Publication Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2004
PREP SOCCER
Expect a bumpy road
Expect a bumpy road
(January 14, 2004)in the league races
Menlo-Atherton, Palo Alto boys already have lost their grip
on first place in their respective divisions following losses
by Keith Peters
Just when you think you have the local soccer races figured out, the ball takes an odd bounce - like in the old days when there were no plastic grass fields.
The Menlo-Atherton boys, for example, were cruising along in the PAL Bay Division with an undefeated record until, surprise, Burlingame pulled off a 2-1 shocker last Friday.
The Palo Alto boys also were undefeated and apparently on a roll, until Los Gatos scored on two deflections for a wild 2-1 win over the Vikings. The game ended with Paly apparently scoring a goal, which was nullified by the official's whistle just as the goal was being scored.
The Gunn boys also experienced a wild outing, which turned out well for the Titans. Down 3-0 with 20 minutes to play, Gunn charged back for a 3-3 deadlock.
Last week's results did nothing but clutter the division races, leaving no single team in complete control.
Heading into matches this week:
Menlo-Atherton (4-1, 8-3) and Burlingame (4-1) are tied for the PAL Bay Division boys' lead with Sequoia (3-1-1) and Carlmont (3-2) lurking. The Bears host Menlo School (0-2-3, 2-3-6) on Wednesday at 3 p.m. M-A coach Juan Camahort has to hope he'll be sleeping better this week than after the Burlingame loss.
"I had nightmares about that game," he said. "We could have gone two games up by winning."
Instead, it was the Bears' first-ever loss on their plastic grass field.
"It's a good wakeup call," Camahort said. "We started to get a little cocky. We learned we have to play hard for the entire 70 minutes and can't let up."
Alex Ruck gave M-A a quick 1-0 lead, but defensive lapses led to Burlingame's tying and winning goals.
In the SCVAL De Anza Division boys' race, Mountain View sits alone in first place at 3-0. After that, there's a real dogfight between Palo Alto (2-1, 8-3-1), Santa Clara (2-1), Fremont (1-2-1), Los Gatos (1-2-1) and Gunn (1-1-1, 8-2-2).
Palo Alto can shake things up next week with a match against visiting Santa Clara on Thursday. Gunn also can have a say in the division race with a big home match Thursday against Mountain View.
In their strange matches last week, Jeff Hering gave Paly a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute with a goal off an assist from Jean Choi. Los Gatos, however, charged back with two goals in the second half. Both came on deflections off indirect kicks.
Palo Alto took 13 shots to just five for Los Gatos and had a goal nullified when a corner kick was played off the chest of a Paly player. Before the ball could leave his foot, the referee whistled the game over.
Gunn looked all but dead against Fremont, but the Titans pulled it together and pulled out the tie. Pablo Rivera scored twice and Eadon Jacobs provided a goal and an assist. Matt Marquess had assists to help keep the Titans firmly in the division race.
"For us to come back from 3-0 down to Fremont after giving up two penalty kicks was just wild and crazy," said Gunn coach David Burgee.
Gunn outshot Fremont, 18-7, but gave up two penalty kicks. Still, the Titans had a chance to win during injury time but Rivera tried to rip a shot while in the penalty box and missed - dribbling his attempt right at the keeper.
In the De Anza Division girls' race:
Palo Alto moved into a second-place tie with Homestead following a 4-0 blanking of host Los Gatos on Thursday. Gunn, meanwhile, earned its first victory by outscoring host Cupertino, 3-1.
Los Altos and Los Gatos lead the division with 2-1-1 records while Palo Alto (6-2-2 overall) and Homestead are next at 2-1. Gunn (1-2, 5-4-1) remains in the hunt behind Saratoga (1-0-2).
Paly, which lost only once last season, struggled early while compiling a 2-2-2 mark. Since then, however, the Vikings have won four straight. The win over Los Gatos was huge, since the Wildcats had been leading the division.
"We seem to be slowly putting things together," said Paly coach Jeff van Gastel. "We had a very dominating second half."
Senior Katherine Stolpa gave Paly a 1-0 lead in the first half off an assist from junior Austinn Freeman. In the second half, Stolpa assisted on Robin Chang's goal before senior Dani Hanabusa scored off an assist from Rachel Hamilton. Freeman finished off the fine offensive effort with an assist from Elle Burstein.
Paly took 15 shots while Los Gatos took just five.
Gunn got back in the division race thanks to a pair of goals from Katja Davis and one from Sarah Horwath. Liz Lowe, Morgan Holland and Katelyn Reese provided assists.
In the PAL Bay Division girls' soccer race, Menlo School (2-1-2, 8-2-2) took a step back in the league race following a 1-1 deadlock with visiting Aragon last Thursday. The Knights trailed by 1-0 in the first half before a flurry of activity resulted in a goal by Molly Lapolla in the second half.
Menlo had a number of other opportunities, hitting the crossbar in the second half on one occasion. Sara Horton, Kelley Finch, Kate Bentley, Erica Swanson, Kelly Clendenning and Ashley Graumann all provided solid efforts for the Knights.
Menlo's tie, however, dropped the Knights into a tie for third place following Burlingame's (3-1-1) 2-0 win over Woodside. Carlmont (5-0) still leads the division.
Menlo-Atherton (1-3-1, 2-10-1) dropped off the pace following a 3-2 loss to host San Mateo.
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