On Thursday afternoon, the Academy boys travelled to the beautiful new Del Norte field to start the second round of district play. The top four teams in 4A will get a bye directly into the state tournament. Albuquerque Academy has slowly moved up the Maxpreps rankings and is in a tight race for a top four spot. Any slip in district play will likely result in a tumble down the rankings.

The Del Norte field is a brand new synthetic turf. Sometimes, turf can be a slick, ultrafast surface which makes possession play difficult (e.g. the APS Complex). The Del Norte turf is almost lush. It has a knap that allows for good weighting on the ball and a flat surface that doesn’t have the bumps and inconsistencies of a natural field. The Academy took to the surface immediately, and two minutes in, a shot from Neven Zapatka ‘22 just missed at the back post but Lucas Jepsen ’19 was there to pass it into the net. Nine minutes later, Lucas scored again when Curtis McNary ’19 found him alone at the back past. The Academy is currently starting two 9^th grade students—a first in the Kolek era—and can have all three 9^thgraders on the field at the same time. Nate Patton ’22 has been very effective as a center midfielder and has been hunting his first goal. It looked like he would get it late in the first half when his long range shot was headed to the upper far corner of the net, but he was denied by a remarkable diving tip. The half ended 3-0.

In the second half, the Academy continued to possess the ball and used ball control to move the Del Norte squad around the field, constantly defending. The Academy’s ideas slowed as they got to the final third of the field, where concise attacking ideas are at a premium. There were a few moments, including a near post shot off a corner kick by Spencer Ghattas ’19 and a left footed blast from eighteen yards away by Stockholm’s finest, Joel Brismar ’20, that went just over. Del Norte stayed organized in the defense and the Academy could not find its way to another score. The game ended 3-0.

The Albuquerque Academy boys team is now 11-4-1 and goes into a competitive week with a game at home against Highland on Tuesday and a game against Hope Chiristian away on Thursday.