Saratoga News

Sports

Saratoga battles for top 4 spot in field hockey

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.

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.

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.

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.