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Up and At 'Em: Willow Glen's Jon Williams goes up for two in an early season game. The Rams lost three games last week.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Rams hoping to get healthy
Soccer team tops Del Mar, cagers lose three
By Dick Sparrer
It looks like so goes Christian Jimenez, so goes the Willow Glen boys soccer team this season. And so far, Jimenez and the Rams aren't going too well.
Jimenez has been injured in the early stages of the 2000-01 campaign, and with him on the sidelines the Rams have struggled to a 2-4-1 start in the young season.
The showing comes as no surprise to Willow Glen coach Sue Parisi. She knows how important her goalie is to her soccer team.
"If our goalie is healthy, we should do well," she said. "If not, it will be a character building year."
But so far, the senior keeper who won all-league first-team honors on last year's championship team has not been healthy. And he hasn't been alone. "In our first few games we're been kind of rocky," said Parisi. "But we were missing seven players, and one of them was my goalie."
Just when the Rams started to mend, they were hit with injuries again.
But the WG boss remains optimistic.
"I think we'll still get to CCS," she said. And she expects her squad to fight for a spot in the top three in the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
The Rams won the Santa Teresa Division title with an 11-0-1 record last year, and they posted an 18-2-3 record overall. Their only two losses were to Bellarmine and Watsonville, the top two teams in CCS, and both were by 2-1 scores.
Six all-league returners give Parisi reason to be confident this winter.
Junior sweeper Saul Villatoro is back after winning the division's most valuable player award last season, and Jimenez and junior center midfielder Osbi Gonzales are other all-league first-teamers returning for the '00-01 season.
Junior outside middle Dustin Cohen, senior forward Oscar Garcia and senior left fullback Manolo Rosales are other Willow Glen returners, and all three were all-league second-team picks last winter.
The Rams rolled to their second win of the season last week when they turned back Del Mar 4-3, thanks to three goals and an assist by Gonzales. Freshman John Gibilisco also scored a goals and Ricky Arreola and Jorge Villafuerte added assists.
Willow Glen opened the year with a 4-1 loss to Homestead. Gilbert Lozoya scored a first-half goal off an assist from Villafuerte and the Rams led 1-0 at the break. But the Mustangs scored four unanswered goals in the second half to clinch the win.
Arreola scored off a Lozoya assist, and Lozoya scored off an assist from Villatoro, but the Rams lost a 3-2 nonleague decision to Yerba Buena.
The Rams lost 5-1 to Watsonville in the Homestead Christmas Cup tournament. A second-half goal by Villatoro was all Willow Glen could manage offensively.
Gunn pulled out a tight 2-1 win over the Rams in Christmas Cup play. Passes from Sal Rios and Garcia set up Gonzales for a first-half goal against the Titans. The Rams led this one 1-0 at the half, but ended up losing 2-1 on two second-half goals by Gunn.
Willow Glen pulled out a Christmas Cup victory, though, with a 2-1 win over Menlo-Atherton.
Rams lose
The Willow Glen boys basketball team dropped three games last week, losing to Leigh, Fremont and Branham at the Leigh Roundup Tournament.
Mihn Phan poured in 13 points and Jon Williams added 10, but the Rams lost a 58-43 decision to host Leigh. Joe Gutierrez supported with eight points, Pete Watts had six, Kaelan Yoppini added four and Adam Saucedo hit two. Phan and Watts each drilled a pair of three-pointers.
The Rams lost a 45-44 heartbreaker to Fremont despite a 20-point effort by Phan. The senior guard had four three-pointers among his six field goals and he added four points at the free-throw line.
Williams tossed in eight points in the loss, Gutierrez hit seven, Saucedo had six and Watts drilled a three.
Fremont jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the first period, but the Rams tied it 20-20 by intermission. The Firebirds went up by two after three quarters, and the Rams ended up a point short in the fourth.
Willow Glen, now 1-6 for the year, lost 42-35 to Branham a game later. Williams led the Rams with 11 points and Gutierrez added nine. Watts finished with six points and Saucedo and Yoppini had four apiece.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
