Saratoga News Falcons fall to division leaders By Dick Sparrer Homestead and Palo Alto figure to be two of the top boys soccer teams in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this season. And as luck would have it, the Saratoga Falcons had to face both of them in league play last week. The Falcons lost to both the Mustangs and Vikings. Add to that a 2-0 loss to Milpitas to finish the week, and it was a rough three-loss performance for Saratoga. The three losses dropped the Falcons to 0-4-1 in league play and to 4-4-4 for the year. Saratoga gets a breather thanks to a Tuesday bye this week, but the Falcons will be back in action trying to break that losing streak when they visit Los Gatos on Jan. 14, 3:30 p.m. Saratoga played all three opponents tough last week, but lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Paly and a 4-2 nod to Homestead before wrapping up the week with the 2-0 loss to the Trojans. Brian Doore scored off a Naojuki Honda assist, and Yuichi Sasada knocked in a goal unassisted to help the Falcons jump out to a 2-0 first-half lead against the Mustangs. But Homestead scored four unanswered goals in the second half to clinch the 4-2 win. The week had started off with the tough 2-1 loss to the Vikings. Sasada scored in the second half, but that only matched a Palo Alto goal, and the Vikes had already scored in the first half to lead 1-0. Sasada is the scoring leader for the Falcons this winter with seven goals in 12 games. Per Eksted has three goals, and Nobuaki Tomine has two. Honda has a goal and two assists, and Doore and Robert Pfeifer each have a goal and an assist. Jason Worden and Dan Morse have also scored goals for the Falcons, and John Couche, Eric Bickenbach, Scott Lewis and Seena Rezvani each have assists. Junior Andrew Bosworth, a co-captain along with Doore, leads the Saratoga defense as the goalkeeper. Panthers fall Prospect, meanwhile, dropped a tight 1-0 decision to Overfelt to slip to 0-1-1 in the early stages of the season in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Panthers are now 1-6-2 for the year. Prospect coach Mike Karr hopes that his Panthers can turn things around in time to qualify for the Central Coast Section playoffs later this season. The Panthers are led by junior midfielder Francisco Martinez and senior goalkeeper Brandon Delgado, a pair of talented returners at Prospect. Sophomore forwards Servando Morfin and Myles Forman, junior goalkeeper Josh Hawthorne and freshman defender Matt Fischer are other top prospects for the Panthers. Girls Soccer Sophomore Jenni Cohen scored in a second-half goal to help the Saratoga girls soccer team pull out a 1-1 tie against Mountain View in De Anza Division play last week. The Spartans led 1-0 at the half, but Cohen tied things up with her goal in the second half. The tie left Saratoga 0-3-2 in the division and 2-5-3 for the year. The Falcons had lost 5-1 to St. Francis to open the week. Cohen scored a goal to leave the Falcons behind just 2-1 at the half, but the Lancers scored three times in the second half to pull out the victory. Cohen scored again, this time off an assist from sophomore Keala Meyer, but the Falcons lost 6-1 to Gunn. In other local action, Westmont pushed its record to 3-1 in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL, beating Oak Grove 2-0 before falling 3-1 to Lincoln. Megan Gurney and Stephanie Mizzi each had a goal and an assist in the win over the Eagles, and M. Gurney's assist set up Laura Gurney for Westmont's only goal in the loss to the Lions. Prospect opened the league season with a 5-0 loss to Mitty, but the Panthers fought back with a 2-2 tie against Leigh. Mariko Yoshihara scored twice for the Panthers, once on a penalty kick and once off an assist from Jennifer Eustace. Prospect dropped a 2-0 nod to powerful Presentation last week to slip to 0-2-1 in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the BVAL and to 6-3-1 for the year. Warriors split Westmont suffered a loss and a tie to slip to 1-1-2 in the West Valley Division of the BVAL. The Warriors battled Mt. Pleasant to a 2-2 tie, but lost 1-0 to Silver Creek two days later. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.