After four blowout wins, the Sacred Heart Prep football team finally may discover just how good it is when the Gators open the PAL Bay Division season. They'll have to wait a week, however.

The Gators will have a bye this week before hosting Burlingame on Friday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m.

Sacred Heart Prep (4-0) made its final tuneup a good one with a 42-0 romp over visiting King's Academy on Saturday.

Senior Ryan Gaertner scored on runs of three, three and one yard with junior Andrew Segre adding touchdown runs of seven and nine yards. Quarterback Jack Donahoe contributed a 52-yard scoring run to start the third quarter.

The Gators, who have outscored the opposition by 170-9 in four games, limited King's Academy to 137 total yards.

In eight-man action Saturday, Pinewood made its season debut a good one as Owen Lewis scored six touchdowns and accounted for 40 points in a 54-0 romp over visiting El Sobrante Christian. Lewis rushed seven times for 102 yards. Greg Naumann and Aidan Lucero added TD runs for the Panthers.

Girls' volleyball
Menlo School battled its way into the finals of its own 16-team Chris Chandler Invitational on Saturday before dropping a 25-23, 23-25, 15-12 decision to Los Gatos (a Central Coast Section Division II semifinalist last season), in the championship match.

The Knights started off pool play with two-game victories over Soquel, 25-15, 25-20, and South San Francisco, 25-7, 25-18.

In the Gold Division playoffs, Menlo topped San Mateo, 25-12, 23-25, 15-6, before defeating Priory, 25-14, 26-24, in the semifinals.

Priory finished 3-1, as did Castilleja, which was eliminated by Los Gatos, 25-16, 25-20, in the semifinals.

Junior outside hitter Maddie Huber led the team offensively with 53 total kills while averaging 4.42 kills per set.

The Knights (10-5) host Notre Dame-San Jose on Tuesday to open West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) play.

Boys' water polo
Menlo School tuned up for this weekend's NCS vs. CCS Challenge, hosted by St. Francis, with a 17-3 swamping of visiting Jesuit on Saturday in nonleague action.

The Knights (4-3) got five goals from Nick Bisconti and three from Derrick Ho while goalies John Wilson and Alexander Lazar split duties while combining for seven saves. Andreas Katsis, David Rozenfeld and Chris Xi all added two goals for Menlo.

Girls' water polo
Castilleja reached the Gold Division finals of the 18th annual Amanda MacDonald Invitational on Saturday at Menlo School before falling to Buchanan of Clovis, 8-6.

The Gators (5-3) went 3-1 in the two-day tourney and posted wins over Menlo School (12-1), Half Moon Bay (23-4) and Soquel (15-8) before running into Buchanan.

Stephanie Flamen tallied 16 goals in the four matches for Castilleja while teammate Anna Yu added 12 and Sydney Molano seven. Goalie Maddie Tarr finished with 31 saves.

Menlo-Atherton (6-4) went 2-2 in the tourney and finished sixth, twice losing to Sir Francis Drake (12-8 and 6-5) while beating Mitty (9-8) and Los Altos (7-4).

Jessica Heilman finished with 13 goals and Anna Swartz added eight, with goalie Sierra Sheeper keeping busy with 41 saves over the two days.

Palo Alto (6-6) went 2-2 in the MacDonald tourney with wins over Burlingame (10-9) and Los Altos (7-1) sandwiched around losses to Acalanes (11-2) and Sir Francis Drake (8-5).

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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