The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Homestead battled Willow Glen in field hockey action last week, but Mustangs lost a tough 2-1 decision to the Rams.
Firebirds, Mustangs collide
Fremont, Homestead hockey teams fall
By Dick Sparrer
It's not a game with playoff implications.
And it certainly won't decide a championship.
But when the Fremont and Homestead football teams collide in a 7:30 p.m. game on Nov. 7 at Diesner Field, it will be a big one for each team.
The Firebirds and Mustangs will battle it out for local bragging rights when they go head-to-head in the Friday night game in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
But the game will mean even more than that. The Firebirds need the win to ensure that they won't have a losing season in 1997, and the Mustangs need the win to keep alive their hopes for a .500 league record.
Fremont is 0-4 in the division and 4-4 for the year after losing 28-6 to Monta Vista last Friday night. The Firebirds will close out the regular season against powerful Wilcox (7-1, 3-1).
Homestead slipped to 1-3 in the division and to 2-6 for the year after suffering a 30-13 loss to Palo Alto last week. The Mustangs need to beat Fremont on Friday night, then finish the year with a win over Saratoga, to end the league season 3-3.
The two clubs enter the game with solid running attacks.
Tully Banta-Cain heads up the ground attack for the Firebirds, running behind that huge Fremont offensive line.
Jason Woods is a speedster who leads the rushing attack for the Mustangs.
Mustangs, 'Birds fall
The girls' field hockey teams at Fremont and Homestead both lost a pair of league decisions last week.
The Firebirds were blanked 7-0 by Cupertino and 2-0 by Del Mar in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Firebirds are now 0-6-1 in league play.
Fremont had battled Gunderson to a 2-2 tie earlier in the year. Crystal Scofield and Laure Olivo knocked in second-half goals to lift the Firebirds to the deadlock.
Homestead lost a tough 2-1 nod to Willow Glen in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL last week. Cindy Anthony scored off a Michele Wald assist for Homestead's only goal of the day.
The Mustangs lost 3-0 to Prospect later in the week to slip to 2-4-2 in the division.
Julie Speckels had knocked in an unassisted goal, and Juli Ignatis scored off a Wald assist to lead Homestead to a 2-2 tie against Prospect the first time the two squads met this year.
Ignatis and Speckels each had a goal and an assist, and Wald also scored to lead the Mustangs to a 3-2 win over Monta Vista. Anthony chipped in with an assist for the winners.
Saini leads Firebirds
Tarang Saini nailed a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles to lead the Fremont girls' tennis team to a tight 4-3 win over Milpitas in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL last week.
Nina Nguyen supported Saini with a 7-6, 6-3 win at No. 4 doubles for Fremont.
Tri Minh Hoang and Julie Huang teamed for a 6-3, 6-2 victory at No. 1 doubles, and Cindy Ly and Julie Ho helped clinch the team win with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph at No. 3 doubles.
The Firebirds improved to 5-7 in the division with the win.
Fremont was coming off of a 5-2 win over Santa Clara. Theresa Phan nailed a 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 1 singles. Saini won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3, and Nguyen won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 4.
Huang and Hoang combined for a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles and Ly and Ho joined for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 3.
Homestead slipped to 1-13 in the De Anza Division with a 5-2 loss to Monta Vista. Jenny Park and Nisha Ramachandran nailed a 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 win at No. 3 doubles and Patty Chung and Sandy Kim won 7-5, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles.
Earlier, the Mustangs lost 5-2 to St. Francis despite a win by Chung and Kim at No. 2 doubles and a victory by Mia Chiu and Diana Yeh at No. 3 doubles.
Daines leads Mustangs
Dave Daines buried nine goals and Hrsto Avgarski drilled four to lead the Homestead boys' water polo team to a 19-10 win over Wilcox last week in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL.
Daniel Bodeman supported with three goals in the win, and Artur Studzinski added two for the Mustangs.
Homestead, 3-1 in the division and 5-7 for the year, had opened the week with a 15-9 win over Mountain View.
Studzinski poured in six goals and Daines popped five to lead Homestead to the win. Bodeman and Avgarski tossed in two goals apiece for the Mustangs.
Cameron 10th
Jennifer Nguyen of Monta Vista finished second overall in the girls' division at the Lynbrook Invitational cross country meet last week.
Nguyen covered the 2.1-mile distance in 13:33 to finish six seconds behind the race winner from Wilcox.
Yvonne Bailey of Monta Vista was fourth in 13:58 to help the Matadors to a second-place team finish behind Prospect.
The Monta Vista boys were also second, finishing well behind Saratoga. Greg Kimura led the Matadors by finishing ninth in 11:46.
Lynbrook's Aman Sirohi finished high in the individual standings, running fourth in 11:39. Fremont junior Doug Cameron romped to a 10th-place finish in 11:47.
In dual meet competition last week, Rachel Fredrickson was third in the girls' race in 15:05, and Darius Siddiqui was fourth in the boys' race in 11:38, but Homestead lost in both races to Gunn on the 2.17-mile course at Gunn.
Homestead's Matt Hovik and David Morgan had run strong the weekend before in the St. Francis-Foothill Invitational. Hovik covered the 3.0- mile course in 16:37 to finish second in the junior race, and Morgan finished in 17:39 to nail fourth in the senior race.
Madrigal stars
Ralph Madrigal knocked in a goal and handed out an assist to lead the King's Academy boys' soccer team to a 3-1 win over Libert Baptist in a key Christian Private Schools game last week.
King's stuck Liberty with its first loss of the season in the game. King's improved to 8-1-1 in league play with the win, and Liberty Baptist slipped to 9-1.
Geordie Gordon had scored a lone goal for the Knights earlier in the week in a 1-1 tie with St. Lawrence Academy.
Madrigal had pounded home three goals and dished off four assists in two games to lead King's to back-to-back wins over San Francisco Christian and Mid Peninsula a week earlier.
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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.