Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Photograph by Diana Diroy

Right Method: Willow Glen's Jessica Method (right) battles for the ball in field hockey action against Branham last week. Method's second-half goal helped the Rams claim a 1-0 victory over the Bruins.

Corona, Abdalla off and running in 2006

By Mike Barnhart

Willow Glen's Marcos Corona and Mohamed Abdalla have picked up where they left off in 2005, as two of the Central Coast Section's finest cross country runners.

Corona, who placed second in the CCS Division III meet as a junior and 10th at the state meet, and Abdalla, 14th at CCS as a sophomore and eighth at state, both have made quick impressions in 2006.

Corona and Abdalla ran away with the 3.0-mile Chieftain Classic on Sept. 16 at Toro Park in Monterey County. Corona captured first out of 142 runners with a time of 15 minutes, 41 seconds, and Abdalla finished second in 15:54.

The Rams' varsity and frosh-soph boys teams placed second, while the junior varsity boys took seventh. In the combined scoring, Willow Glen was the overall winner. Junior Eyoel Galato finished 11th in the varsity race. Samson Galato, a senior, was 27th, six places ahead of sophomore Nati Wolde.

Freshman Christian Vargas (ninth place) and sophomore Valentino Julian (10th) paced the frosh-soph boys, while junior Kenny Li (18th) was the top Ram finisher in the JV run.

The varsity girls team also placed second, as senior Nancy Velazquez (sixth) and juniors Michelle Moran (14th), Kari Server (18th) and Hayley Tharp (25th) led the way. Teammate Alyssa Terrazas placed 16th in the JV girls race.

A week earlier, at the same site, Abdalla ran 15:43 to claim second place among 235 juniors and second overall in the Earlybird Invitational. Corona ran 15:48, second by two seconds in the senior race to Los Gatos' Matthew Petrillo, and fourth overall. Diego Estrada, a junior from Alisal of Salinas, was the overall winner with an outstanding run of 15:28. E. Galato finished 12th among juniors.

Vargas captured eighth among freshman boys, Server seventh among varsity girls and Kristina Rivera 22nd among frosh-soph girls.

In between the invitationals, Abdalla and Corona ran 1-2 in Willow Glen's first Blossom Valley Athletic League meet on Sept. 14 at Montgomery Hill Park. Abdalla (14:40) cruised to victory in the triangular meet against Mt. Pleasant and Silver Creek. Corona ran 15:47 and E. Galato (16:16) took third for the Rams, who topped Mt. Pleasant, 15-43, and Silver Creek, 19-38.

Sophomore Abdul Kamara, who placed 22nd out of 271 sophomores at the Earlybird event, ran 16:58 for sixth in the first league meet. S. Galato (17:04) was seventh and junior Danny Owens (17:55) was 11th.

The girls squad also was double winner at the first Mt. Hamilton Division race of the season. Velazquez (19:28), Tharp (20:00) and Moran (20:07) swept the first three places, leading Willow Glen past the Cardinals, 16-42, and Silver Creek, 17-40. Server (20:17) and Anderson (20:52) finished fifth and seventh, respectively, for the Rams.

Field hockey

The Willow Glen field hockey team opened league play with back-to-back wins last week, shutting out Branham 1-0 and blanking Sobrato 4-0. The Rams are now 2-0 in the West Valley Division of the BVAL and 2-1-1 for the year.

A second-half goal by Jessica Method off of a Taylor Lundquist assist helped the Rams pull out the 1-0 win over the Bruins to open play last week.

Jennifer Uribe hammered home two goals and added an assist and Danielle Yaconelli had a goal and an assist as the Rams rolled over Sobrato two days later. Odette Overton also had a goal in the win and Burree Cowherd chipped in with an assist.

Willow Glen opened up a 3-0 lead by intermission and never looked back on the road to the win.

A week earlier, a second-half goal by Kathryn Cremer helped the Rams pull out a 1-1 tie in a non-league game against Cupertino. The clubs had battled through a scoreless first half before matching goals in the second half.

Willow Glen lost a 2-0 non-league nod to Leigh despite playing the Longhorns to a scoreless tie in the first half.

The Rams will be home for two games this week. Willow Glen hosts Homestead on Sept. 27 and San Jose Academy on Sept. 29 in a couple of 3 p.m. starts.

Girls tennis

Kristen Davis and Samantha Tsukiji went three sets for a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory at No. 1 doubles, but the Willow Glen girls tennis team dropped a 6-1 Santa Teresa Division decision to Mt. Pleasant last week.

The pair had lost in three sets (7-6, 6-7, 6-2) earlier in the week in a 7-0 team loss to Evergreen Valley. Senior Stephanie Tran also went three sets that day before losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 singles.

The Rams, 2-4 this year, were to visit Pioneer on Tuesday and will host Westmont on Sept. 28, 3:15 p.m., before heading to Yerba Buena on Oct. 3 for a 3:15 p.m. match.

Boys water polo

Chris Greene pitched in five goals and Nathan Woo add three to lead the Willow Glen boys water polo team to a 24-5 victory over Sobrato to open the Santa Teresa Division season.

The Rams blanked Sobrato over the first three quarters as they built up an 18-0 lead.

Geoffrey DuBridge, Charlie Kane and Sam Brandt added two goals each in the victory.

Brandt came back with five goals and Reese Rotsaert had four to lead the Rams to a 15-2 league win over Piedmont Hills. DuBridge added two goals in the Willow Glen victory and Chris McCarthy, Josh Dombro, Tyler Paradiso and Dustin Shean had one each.

The clubs played to a 0-0 tie in the first period, and the Rams led just 4-2 at the half. But Willow Glen blanked Piedmont in the second half while scoring five goals in the third quarter and six in the fourth to claim the lopsided victory.

The Rams, now 2-0 in the division, will try to make it three straight when they take on Santa Teresa on Sept. 27, 6 p.m., at Live Oak in Morgan Hill.