For the Rio Rancho boys soccer team, the third time was not a charm against the Mayfield Trojans

After beating the third-seeded Trojans two times earlier in the season, the No. 2 Rio Rancho High boys soccer team lost a gut-wrenching 1-0 game at the State Farm Insurance Soccer Complex Thursday night that put a sour dollop on an otherwise great season and ended the Rams’ 12-game winning streak.

And it wasn’t as if there weren’t plenty of opportunities for the Rams to get the ball in the net.

Senior Kenny McAvoy, who playedg his final game with the Rams Thursday, shows good flexibility in last Saturday's game.

“We did everything but finish,” said coach John Shepard. “Obviously, it was a great game and very entertaining for people to watch.”

After the Trojans got what Shepard called a “cheesy” goal -- a wide-open goal by Trojans’ junior Henry Stewart -- during the third minute of the game, the defenses tightened up for both teams.

“They have two great forwards and they did a good job of breaking, so they had some better opportunities,” Shepard said.

The Rams kept pushing the ball toward the Trojans’ goal, especially early on in the second half, but somehow couldn’t find a way to get the ball in the net.

Julian Roberts had several shots on goal, breaking down the west sideline before half that couldn’t find paydirt, and Javier Gomez and Cristobal Duran had shots come close in the second half.

“They’re a classy team and very well coached,” Shepard said. “If we’ve got to lose, I’d just as soon lose to a classy team like them.”

Shepard said the team had four good opportunities to score in the second half and two in the first, but just couldn’t make it happen.

The loss was especially difficult for the seniors on the team, who Shepard said would be greatly missed.

“We’ve got a great group of seniors leaving and I wish them the best of luck in all their future endeavors,” he said.

Mayfield met top-seeded La Cueva, which shut out No. 5 Sandia 3-0 in the other semifinal, in Friday’s championship game.

The Rams (turning in their first 20-win season, 20-3) beat the Trojans 2-0 on Sept. 13 in the championship game of the Albuquerque Academy tournament, then edged them 2-1 at Rio Rancho Stadium on Oct. 4.

Rams 2, Los Lunas 1 (OT): Roberts displayed his fancy footwork a few minutes into overtime, baffling a Tiger before passing the ball to Nico Muñiz, who booted it home for Shepard’s 99th victory at the helm.

“I’m tired. We really needed to come up with that win,” Roberts said. “We were excited to come out here and play. We got caught up in that 1-0 (deficit), going into overtime. We worked on it in practice, it worked for us, so we came out and took that game.”

“That guy’s got an endless motor and he’s got that great touch. He’s just quicker than anybody else, except a couple of our guys,” Shepard said. “Julian’s a game-changer; there’s no question about it.”

The Tigers (13-9) played more like La Cueva, Eldorado or Sandia Saturday afternoon, taking an early lead with a goal in the third minute off starting ‘keeper Devin Potter.

The Rams knotted the game in the 50th minute on a goal by Sean Deller.

The game remained knotted at 1 the rest of the way, not that the Rams had a handful of scoring opportunities in close, necessitating overtime.

The Tigers had their work cut out for them, as far as advancing to the final four, after being dropped by Highland, one of their District 5-5A foes, 1-0 on Friday. The Rams had humbled the Hornets 5-0 Thursday afternoon in the first day of “World Cup” pool play.

“It’s like everyone’s coming out here and playing their hearts out,” Roberts said. “Soccer’s a crazy game. You win a game at state and it puts you in good position. They’re playing all for it, we come out flat-footed; they came out raging and they got it in there, so credit to them.”

Shepard, unaware it was his 99th victory since succeeding Tim Magee as head coach in 2002, also touted the work of the Tigers for playing an inspiring game.

“Their team played really hard and you kind of have to respect that. They kind of knew they weren’t playing for anything. It’s their last game of the season and they were playing for pride,” Shepard said.

“If they would have rolled over, it wouldn’t have done either program any good,” he said. “So I’m glad they came out and gave us all we could handle.”

The Rams and Tigers were together in District 5AAAA in 1998 and ’99.