As Kate Vadurro drove to the Christian Brothers Athletic Complex at St. Michael's High School on Saturday, she felt a sensation that she never had before — urgency.

A week of lopsided losses — which doesn't happen with the Lady Horsemen girls soccer program — made the need for a win in the District 2A-AAA opener against Portales exactly what the senior felt: urgent.

That merged with determination, which mixed with pride, to produce a 7-0 win over the Lady Rams (5-3 overall, 1-1 2A-AAA) and lead to some semblance of normalcy, something that the previous five days were without.

Vadurro almost couldn't explain what the pregame ritual was like.

"As I was driving here, I got goose bumps," the senior said. "It like sunk in, the urgency. I was like, 'I don't know if we necessarily need this, but I want it so badly. So, so badly.' "

The defending Class A-AAA state champions were reeling ("a wounded bunch," as St. Michael's head coach Ed Velie put it) after a 5-1 loss to Albuquerque Hope Christian on Monday and a 7-0 loss to Albuquerque Sandia Preparatory in a state tile rematch Thursday. But Friday's review of the Sandia Prep debacle, in which the Lady Sundevils scored five second-half goals, proved to be a wake-up call.

The 17 players that make up the varsity saw themselves as disorganized, selfish, and downright disinterested over the final 40 minutes of the match.

"I've never lost that bad in my 11 years of playing soccer," Vadurro said. "I've never lost 7-0. It hurts really bad."

"There was no sense of team unity, no cohesion at all," senior midfielder Sophie Brown said. "Therefore, we just started giving up in certain areas, and we just lost it."

But in the span of eight minutes, the Lady Horsemen (3-3 overall) regained it.

Starting with Vadurro's goal among a scrum of players — including Portales goalkeeper Taylor Hammack — to open the scoring in the ninth minute and ending with Alicia DeLeon-Dowd's goal off a Hammack deflection of Vadurro's cross in the 17th minute, St. Michael's exploded to a 3-0 lead.

The Lady Rams' defense, which was air-tight during a 3-0 win over Santa Fe Prep Friday, leaked with openings that the Lady Horsemen exploited with through-balls.

"We had a five-minute stretch where we seemed flat-footed, and they got three goals pretty quick, and it takes the wind out of you right from the beginning," Portales head coach Traci Sievers said. "We knew if that happened it was going to be a long game."

It was even longer for Hammack. Her collision with DeLeon-Dowd while tracking Sophie Brown's through ball allowed Vadurro to swoop in and score the opening goal.

Then, Vadurro found Liana Coppola on a cross in the penalty box in the 33rd minute, and Hammack blocked Coppola's shot — with her face.

Blood flowed from her nose and she left the field for a few minutes, but the pounding Hammack took prompted Sievers to come to the goalie's defense with the officiating crew.

When informed that Hammack's injury was caused by the shot, Sievers bared her frustration.

"There's no foul anywhere here when we play here," Sievers replied.

As for Coppola, the senior midfielder, finally played like the first-team All-State player she is.

Her 25-yard rocket in the 39th minute resulted in just her second goal of the season as the margin grew to 4-0.

Coppola then set herself 10 yards further out as she took Emily Toczek's through-ball and ripped her shot off of Hammack's hands and float into the back of the net for 6-0 in the 61st minute.

"The past few games, she was trying, but we can't put everything on her," Brown said. "I think she did get a little bit discouraged and frustrated trying to do it all herself."

That's what got the Lady Horsemen into trouble in the first place.

If anything, this week was the cold slap of reality that they're a team of
17 players, not 17 players who happen to share the same colors.

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at thereadbarron.com.