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Fremont junior Genevieve Jaramilla battles for the ball in an early season game against Del Mar. The Firebirds lost twice last week in league play.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Homestead hoping to repeat
Fremont boys win, girls lose
By Dick Sparrer
Soccer followers couldn't have asked for much more at Homestead High School last winter.
After all, the Mustangs won league championships in both boys and girls competition in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
But can the Mustangs repeat? Well, that will certainly be no easy task.
Luis Comesana figures his boys squad could be a contender again in the De Anza Division. But Sarah Johansson isn't quite sure what to expect as her girls move up from the El Camino Division to the more competitive De Anza circuit.
Mustangs move up
"We've moved up a division this year and will play tougher teams," said Johansson, whose squad posted a 12-0 mark to win the El Camino crown a year ago. "But we should be able to compete evenly with most teams."
They certainly have so far. The Mustangs are 5-2-3 in the young season, and 2-1-1 in league play. They fought powerful St. Francis to a scoreless tie last week and lost a 1-0 cliffhanger to a tough Monta Vista squad.
Seniors Laura Phan and Christina Ignacio and sophomore Ashley Mason are top returners from a Homestead team that posted a 19-3 overall record a year ago.
Phan, a forward, was the league's most valuable player in 2000 and she was joined on the all-league first team by Ignacio, a defender.
Mason was named the league's most valuable goalkeeper as just a freshman at Homestead last season.
Junior midfielders Aliza Elbert and Dianna Massey are other top returners this winter for the Mustangs along with sophomore stopper Jessica Gates and soph sweeper Ruchi Nandu.
Junior transfer Dana Mahlfelder and freshman Katie Wilcox are a pair of talented midfielders, each in their first season on the Homestead varsity.
Boys look strong
The Homestead boys have three returning all-leaguers leading the charge this winter as they set out to contend for another De Anza Division crown.
Comesana is cautiously optimistic as his Mustangs enter league play. He rates Palo Alto and Gunn as the division title favorites and figures his own club for a third-place finish.
Senior midfielder Shadi Hawawini and junior midfielder Brian Oliveira each return to the field for the Mustangs after winning all-league first-team honors last winter, and senior fullback Samuel Krow-Local is back after claiming an all-league second-team spot.
Joining the three solid returners are newcomers Justin Bocchino, a senior midfielder, Jan Hejret, a junior forward, and Efrain Solorio, a freshman midfielder.
The Mustangs, who posted a 14-7-7 season record last year, are off to a 4-4-2 start this year and are 1-1 in league play after blanking Lynbrook 3-0 last week.
Passes from senior fullback Scott Alexander and Oliveira set up Hawawini for the game's first goal, and Hejret made it 2-0 at the half when he scored off an Oliveira assist.
The Mustangs capped the win when Scott Roos scored off a Bocchino assist.
Fremont soccer
Over in the El Camino Division last week, the Fremont boys knocked off Milpitas but the girls lost twice in league play.
Daniel Garcia knocked in two second-half goals to lead the Firebirds to the 2-1 win over the Trojans. Milpitas had held a 1-0 lead at the half, but Garcia tied it with his first goal and won it with his second.
The Firebirds evened their El Camino Division record at 1-1 and pushed their season mark to 4-2-3.
The girls, meanwhile, slipped to 0-4 in division play when they were blasted 7-0 by Milpitas and 10-0 by Mountain View.
Head coach Andrea Neubauer's squad gets senior leadership from Blanca Azcona, Emily Charlton, Gricelda Hernandez, Sonia Lopez, Elaheh Sajadi, Gail St. John and Amy Telles this winter.
And the Lady Birds need it with four freshmen and four sophomores on the varsity squad.
Kathleen Charlton, Carolyn Chin, Linsay Colombo and Marciela Rodriguez are all freshmen on the varsity, and they're joined by sophs Yajaira Gutierrez, Macie Klumper, Cathy Miltenberger and Candace Stockhaus. Genevieve Jaramilla is the lone junior on the Fremont varsity.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
