Photograph by Max Becherer

Pin Pal: Willow Glen's Henry Chavez, battling for a win against Leigh,
won again for the Rams last week to help his squad to a 6-0 record in the
West Valley Division.




Rams wrestlers go unbeaten

Panthers settle for soccer second

By Dick Sparrer

Phil Luna knew that his Willow Glen wrestling team had already wrapped up the dual match championship in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

But there still was that little matter of a perfect league record. And the Rams needed to beat San Jose Academy last week in the final dual of the season to accomplish that feat.

So that's just what they did.

The Rams put the frosting on their 1998-99 championship cake with a lopsided 66-12 victory over the Bulldogs last week. The victory left Willow Glen 6-0 in the division and made certain that the Rams won sole ownership of the league wrestling championship, their first since 1969.

It certainly wasn't a tough match for the Rams. After all, the Bulldogs forfeit in seven weight classes to stake Willow Glen to a commanding 42-0 lead before a match was ever wrestled.

Still, the Rams won five of the seven matches contested on the day, two by fall, to cruise to the easy victory.

Paul Yarbrough pinned with 34 seconds remaining in the first round at 145 pounds, and Erik Lupercio won by fall a minute into his match at 275 pounds.

Senior Jeff Ramirez tossed his opponent around for an 18-4 victory at 152 pounds. Alvin Rideau won 10-2 at 130 pounds and Henry Chavez won 16-4 at 135.

Picking up forfeit wins for the Rams were Shane O'Hare at 112, Daniel Lopez at 125, Chris Kopas at 162, Memo Rivera at 171, Steven Kline at 189 and Jessie Hendricks at 215.

Panthers undefeated

A 2-1 victory over Piedmont Hills left the Presentation girls soccer team undefeated in league play.

But it wasn't enough to lift the Panthers to the championship in the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

No, that spot went to the Mitty Monarchs.

Mitty scored a second-half goal to pull out a 1-1 tie against Presentation early last week, and that was all the Monarchs needed to clinch the division championship.

You see, the Monarchs were also undefeated in the league campaign. Mitty finished up 12-0-2 in division play, and the Panthers ended up a close second at 11-0-3.

The clubs had tied 2-2 early in the season and seemed headed to a co-championship as recently as two weeks ago. But Presentation blew a 2-0 first-half lead against Prospect and ended up with a 2-2 tie. That meant the Panthers needed a win over Mitty to claim the league championship.

Presentation jumped out to a 1-0 first-half lead against the Monarchs when senior Erica Timiraos scored off an Alison Berthold assist. But Mitty tied it with a goal in the second half, and held on for the all-important tie.

It was the final game of the league season for the Monarchs, but Presentation still had one to go.

The Panthers wrapped up the league campaign with a 2-1 victory over Piedmont Hills. Megan Chimenti scored in the first half off an assist from Beth Butto, but the Pirates tied it with a goal before intermission.

Jamie Moore broke the tie, though, when she scored off a Kelly Pryor assist in the second half to give the Panthers the 2-1 victory.

Presentation improved to 15-2-3 for the year with the win. The Panthers now head into Central Coast Section action, hoping to get another shot at Mitty.

Rams lose two

The Willow Glen girls lost twice last week, falling 3-1 to Oak Grove and 1-0 to Westmont. The Rams slipped to 2-12 in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL and to 4-14-1 for the year.

Sophomore forward Colleen Wozny knocked in a second-half penalty kick against the Eagles for Willow Glen's only goal of the week.

It was one of just a couple of goals for Wozny, who starred for the Rams as a freshman. Wozny scored 36 goals last season, including 30 in league play, to lead the Rams to a division championship. But she suffered a hip-pointer early in the season, and the nagging injury sidelined her most of the year.

"That was a devastating loss," said Rams coach Michael Herauf of Wozny's absence in the Willow Glen lineup. But it wasn't the only injury suffered by the Rams.

Senior fullback Carley Lawrence, another returning all-leaguer, suffered a knee injury in the first game of the year, and other top returners (sophomore halfback Allison Lake, senior goalkeeper Ambar Molina and senior co-captain Amy Johnson) all battled through either illness or injury early in the season.

Rams lose, too

Meanwhile, the Willow Glen boys lost a pair of league games last week, falling 2-0 to Independence before losing 3-1 to Valley Christian.

A second-half goal by senior Hugo Sigala helped the Rams break up the shutout against Valley late in the week.

The Rams are now 3-6-3 in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL and 4-13-3 for the year.

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