October 06, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Paly, Gunn meet for 40th time

by Keith Peters

Don't expect any big cake, enough to feed a football team. And don't expect any party horns and confetti. Yet, there's a big anniversary being celebrated Friday.

When Palo Alto plays host to crosstown rival Gunn in an SCVAl De Anza Division game at 7:30 p.m., the teams will be meeting for the 40th time.

The series began in 1965 with Palo Alto posting a 34-13 victory. The Vikings lead in the series, 26-13, which includes 12 straight wins from 1987-1998.

The rivals have split the past four games, with Palo Alto pulling out a 26-21 victory last year. The triumph helped the Vikings reach the Central Coast Section playoffs, where they advanced all the way to the Division III championship game before losing.

Friday night's game once again is an important one. Paly (1-0, 3-1) needs a victory heading into crucial stretch that features games at Wilcox, home against Los Gatos and home against Milpitas. Los Gatos, by the way, handed Wilcox a 21-0 defeat last weekend.

Palo Alto, meanwhile, was pulling out a 35-28 division-opening triumph over Saratoga at Los Gatos High as senior quarterback Nathan Ford threw for four touchdowns and ran for another.

"We didn't run the ball very well," Ford said, "but we were able to pass effectively."

Ford hooked up with his favorite receiver, senior Matt Wisemann, for touchdowns of 13, 7 and 20 yards. The final one came with less than two minutes to play and clinched the back-and-forth contest.

Ford also threw a seven-yard strike to running back Roger Prince and bulled his way over from one yard out.

Wismann normally receives a lot of attention from defensive backs, but Saratoga evidently scouted Palo Alto's 17-0 win over Los Altos a week earlier when Ford threw to Chris Reade and Buddy Teevens Jr. on numerous occasions.

"Saratoga favored Chris and Buddy, and that left Wismann open," Ford said.

The win sends Palo Alto into its anniversary game with Gunn, always a tough opponent no matter what the Titans' record.

"Gunn will always play their best game of the year against us," Ford said.

The Titans (0-1, 1-3) are coming off a 32-14 loss to Homestead on Saturday at Fremont High. The game originally was scheduled for Friday night, but a power outage forced postponement to Saturday. Gunn coach Sam Picture was told the game would start at 1 p.m., but officials arrived later and the game didn't begin until 2 p.m.

Gunn, not too surprisingly, came out flat and Homestead jumped on the Titans quickly as running back Chris Morris scored four touchdowns. While Gunn was being handed a defeat, Sacred Heart Prep (2-2) was rolling to a 46-26 nonleague win over St. Bernard's in Eureka.

Senior Hudson Smythe carried 26 times for 280 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to catching two passes for 120 yards and another score. Junior quarterback Pat Coffey threw touchdowns of 75 (to Eric Cowell), 65, 67 (to Smythe) and 37 (to Thomas Donahoe) in the wild offensive battle. Coffey also ran for a one-yard score.

Sacred Heart Prep will host St. Elizabeth's on Saturday at 2 p.m.

In PAL Bay Division action, Menlo-Atherton (0-2, 1-3) is at Terra Nova on Friday night at 8 p.m. and Menlo School (1-1, 3-1) hosts Aragon on Friday at 3 p.m.

Both the Bears and Knights are coming off tough losses. M-A gave up 469 yards in total offense to visiting Burlingame in a 34-20 loss on Saturday. Menlo fell behind 28-7 and eventually fell to host Terra Nova, 38-14.
Girls golf

Menlo-Atherton (10-0-1) set the stage for a shootout for the PAL title dual-match title with Los Gatos on Monday by winning a pair of matches last week.

With Jordan Micek shooting par-eagle-par to finish her career-low round of 41, the Bears rallied to finish with 171 strokes to defeat Aragon and San Mateo at Poplar Creek in San Mateo. M-A's team total was a season low. Theresa Tenisi paced the Bears with a 40.
Boys soccer

Sacred Heart Prep (7-0, 11-0) entered this week one win away from completing a perfect first half of the season. The Gators were scheduled to host Redwood Christian on Tuesday, before opening the second half of the Private Schools Athletic League campaign at defending league and CCS Division III champion King'sAcademy on Thursday.

Sacred Heart has answered every challenge this season, the lastest a 2-0 victory over visiting Valley Christian-Dublin last Friday. Dublin came into the match tied with SHP for the league lead, but the Gators dominated early and sent the visitors home with a 7-1 record in PSAL play.

