The epidemic was first observed in the Fremont gym on Feb. 6 when Fremont's wrestling team earned its first dual match league championship since 1989. Five nights later, the wrestlers still had not shaken the first-place fever. Fremont's team victory at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League finals, something that last happened in 1990, was evidence of that.

The fever spread quickly, claiming a pair of soccer teams on Feb. 7--Homestead's boys and The King's Academy girls. The victory virus then moved across Interstate 280 to the boys basketball team at Cupertino. After showing symptoms for a few weeks, the Pioneers finally succumbed Wednesday night when they clinched the El Camino Division crown at Saratoga.

The rash reached Monta Vista's girls soccer team the next day, as the Matadors claimed the De Anza Division title.

Fremont's girls basketball team (9-1, 17-9) could join the ranks this week. After beating Los Altos last week, 68-48 behind Alison Bushnell's 26 points and 12 rebounds, the Firebirds will be no worse than co-champions if they beat Monta Vista and Cupertino.

Frosh propel Homestead

After winning just one of eight non-league games, Homestead's boys "worked even harder, instead of quitting like they could have," praised coach Luis Comesana, after the Mustangs went 8-3-1 in De Anza play and won the division. "Now they are league champions, with chemistry and confidence heading into the play-offs."

A 2-1, come-from-behind win at Palo Alto on the last day of league play allowed the Mustangs to finish with 25 points, two ahead of Gunn (6-1-5) and three in front of Mountain View (6-2-4).

Because of their 1-5-2 non-league record, the Mustangs (No. 12) are seeded lower in the 16-team CCS Division I tournament than both division foes and do not get a home game in the first round. Instead, they travel to No. 5 Leland (11-8-1 overall) for a 2:30 p.m. contest on Feb. 15. A win would set up a quarterfinal match with No. 4 Gunn, if the Titans get past their first-round meeting with No. 13 Everett Alvarez of Salinas. All quarterfinal matches are set for Feb.18.

Other teams in Homestead's half of the bracket are top seed Watsonville (20-2-1), bottom seed North Salinas, No. 8 Los Gatos and No. 9 Carlmont of Belmont. No. 6 Mountain View is in the opposite bracket, along with No. 2 Bellarmine and No. 10 Los Altos, the El Camino champ.

"It's actually a plus for us to play on Leland's nice turf field," Comesana explained. "We are a possession team, but a bumpy, grass field like the one we have at Homestead does not allow us to achieve the ball control that we can on turf fields that have true bounces."

Jose Fernandez and Guillermo Plancarte, two of Homestead's three freshmen starters, scored goals at Palo Alto last week, after the Vikings led 1-0 at halftime. Fernandez, in just his second game at forward, scored the equalizer, following an assist from sophomore Omaer Efengovich. Plancarte converted the game-winner, after taking a pass from center midfielder Julio Castillo.

"Because of injuries and illness earlier in the season, we started the freshmen out of need," Comesana noted. "But, with their skills, they have shown they belong. Now, that we're getting our players back and our team is healthy, we have plenty of weapons."

Lloyd Dixon, the third freshman starter, joins Plancarte, Castillo and senior Matt Nelson as midfielders. Usually stationed in front of senior goalie Matt Reed are sophomore "sweeper" Alex Plancarte, junior "stopper" Justin Pegueiros and two fullbacks, junior Scott Wainblenger and senior Spencer Martinez.

Key players that Comesana and assistant coach Jeff Kordes have in reserve are senior forward Guate Valenzuela, junior midfielders Brian Labaddie and Paul Sousa and senior defender Keya Ebadat. One player no longer available is Brian Marcellini, academically ineligible after playing well as a starter in the first half of the season.

Matadors seal deal

It came down to the final game of the season for Monta Vista's girls soccer team. Simply, the Matadors had to beat fourth-place Palo Alto--a week after Paly had blanked the Mats 1-0--in order to nose out Los Gatos for the De Anza championship. Any other result would have netted second place.

The Matadors did not mess around. Two minutes into the game, Erin Hoxsie took a crossing pass from Jenny Kute, then left-footed a shot into Paly's goal for a 1-0 lead. A few minutes later, Jessica Lau's header following a corner kick found the back of the net. Halfway into the first half, Lau scored again, making it 3-0. Lau, who scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Gunn two days earlier, finished with three against Paly. A goal by Carine de la Girond'arc capped the scoring. Hoxsie, Deanna DesCamp, Caryn Lee and Emily Rubin all had assists.

Lau's 13 goals in 12 De Anza matches helped the Matadors finish 9-2-1 and earn a division title for the second straight year. In 2005, they won the El Camino crown.

The next step, the CCS Division I tournament, begins on Feb. 15 when No. 5-seed Monta Vista (13-5-2) hosts No. 12 Woodside (7-7-4) at 2:30 p.m. The winner moves on to play El Camino champ Los Altos (18-1), the No. 4 seed, Feb. 18.

Warren leads Pioneers

Just as he did in Cupertino's first game against Saratoga on Jan. 18, senior David Warren scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Pioneers to victory. This time, however, was sweeter, as the 60-47 triumph on Feb. 8 secured the El Camino championship for the Pioneers.

Warren also blocked five shots and grabbed six rebounds, to go along with three assists and a steal, in the recent win at Saratoga. Ehson Mortezaie and Matt McCormick both scored 11 points, Ryan Matsuoka had nine and Eric Heslin tallied seven.

A 73-49 win over Wilcox two nights later left Cupertino with a three-game lead and just one game remaining. Mortezaie (15 points), Brian Ly (14), Kenji Mitchell (12) and Matsuoka (10) paced the Pioneers. Now 24-2 overall, they can finish with a perfect El Camino record of 12-0 by winning their division finale at Santa Clara Feb. 17 at 7:45 p.m.

11 Pioneers move on

While Fremont's wrestling team was ending host Los Gatos' seven-year stranglehold of first place at the SCVAL championship meet, 105-pound sophomore Shameer Erfanian's second-place finish paced a strong showing by Cupertino athletes.

Erfanian, who reached the finals before bowing to Fremont's Boris Novachkov, was one of 11 Pioneers who placed among the top seven in their weight classes and qualified for the CCS tournament Feb. 24-25 in San Jose. Monta Vista junior Grant Kadokura also made it to the championship round, before losing the 114 title to Kiyoshi Kawano of Gunn.

Kadokura's twin brother, Alex, did not compete in Saturday's SCVAL finals, but can earn a CCS berth at 125 pounds if he wins a hardship challenge match. He will square off against the seventh-place qualifier, Phillip Chang of Cupertino on Feb. 16.

Third-place finishers included Cupertino's Jason Nguyen (121), Steve Plotnikov (132), Aris Haratunyunyan (147) and Renato Lineras (154), Monta Vista's Nate Fung (137) and Lynbrook's Koo (217).

Other Cupertino qualifiers were Paul Kim (162), Jason Mok (142), Steven Gu (173), Kris Fraser (217) and Kirby Haraguchi (137). Monta Vista's Michael Lipp (132) and Ray Wakiyama (121) qualified.

Lynbrook's Kim Knudsen (105), Darrin Weng (119), James Kim (127) Reese Williams (142), Kevin Rahbar (162) and Bobby Esquivel (191) all advanced to CCS.

Four Homestead athletes won bids, junior Matt Ott (147), sophomore Andy Chin (105) and seniors Jon Cefalu (162) and Bryan Yoon (142).