The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Mitty, Lancers cruising into field hockey semifinals

By MIKE BARNHART

Neither Archbishop Mitty nor St. Francis--the reigning Central Coast Section co-champions in field hockey--wasted any time during their quarterfinal games of the CCS playoffs on Nov. 11 at St. Francis.

Mitty, the highest seed after rolling to a 9-0-3 record in the Blossom Valley Athletic League's Mt. Hamilton Division, scored two goals in the first half of its 4-0 triumph over No. 8 Willow Glen, the West Valley Division champion.

The No. 2-seeded Lancers, who finished second in the Mt. Hamilton Division at 8-1-3, did all of their scoring in the first half of a 3-0 win over Santa Teresa Division runner-up Live Oak, the No. 7 seed.

Semifinal matches, set to be played on Nov. 14, featured St. Francis colliding with Los Gatos and Mitty tangling with Leland. The survivors will meet for the section championship on Nov. 18, 11 a.m., at St. Francis.

After putting together a 9-2-2 record and finishing second behind Willow Glen in the West Valley Division, Homestead returned to the playoffs for the first time since 1998.

In a first-round match-up of teams with the same nickname, the Mustangs of Gilroy proved to be ungracious hosts. They scored a trio of goals in the final 12 minutes of the first half and blanked the Mustangs from Homestead, 3-0.

Homestead, which had defeated Gilroy in a CCS championship game back in 1977, closed out a fine season under the leadership of coach Melanie Banfield. Led by 13 seniors, the Mustangs finished with an overall record of 9-5-4. Playing their final game for Homestead were Nicole Caballero, Rodhiya Colson, Emily Critchfield, Tiffany Fang, Jennifer Garnett, Ali Holtzapple, Jamie Keith, Samantha Lee, Chelsea Maniscalco, Shirin Mollah, Katherine Sun, Melinda Templeman and Jessica Wang.

Other team members were juniors Nicole Cefalu, Monica Chen, Evida Mars-Holt, Noelle Mason-Wood and Lindsay McLaughlin and sophomores Annie Cheng and Maddy McKenna.