Change is good at Paly Change is good at Paly (October 12, 2005)

Boys' water polo wins tourney, plays for league title

by Keith Peters

The Palo Alto boys' water polo team hasn't had a winning season since 2001. The Vikings haven't won an SCVAL De Anza Division crown since 2000 or a Central Coast Section title since 1997.

All that could change for Paly, starting this week when the Vikings (4-0) face host Los Gatos (4-0) on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., with the league regular-season title at stake.

"I don't think anyone expected either of us would be 4-0 at this point," said Paly coach Jon Barnea. "This is pretty much for the league championship."

Trailing Paly and Los Gatos is Gunn (3-1) and Los Altos (2-2). Paly finishes the regular season at Los Altos on Oct. 19 and holds a tiebreaker over Gunn by virtue of beating the Titans in the opening week of the league season.

The Vikings are 12-9 overall and are coming off a 4-0 weekend and championship of the Palo Alto Invitational. Paly beat Valley Christian, 10-3, topped Carlmont, 13-9, edged Gunn in overtime, 4-3, and got by Live Oak in the finals, 6-5, in overtime.

"It was a great weekend for us," Barnea said. "It was the first tournament title in the three years I've been at Paly.

"Knowing we are capable of playing well against any team out there is huge going into Wednesday. Just having that confidence coming in is huge for us. We're ready to play this game."

It was only a few weeks ago that Paly was stomped by Live Oak, 12-6, and later beaten by Gunn, 8-5. Barnea made some adjustments, especially on defense, and it paid off with last weekend's tournament title.

"I don't know if we expected to win it, but we knew that we could," Barnea said. "We just took a game-by-game approach. We talked about being consistent and they were. They played hard all weekend, especially at the defensive end of the pool."

The obvious standout there was sophomore goalie Will Simon. He had 37 saves in the four wins, facing nine 6-on-5 situations against Live Oak and allowing only four goals - with the fifth coming on a four-meter penalty shot.

Simon wound up being named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

"There were some desperate moments where if he didn't block the shot, the game could have gone the other way," Barnea said.

Trailing by two in the finals, Simon blocked a shot when Live Oak had a 6-on-5 situation. Paly countered with a quick goal to trim its deficit and wound up winning when Eric Vallone scored in overtime.

"Will had a great weekend," Barnea said.

As did Vallone and fellow seniors Mike Sorgenfrei and Gregor Horstmeyer. All three provided important leadership in key moments, in addition to carrying the team offensively. Sorgenfrei scored 12 goals, Horstmeyer had 11 and Vallone added six - three coming against Live Oak.

Gunn (12-9) went 2-2 in the tournament, finishing fourth following a disappointing 5-2 loss to Los Altos. Kyle Gertridge scored 10 goals for the Titans. Menlo-Atherton (9-4) also went 2-2 (losing to Gunn by 7-6) and wound up sixth. Stephen Hicks tallied 13 goals for the Bears.

In other water polo action, Sacred Heart Prep will host the Gator Classic, which features local boys' and girls' teams. SHP and Palo Alto will have both squads entered while the M-A boys will represent the Bears.

Cross country

The Palo Alto girls ran to their best finish this decade at the annual Clovis Invitational, putting three runners in the top 30 to finish fourth overall in the Medium School Division with 171 points.

Paly junior Renata Cummins clocked a personal record for a 3.1-mile course with a 19:08 to finish second overall. Alicia Ivanhoe was 19th in 20:19 and Katie Gosling finished 27th in 20:36.

In the boys' Medium Schools' race, Scott Himmelberger of Paly finished 11th in 16:31.

Football

Palo Alto has reached the halfway point of the regular season in solid shape following a big 24-0 whitewash of visiting Milpitas last Friday in a SCVAL De Anza Division game.

The Vikings head into Friday's 7:30 p.m. nonleague game against visiting Los Altos with 2-0 mark in league (4-1 overall). Based on upcoming games with Saratoga and Mountain View, Paly should be 4-0 (7-1) heading into its final division games against Wilcox (Nov. 4) and Los Gatos (Nov. 11).

If the Vikings continue to play defense like they did in their homecoming win over Milpitas, that could be the season-ending scenario. Paly's defense is allowing just nine points a game after back-to-back shutouts.

Fred Koloto, John Hall, Roger Prince and Cooper Miller sparked the lastest blanking that including three sacks and four interceptions. Miller, a 6-foot-5 basketball standout in the winter, had two interceptions - returning one 11 yards for a touchdown.

Miller caught five passes for 94 yards with two receptions keeping touchdown drives alive.

Paly junior quarterback Nick Goodspeed completed 10 of 18 passes for 141 yards and one TD.

In the SCVAL El Camino Division, Gunn (1-1, 2-3) got four touchdowns from senior running back Cory Babbington in a 35-6 romp over host Lynbrook last Friday.

Babbington caught a 14-yard TD pass from senior Ben Arnold before scoring three touchdowns in six minutes on runs of six, 25 and six yards in the third quarter.

Arnold also tossed a five-yard TD to Tucker Laurence, while Chevalier Riley sparked the defense by blocking a punt and returning a pass interception 45 yards.

Gunn hosts Santa Clara on Friday at 3:15 p.m.

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