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Fight to the Finish: The Prospect girls field hockey team rolled through an impressive season that took the Panthers all the way to the CCS quarterfinals.
Photograph by Tsutomu Fujita
Warriors lead, but lose at CCS
Strong seasons for hockey teams at Prospect, Del Mar
By Dick Sparrer
It was a funny thing about the Westmont football team this year--the Warriors didn't think there was a game they couldn't win.
It was true in the non-league season, it was true in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and it was true again last Saturday when the Warriors opened play in the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs.
So it didn't matter to the Warriors that they were to open the playoffs against No. 2 seed San Lorenzo Valley, the club that won back-to-back championships in Division IV before moving up to Division III this fall.
The Warriors obviously didn't realize that this was a game they weren't supposed to win, because heading into the fourth quarter last Saturday at SLV they were leading the Cougars 14-7.
It was junior quarterback Bryen Blankenship who had given the Warriors the lead in the game with a couple of touchdown passes, one in the first quarter to junior Brian DeWitt and another in the third period to junior tight end Mike Bacciarelli.
Westmont took the early lead in the first when Blankenship hooked up with DeWitt for a 20-yard TD toss. Senior Ben Peterson kicked the extra point, and the Warriors were up 7-0.
The Cougars tied it 7-7 by the half, but Westmont regained the lead in the first when Blankenship found Bacciarelli for 13 yards and a score. Peterson converted again, and it was 14-7 heading into the fourth.
But the Cougars showed the stuff champions are made of with a brilliant fourth-quarter comeback. San Lorenzo Valley backed up a safety with two touchdowns to outscore Westmont 17-0 in the fourth to clinch the 24-14 victory.
Still, the Cougars knew they had been in a football game. And that's been the case for all of Westmont's opponents this fall. The Warriors finished the year with an impressive 8-3 record that included a second-place finish in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
With a new coach in Tony Santos and coming off a losing season in 2000, the expectations for Westmont had to be limited. But the first-year coach and his players just didn't see it that way.
Westmont rolled to wins over Fremont, Lincoln, Mount Pleasant and Harker Academy in the non-league season to take a 4-0 record into league play.
The Warriors suffered a loss to Gunderson, the eventual league champ, in the second week of the Santa Teresa season, but they ran off three straight victories, including an upset win over favored Overfelt in the seventh week of the season.
Westmont was tripped up by rival Del Mar in the final week of the regular season, but still had a good enough record to finish second in the division and clinch a berth in the playoffs.
To call the Warriors a group of over-achievers may be accurate. But Santos prefers to call his Warriors a good football team.
Playing their final game for Westmont at SLV last weekend were seniors Peterson, Chris Aimonetti, Todd Bethke, Gareth Gorman, Aremon Habibi, Chad Helmonds, Duane Kawar, Connor McDonald, Matt Mills, Parviz Mossaed, Chris Biggs, Kenny Cesena, Amir Godsi, Joe Lucero, Jon Lugo, Dustin Peterson, Robert Price and Tim Stanbaugh.
Dons, Panthers reach CCS
Both the Del Mar and Prospect girls field hockey teams made it to the CCS tournament, but both squads were eliminated in the early rounds by teams headed to the semifinals.
The Panthers opened with a 2-0 win over North Salinas. But Prospect lost a game later 1-0 to Mitty.
Del Mar lost in the first round of CCS play, falling 1-0 to Lynbrook. The Vikings then beat Los Altos 1-0 to advance to the semi's against St. Francis. After playing the Lancers to a scoreless tie through regulation and two overtime periods, the Vikings lost on penalty shots.
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Campbell, California
