Community Champions: Alamogordo soccer talks state title victory

The Alamogordo boys soccer team won its second state championship in program history last weekend, defeating top-seeded Albuquerque Academy by a final of 2-1.

It was the school’s first state championship in soccer since 1993.

The Tigers went unbeaten in their final 16 matches en route to winning it all at the 5A level.

But their final match wasn’t easy. In fact, few people outside of the Alamogordo faithful gave them a chance.

In fact, their opponents, who had won back-to-back state titles, were planning how they would celebrate their third state title before the match even began.

“The funny thing was they brought their two state titles to the field that day to take pictures with their third one,” said Alamogordo head coach Lee Wilder. “And most of their fans had three-peat shirts already made up. So, they were, let’s just say they were confident they were gonna win.”

Wilder said he had faith in his team against the two-time defending champs, even when his side fell behind by a goal.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ve got six or seven kids on my team that could walk-on to any team, anywhere., said Wilder.

In fact, Wilder says his team could have won by an even wider margin, since they had a counter with no keeper in the net late in the match, when the ref blew his whistle.

“It was fixing to be 3-1, but the ref blew his whistle, and we were happy with that,” he said.