Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Prospect's Jeremy Auitan controls the ball in action last week against Willow Glen. The Panthers beat the Rams 2-0, but lost 1-0 to Santa Teresa later in the week.
Sam leads Panthers to victory
Westmont, Prospect girls each win two
By Dick Sparrer
Julian Sam was in the right place at the right time for the Prospect boys soccer team last week.
In fact, he was there twice.
Sam knocked in two goals to lead the Panthers to a 2-0 win over Willow Glen to keep the Panthers near the top of the pack in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
Sam drilled an unassisted goal in the first half, then scored off an assist from Scott Perlik in the second half.
The Prospect defense, meanwhile, was blanking Willow Glen, and the Panthers went on to nail the 2-0 victory.
It was Prospect on the zero end of a shutout later in the week, though, when the Panthers dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Santa Teresa.
The week's split left the Panthers 6-4 in the division and trailing Leland (7-1-2) and Overfelt (7-3) in the league standings. Prospect's shares third place with Pioneer.
In other local action, Westmont won one of three games last week in the West Valley Division of the BVAL. The Warriors are now 5-7 in league play.
Westmont lost 4-3 to Gunderson and 3-2 to Mt. Pleasant after opening the week with a 2-1 win over Del Mar.
Danny McNiven knocked in a couple of goals and Ben Peterson scored on a penalty kick, but the Warriors lost by one to the Grizzlies.
Eduardo Perez scored off a McNiven assist and Nobu Kurata scored off a Perez assist, but Westmont lost a tough 3-2 nod to the Cardinals.
Inmar Villalta scored a first-half goal off a Matt Schombri assist and Peterson scored on a penalty kick to lead the Warriors to a tight 2-1 win over Del Mar.
Over in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, Saratoga lost twice last week in De Anza Division play, falling 2-0 to Santa Clara and 2-1 to Homestead.
A second-half goal by junior midfielder Alan Sung against Homestead was all the Saratoga offense could manage for the week.
The Falcons, 2-9 in the division, will close out the regular season at thome this week when they host Lynbrook on Feb. 7, 3:30 p.m. Saratoga is 6-13 overall this year.
In girls soccer play, Westmont and Prospect each posted a pair of wins to remain in the title race in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL.
Westmont won twice in league play to improve to 11-1 in the division.
Megan Gurney scored a second-half goal off a Lauren Luque assist to lead the Warriors to a tight 1-0 win over second-place Valley Christian to open the win.
Gurney came back with two goals and an assist and Megan Clapp had a goal and an assist in a 3-0 shutout win over Lincoln. Luque also had an assist in the win.
The Warriors, 13-5 for the year, rest in first place in the division with Valley Christian second at 9-2-1.
Prospect won two of three games last week to stay close in the race with a 6-4-2 record.
The Panthers opened the week with a 3-1 win over Piedmont Hills. Senior forward Shani Armstrong scored all three goals for Prospect, getting assists from Brooke Madsen, Natalie Kiyama and Vicky Eustace.
The Panthers dropped a tough 2-0 nod to Santa Teresa, but they came back to nudge Leigh 2-1.
Eustace scored a first-half goal off a Randy Gillespie assist, and the game was tied 1-1 at intermission. Armstrong, a team captain and a returning all-leaguer for the Panthers, broke the tie with a goal in the second half. Armstrong scored off assists from Madsen and Tara Rodriguez.
The Panthers are now 10-5-3 for the year.
Saratoga lost 1-0 to Los Altos to open play last week, but the Falcons battled back to tie Homestead 1-1. The tie pushed Saratoga's record to 3-7-2 in the De Anza Division and to 8-8-2 for the year.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
