Lady Bulldogs’ fourth goal came just over three minutes later after the Ramette keeper again came out of the goal, allowing eighth-grader Kaylee Berdoza — who was sprinting ahead of the defense into the box — to boot it past her into the net. And freshman Maleyna Pando rounded out the final in the 30th minute with a high shot from outside the box.
With the win, the Lady Bulldogs moved to 8-6-1, 1-0 on the season, while Portales dropped to 4-4-1, 0-1. Artesia will continue its Round-One home stand at 6 p.m. Thursday against Goddard at The Mack, followed by a 6 p.m. meeting the following Thursday with Lovington.