The Gators broke open a tight match when Matt Roon took a pass from Travis Benson and slipped a shot past the keeper. In the second half, Alex Vukic knocked in an insurance goal.

SHP keeper Garrick Yuen was a standout as he repelled a number of point-blank shots. He has been instrumental in the Gators' stingy defense that has allowed only three goals in 11 matches. SHP, meanwhile, has scored 46 and spread the wealth.

"We really don't have one player for other teams to concentrate on," said SHP coach Juan Camahort. "You can't stop us by stopping one player."

The only team to score on the Gators this season is King's Academy, which dropped a 3-1 decision to open league play and a 4-2 contest to SHP in the finals of the Gator Classic.

Elsewhere in the PSAL, Woodside Priory (4-2, 6-2-2) continues to be a factor in league play. The Panthers knocked off Redwood Christian last week, 1-0, on a goal by Eric Park off an assist from Justin Crandall.
Girls tennis

Pinewood won the prestigious Santa Catalina Tournament last weekend in Pebble Beach by capturing the No. 2 singles, No. 3 singles, No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles finals.

Elizabeth Williamson won at No. 2 singles with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph; Mele Pelea captured No. 3 singles with a 6-0, 6-0 win; Jessica Goldband won the No. 4 singles title, 4-6, 6-0, 6-0; and the team of Maxine Lim and Alisi Vea posted a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 win in the No. 2 doubles finale for first-year head coach Craig Corfield.

In the West Catholic Athletic League, Sacred Heart Prep (6-0, 14-1) continued to roll last week with a 7-0 romp over visiting Presentation. The Gators visited St. Francis on Tuesday in the first of two showdowns with the Lancers this season.

Palo Alto (2-2. 9-3) had its six-game winning streak ended in a 4-3 loss to visiting Los Altos last week.

Menlo (13-3) split a pair of matches over the weekend in San Diego, losing to Torrey Pines (14-4) and beating Westview (8-1).

"I think they're the best team in the nation," Menlo coach Bill Shine said of Torrey Pines. "But, even though we got trounced, the girls gained a lot of confidence. I didn't think we were intimidated. I told the girls we just flat out got beat by a better team."
Girls volleyball

Palo Alto capped a big week by winning four matches at the annual M-A Midway Classic on Saturday, giving the Vikings a 5-1 record for the week.

Paly tuned up for the tourney with a five-game nonleague victory over host Notre Dame-Belmont last Thursday, as senior Katrina Zawojski produced 17 kills and 24 assists.

Zawojski continued her fine play in the M-A tournament while helping the Vikings defeat Harbor, Mt. Pleasant, Evergreen and Harker. That put the Vikings into the quarterfinals against Marin Academy, which came away with a 25-20, 25-18 triumph. Marin Academy went on to beat Los Altos for the championship.

Zawojski finished the tourney with 48 kills, 45 assists and 29 digs. She had plenty of help from Murray Koch (22 kills, 29 digs), Lindsey Harris (24 kills, 17 assists), Hillard Ford (34 assists, 11 digs), Shaina Epstein (25 assists) and Dami Wusu (12 blocks).

The Vikings (3-0, 14-9) return to SCVAL El Camino Division play this week with matches against Fremont and Wilcox.

Menlo (4-0, 6-5) played the past three matches without leading hitter Alex Fisher, who was sidelined with a knee injury. Despite that big loss, the Knights won all three - including a 22-25, 15-25, 25-17, 25-10, 15-12 win over Aragon in PAL Bay Division action last week.

"It was a really nice comeback," said Menlo coach Ryan Cooling. "It really shows this young team, with its back against the wall, has a lot of fight in them . . . We had a really good all-around team effort."

Sophie Schmidt (14 kills) and Ali Lycette (11 kills) led the way for Menlo, which hopes to have Fisher back for Thursday's showdown with co-leader Carlmont at Menlo (4:30 p.m.).

Menlo-Atherton (2-2) remained close behind the leaders following a 25-20, 25-14, 25-20 win over San Mateo. Kelly Wright and Mori Maumasi each had eight kills to pace the Bears.

Castilleja (3-0, 17-3) remained atop the West Bay Athletic League heading into this week, but the Gators dropped a nonleaguer to host Urban last week and then was knocked out of the M-A Midway Classic in the quarterfinal round by Notre Dame-Belmont, finishing the tourney with a 4-1 record.

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