The build-up to success

The Organ Mountain girls soccer team has spent much of this season scoring goals. Lots of them.

There have been games with 18, 10, nine and seven. Through its first 15 matches, Organ Mountain had scored 88 times while allowing just three goals.

But ask the Lady Knights about the game that tested them, the one that showed them something about themselves, and they talk about the day nobody scored. Organ Mountain and La Cueva played 80 minutes of scoreless soccer Sept. 12. It remains the only blemish, if a 0-0 tie against one of New Mexico's perennial powers can be called that, on a 14-0-1 start. And center back Mia Dean loved it.

"It was by far the most competitive game," Dean said. "Everybody was just such high level there. So, I think since they brought the gameplay up, we brought the gameplay up."

It was a faster pace, a more physical style, and more demanding.

"And even though we didn't dominate it, that was my favorite game of the season so far," Dean said. "It was so competitive. It was just fun."

That's what these Lady Knights are looking for. Not simply another goal or another lopsided win, but a chance to find out just how good they can become together.

That last word matters. Organ Mountain certainly has individual talent. Senior midfielder Ariyah Vasquez was New Mexico's girls soccer player of the year last season. Dean and goalkeeper Ashley Black joined Vasquez as first-team all-state selections, and several other Lady Knights earned district recognition.

But ask the players why this team is 13-0-1 and the conversation quickly moves away from individual accomplishments.

"Definitely the teamwork," they said.

Many of these players have known one another through soccer for years. The seniors grew up playing together. Many of the sophomores did, too, while players from different classes crossed paths on club teams long before they became high school teammates.

"We were a young team last year," the players said. "We just pretty much had everyone. And so, I think that helps that you brought it from last year into this year, and the connection is just amazing."

Some have taken that connection to another level. Dean, Chloe Robey and Persephonie Cullins spent part of their summer playing in the Women's Premier Soccer League, a national league that provides high-level competition for elite amateur players, including college players during their offseason.

For three high school players from Las Cruces, it meant playing alongside and against older, faster and more experienced players. It was an education they brought home.

"It was a whole different level," they said.

"They all became kind of like mentors to us," Dean said. "We make a mistake on the field and then they would be like, 'This is what you can do next time.' We take that, we bring it here, and we're able to tell the other girls who make the same mistakes that we did at the higher level. It just helps all bring each other up."

Their teammates have the opportunity, likewise, to be lifted by that summer development.

"They have that experience at the higher level," Vasquez and Hailey Justus said. "You can just tell that they brought it from that higher level of play. ... It just makes it a smarter game."

The results are spread across the field. Vasquez entered this week with 21 goals and 16 assists. Justus had scored 16 times, while Robey and Cullins were among the state's leaders in assists. At the other end, Dean helps anchor a defense that has surrendered just two goals, with Black behind it in goal.

Yet when the Lady Knights talk about what they enjoy most, they keep coming back to what happens between them.

Robey, a defensive midfielder, talks about completing passes and creating assists. Cullins likes delivering a good cross. Dean loves winning the ball with a slide tackle.

Justus is a striker, so scoring naturally tops her list. But even her answer quickly became about something else.

"If I give a pass to somebody else and they have a shot, I'm happy with that," Justus said. "But other than skill-wise, I'm OK leaving the game knowing that we had fun. I'm walking off the field with my friends and we're laughing. And that's really what makes the game special."

The friendship part is difficult to separate from the soccer.

"Most of my friends have actually come from soccer because I've grown up playing it," Dean said. "Everybody here I grew up with, like, playing soccer."

She calls the team her "home away from home."

"I'd rather be with them than anywhere else," Dean said.

And their sense of team isn't limited to the 11 players on the field.

"I feel like we have some of the best energy on the bench," the players said.

Then they quickly widened the circle. The energy moves among the players on the field, those on the sideline and the people watching them.

"We do get excited and we have fun out there playing," they said. "The bench really does start it. But it also comes from the stands as well."

For Chloe Robey, family and soccer are connected in another way. Her father, Adam Robey, is in his first season as Organ Mountain's head coach after serving as the JV head coach and a varsity assistant the previous two seasons. He has coached Chloe for much of her soccer life.

"I like my dad as my coach," she said. "It brought us closer."

Adam Robey has learned a few things about coaching along the way, too.

One lesson came years ago at a club tournament in Tucson. Robey was working the sideline, directing players constantly, when he watched the opposing coach pull out a chair, sit down with a cup of coffee and let his players play.

"And his team destroys us," Robey said. "And I'm like, 'I want that.'"

He calls his younger self a "joystick coach," trying to control every movement from the sideline. That's not what he wants to be with this group.

"Make practice harder than the games," Robey said. "Don't be a joystick coach and just let them, you know, trust them. That's what you're coaching them for."

Trust matters when games stop looking like 10-0. It mattered against La Cueva. Organ Mountain couldn't simply overwhelm its opponent. Players had less time and less space. Mistakes mattered more. The Lady Knights had to defend, adjust and trust one another. They discovered they liked it.

"That's what we live for, is that kind of competition," the players said.

They know they'll need it again if this season lasts as long as they hope.

Organ Mountain won the first district championship in program history last year before losing in the state quarterfinals. This year's team isn't hiding from what it wants next: the first state championship in program history. But the Lady Knights also learned last year that looking too far ahead could get in their way.

"I think last year we got in our heads a bit more," the players said. "Whenever we heard a team were good, we were building it up in our heads. That's what caused us stress."

So, Coach Robey has simplified the season calendar. Organ Mountain divided its schedule into five-game sections, setting goals for each segment and smaller goals within individual games.

The state championship remains out there. It just doesn't have to be accomplished today.

"I think we’ve just got to keep taking it one game at a time, honestly," Justus said. "Because there are games where it's 10-0 and then there's games where it's tied 0-0. But we’ve just kind of got to take it one game at a time and not look past anything."

When the Lady Knights do find themselves in another 0-0 game, they know where to look. Their coaches are part of it. So are the players around them. And often, they look toward Vasquez. She's been their captain for two years, and her teammates talk about her with a confidence that goes beyond her goals and assists.

"We all have trust in that," they said. "She's making these beautiful plays. We have so much faith in her."

For all Vasquez has accomplished individually, however, ask her what brings her joy during a soccer game and her answer isn't an individual move.

It starts at the other end of the field.

"I'd say when we have a really good build-up from the back," Vasquez said.

A defender finds a midfielder. The ball moves. Players move with it. Another pass comes, and then another. And maybe, eventually, the ball finds the back of the net.

"It makes me really happy, and if we score, it's like the whole team gets happy because we were all just involved," Vasquez said, "not just like two people."

There have been 88 Organ Mountain goals already this season. The Lady Knights seem most interested in the ones that belong to everybody. That’s the thing that brings the most joy in the game they love.