It takes 12 muscles to frown, and 11 to smile.

That one muscle was working hard to hide what comes so easily to Derrian Medina.

With the urging of "Don't smile, Derrian! Don't smile!" coming from the St. Michael's portion of the crowd at the Albuquerque Public Schools Soccer Complex, Medina tried as hard as she could to appease them.

She failed as she beamed while trying to throw in the ball late in a 6-1 Lady Horsemen win over Bloomfield in the Class A-AAA Girls State Soccer Tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon.

In fact, she needed a moment to compose herself, then lift the collar of her jersey into her mouth to hide the evidence. But it was a day for smiles and laughs as the second-seeded Lady Horsemen advanced to the A-AAA semifinals to face No. 3 Bosque School, 2-0 winners over Miyamura.

"We're always having fun no matter what we're doing, so we're always just kinda smiling and having a good time," Medina said. "I was just trying to tease the crowd, but they always know I am smiling."

It's easier to do when it's 6-1.

The Lady Horsemen smile was hard to find when Elex Portell took a Lady Rams throw-in and lobbed a 30-yard shot that went over St. Michael's goalkeeper Sally Feldewert's head for a 1-0 lead for No. 7 Bloomfield (13-9).

Perhaps it was the 13-day layoff for St. Michael's (14-7) that allowed some rust to set in, or maybe the short dimensions of the pitch (at 107-by-63 yards) allowed the Lady Rams to take advantage of throw-ins near the goal.

"That throw-in is like a corner kick," St. Michael's head coach Ed Velie said. "They scored from far out, and we don't exactly do a great job of defending sometimes. But if they do that again before we score, it could mess us up."

The fear was fleeting as St. Michael's heeded the wake-up call, although it took nine minutes before it showed on the scoreboard. The duo of Jamie Palermo and Medina hooked up on a deep ball that Medina collected and then left-footed it into the left side of the goal for the equalizer.

Four minutes later, the Lady Horsemen took control when Palermo grabbed an errant ball and beat the Bloomfield defense and goalkeeper Adriana Viramontes for a 2-1 advantage.

"It was kinda of an awakening for us," Medina said of the first 15 minutes. "It was like, we need to pick this up. This is not how we play."

The last 60 minutes were more indicative of what the Lady Horsemen do well. The key was in the assists totals from midfielders Jami Hogan (two) and Palermo (three). Hogan's passes led to Liana Coppola goals — in the 49th and 51st minutes. Palermo padded her stats with assists to the final two goals to Hogan and Kate Ayala.

Hogan's score seemed to break Viramontes' spirit. She backed up as the ball floated to her, then as it appeared she was at the plane of the goal, the ball bounced off of her hands and into the side of the net for 5-1.

Tears streamed down her face as sweeper Morgan Dunner tried to console her.

St. Michael's is no stranger to tears. The Lady Horsemen experienced that in last year's 1-0 loss to Bosque School in the A-AAA semifinals, and it has been the rallying point for this year. They also own a 1-0 win over the Lady Bobcats on Oct. 15, which helped them nail down the second seed.

St. Michael's is looking forward to the rematch as it continues the trek toward the ultimate goal — a state crown.

"It's great," Coppola said. "We're looking forward to it."

The senior said it, with a smile.

CLASS AAAA TOURNAMENT

No. 2 Los Alamos 7, No. 7 Taos 0

What was true in the first two matchups was true in the third go-round between the District 2AAAA foes.

Los Alamos (17-3) wasn't fazed by Taos' bunker defense, and fashioned a 3-0 lead at the half.

The Lady Hilltoppers exploded for three more goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half and then it was time to empty the bench.

Amelia Neal had four goals to boost her season total to 16, but Shaina Riciputl upped her team-leading total to 18 goals with a pair.

Los Alamos plays No. 3-seed Albuquerque St. Pius X in a Class AAAA semifinal at 6 p.m. today.

"We started off slow, but then we got it going," Los Alamos head coach Jiri Kubicek said. "Once we got it to 6-0, we let the younger kids play."

The Lady Hilltoppers faced St. Pius (15-5) on Sept. 19 and won 1-0. In the process, the Lady Sartans became one of 16 shutout victims by the Los Alamos defense this season.

"We don't give many opportunities to score," Kubicek said. "Our defense usually wins out and we have a great goalie (in Jenny Tumas). We'll see what happens (today)."

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