The Cupertino Courier
News
Vikings are among field hockey leaders
By Dick Sparrer
There's still a week left in the regular season, but field hockey championships have all but been decided in the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and so has the field for the Central Coast Section playoffs--at least for the squads from the Santa Clara Valley.
St. Francis has the inside track on the Mt. Hamilton Division crown with an 8-0-2 record entering the final week of league play. The Lancers finish with a pair of home games against Los Altos (3-7-1) and Archbishop Mitty (6-1-3). The Monarchs still have an outside shot at the title should the Lancers lose twice and Mitty wins twice.
What appears to be a lock, though, is that St. Francis, Mitty, Los Gatos (6-2-2) and Saratoga (6-3-1) will claim the top four spots in the league standings and advance to the CCS playoffs.
Mitty finishes league play this week at Saratoga on Oct. 30 and at St. Francis on Nov. 1, and Los Gatos wraps things up at home against Leland (2-7-1) on Oct. 30 and at Saratoga on Nov. 1. All games begin at 2:45 p.m. St. Ignatius (0-11) is at Leland on Thursday in the only other league game of the week.
Over in the Santa Teresa Division, it's Lynbrook in the driver's seat with a 9-2-1 record. The Vikings can secure the championship and a CCS berth with just one more win. In the final week they visit Prospect (0-12) on Oct. 31 and host Willow Glen (6-5-1) on Nov. 2.
Presentation (7-3-2) still has a flicker of hope, but the Panthers would have to beat both Westmont (4-5-3) on Wednesday and Live Oak (7-5) on Friday and hope for the Vikings to lose twice.
In other games on Oct. 31, Willow Glen hosts Live Oak and Cupertino (3-7-2) entertains Monta Vista (7-4-1). On Friday, Cupertino is at Prospect and Monta Vista heads to Westmont.
Leigh has virtually wrapped up the West Valley Division title and cinched a CCS berth as the Longhorns enter the final week of league play with a 10-0 record and a two-game lead in the loss column. Leigh was to face Branham (6-3-1) on Monday and winless San Jose Academy (0-10) on Wednesday.
Del Mar (9-2) was to wrap up the league season with games against Homestead on Monday and University on Wednesday.
The CCS seeding meeting is set for Nov. 6 when playoff brackets will be determined, and the tournament will begin on Nov. 8.
In Mt. Hamilton Division play last week, Mitty blanked St. Ignatius 6-0 and Leland 2-0, Los Altos shut out Leland 2-0, St. Francis whitewashed Saratoga 4-0, Los Gatos handled SI 2-0 and Saratoga edged Los Altos in overtime 3-2.
Julie Seago scored three goals in Saratoga's overtime win over the Eagles last week.
Lynbrook still leads the Santa Teresa Division despite a split in a pair of games last week.
The Vikings topped Live Oak 2-1 but lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Monta Vista.
Goals by Emily Masad and Meghan Shimojima sparked the Vikes to the 2-1 win over the Acorns. Lara Verwer and Kyla Hunts added assists in the win as the Vikings improved to 12-3-1 for the year.
Sarah Hassman's second-half goal gave the Matadors a 1-0 win over Lynbrook earlier in the week.
Monta Vista, 8-6-1 this year, pounded Prospect 7-0 two days later. Hassman and Richa Gupta each had two goals and an assist to lead the Matadors to the victory.
Taylor Lundquist knocked in a second-half goal to lead the Willow Glen girls to a thrilling 1-0 win over Westmont, and it was a first-half goal by Ashley Haight that sparked the Rams to a 1-0 win over Cupertino.
Presentation, 7-5-2 for the year, edged Cupertino 1-0 in overtime and topped Prospect 3-1, and Live Oak blanked Westmont 1-0.
Emily Tregoning had a goal and an assist and Emily Trudeau added a goal to lead Leigh to a tight 2-0 win over Sobrato. Brooke MacLean also had an assist for the Longhorns, who are now 12-2 overall this year.
In other league games, Anna Myers had a goal and two assists to lead Del Mar to a 3-0 win over University. Katherine Peterson and Elissa Emoto also scored goals and Josie Steeves had an assist.
Nicole Bertolacci drilled a pair of goals and Jennifer Allsup added one to place the Branham girls to a 3-0 field hockey win over San Jose Academy.
A first-half goal by Natalie Hopkins and a second-half goal by Courtney Mardis drove the Wildcats to the 2-0 win over St. Ignatius. Los Gatos improved to 10-2-3 overall this year with the win.
Los Altos scored two goals early to lead 2-0 at the half, but the Falcons tied it on two second-half goals in the second half. Seago scored again in overtime to break the deadlock and lift Saratoga to the win.
