Give Michelle Bustamante an inch and ...

Well, on Saturday, she scored the match-winner as the Lady Horsemen of St. Michael's High School defeated the Lady Scorpions of Farmington 1-0 in nondistrict girls soccer.

"If you give her a square inch of open goal she's going to find it," Ed Velie, St. Michael's head coach, said of Bustamante, a sophomore midfielder.

Bustamante scored in the 43rd minute. Her goal, from 20 yards out, was served by Liana Coppola, who was moved to center midfield.

"She really excelled," Velie said of Coppola, a sophomore. "She was able to play off the forwards."

That was half the story.

Defensively, Griffin Cullen was moved to center fullback.

"We usually don't have someone there," Velie said. "But she really kept the ball from getting into the heart of our defense."

The win mattered to the Lady Horsemen (10-2).

"It was a big game for us," Velie said, "because Farmington beat the two teams that beat us, Aztec and Piedra Vista."

St. Michael's put 16 shots on frame, three more than the Lady Scorpions. Margaret Hickey had nine saves for the Lady Horsemen. Taylor Dexel was credited with seven saves for Farmington.

There were three yellow cards and 52 fouls.

In other girls soccer:

West Mesa 5, Santa Fe High 1

While the Demonettes may have improved one aspect of their game, they still need some work on another following the nondistrict loss at the Santa Ana Soccer Complex.

"Our passing was infinitely better, but we're having trouble transitioning to our defense," Demonettes head coach Katie Roberts said. "We had too many balls getting kicked over our head, but overall, our passing was so much better than it has been."

Claire Bartlett scored the lone goal for the Demonettes (2-7). Kristin Graham had a corner kick in the 70th minute, and Bartlett headed the ball into the goal.

Mara Dauber recorded 21 saves for Santa Fe High.

West Mesa is 2-7.

Bosque School 10, Santa Fe Preparatory 0

Because of injury and college visits, the Blue Griffins were without seven starters against Bosque School, and it showed.

A 6-0 halftime deficit turned into a mercy-rule loss after the 68th minute.

Bosque School (6-4) had 25 shots, while Prep (4-7) had none.

"I think a couple of kids, the younger, more inexperienced kids really are trying their best," Prep head coach Rennae Ross said.

Sarah Simis and Sullivan Wilson combined for 15 saves.

BOYS SOCCER

Oñate 3, St. Michael's 1

St. Michael's had it in the first half of a consolation match as part of the Sandia Prep Invitational.

Not so much in the second.

"We came out in the second half and just ran out of emotional gas," Merritt Brown,
St. Michael's head coach, said. "Nothing was clicking and Oñate put together a better half than we did."

The Horsemen (5-3-1) represented Class A-AAA, and stood up to their Class AAAAA foe.

Grant Duke, off a pass from Eric Fishback, tied the match at 1 in the 25th minute. and that's how the score remained at half.

But Robert Gilbert struck for his second goal in the 56th minute and St. Michael's scored an own-goal in the 76th minute.

FOOTBALL

Santa Fe Indian School 29, Wingate 0

Antione Salazar intercepted four passes, returned one 70 yards for a touchdown and caught two more TD passes from his own quarterback as the Braves blanked the Bears.

Steven Rodriguez threw three touchdown passes for the Braves (2-2), 44- and 13-yards to Salazar and another to Aaron Martinez. Martinez also kicked a 37-yard field goal.

The furthest Wingate (3-1) got into SFIS territory was the SFIS 8, but the Bears turned the ball over on downs.

Jarrett Bird had 14 tackles, eight unassisted for the Braves.

VOLLEYBALL

SUN DEVIL INVITATIONAL

Santa Fe Preparatory 3, Bernalillo 1

The smallest school in the tournament didn't end up at the bottom of the heap. Facing their second straight Class AAAA school of the day, the AA Blue Griffins took a 25-14, 24-26, 25-23, 25-18 win over Bernalillo to take seventh place.

Valencia beat Santa Fe Prep in four games in a morning consolation semifinal.

One player, Ellee Cook, came away with all-tournament honors as Santa Fe Prep, and the team took a measure of confidence from being in big-school tournament.

"I didn't know we were going against all Triple-A schools and bigger," Blue Griffins head coach Chris Chakeres said. "To these girls' credit, they put to practice a lot of things we work on in practice."

TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Hatch Valley 3, Capital 1

Poor serving ultimately cost the Lady Jaguars a chance to reach their third straight five-game match. The Lady Bears won 25-15, 23-25, 25-17, 25-21 in the silver bracket championship.

Vandorra Montoya staked Capital (6-5) to a 7-1 lead from the service line in Game 4, but serving went awry the rest of the way.

"It allowed them to come back, even though we had worked hard for the lead," Lady Jaguars head coach Natalie Garcia said. "We kind of let them chip away after that."

Erika Ortega had a team-high nine kills.