A trip to CCS at stake A trip to CCS at stake (October 26, 2005)

Palo Alto football needs to beat Mtn. View on Friday to clinch

by Keith Peters

The Central Coast Section football playoffs begin taking shape this weekend with Palo Alto playing a big role in the fortunes of two teams.

The Vikings control not only their destiny, but that of Mountain View. That's the storyline Friday when Paly plays host to the Spartans in an important SCVAL De Anza Division game at 7:30 p.m.

Palo Alto is 3-0 in league and 6-1 overall. Mountain View is 2-2 and 3-4. Paly still must play Wilcox (3-0, 7-0) and Los Gatos (2-1, 5-2) while the Spartans already have lost to those teams.

A win by Paly clinches one of three automatic CCS berths. A win by Mountain View keep its playoff hopes alive.

"This is their playoff game," said Paly coach Earl Hansen. "If they win, they're probably in (the playoffs). They have to beat us."

Mountain View finishes up league play with Saratoga. If the Spartans win their final two and finish 4-2, it's very likely they'll edge Paly for third - unless the Vikings beat both Wilcox and Los Gatos.

That's why Friday's game is so important for both teams.

"We have to win this one," Hansen said.

Paly is coming off a big 44-27 triumph at Saratoga last Friday. The Vikings amassed 445 total yards, held the Falcons to 85 yards passing, picked off two passes and recorded a safety.

The Vikings, however, gave up 175 yards in kickoff returns to Saratoga in addition to 182 rushing yards.

Thus, it was one of those good day, bad day outings for Paly.

"Our kickoff team wasn't very good," Hansen admitted. "That will be fixed. We just kind of sleep-walked through that game. I didn't see anyone really excited to play."

On the flip side, Palo Alto was able to play an average sort of game and still dominate the opposition when needed.

"They scored first and we just went out and played our game," Hansen said. "We didn't panic. It was a good business day type of thing."

Paly junior quarterback Nick Goodspeed was efficient when needed, completing 15 of 23 passes for 256 yards. He had touchdown passes of 52 yards to Ted Way and 27 and 44 yards to Cooper Miller.

Juniors Will Frazier and Maurice Williams both rushed for touchdowns and led a Paly running game that piled up 188 yards.

Junior lineman John Hall also stood out. He knocked down numerous passes, was in on handful of tackles and sacked Saratoga quarterback Scott Newberry in the fourth quarter to give Paly a 37-21 lead. After the Falcons kicked off and both teams traded interceptions, Roger Prince rumbled in from five yards out for a 44-21 Paly lead.

Elsewhere in prep football last weekend:

Menlo School (2-2, 3-4) saw its postseason hopes disappear in a 19-14 PAL Ocean Division loss at Mills, despite 212 passing yards and two touchdowns from Knights' quarterback Andy Gregg.

In the Bay Football League, Sacred Heart Prep (3-3, 4-4) also saw its title hopes go away in a 28-14 loss at St. Elizabeth. Anthony Riesch rushed for 101 yards for the Gators.

Cross country

Palo Alto and Gunn both enjoyed a successful races last week that resulted in team titles.

At the Monterey Bay Invitational at Toro Park in Salinas on Friday, the Paly girls ran to a perfect finish while scoring the minimum of 15 points to win one of two varsity races in the two-day meet.

Junior Renata Cummins led the way with a winning time of 19:18 over the three-mile course. Junior Alicia Ivanhoe, senior Elle Burstein, senior Katie Gosling and senior Emily Lundy finished off the rare 1-2-3-4-5 sweep for Paly.

"They could all see each other (during the race) and knew there wasn't much competition," said Paly girls' coach Paul Jones, who admitted Saturday's race featuring CCS rival Aptos was decidedly tougher.

The Paly boys raced their best squad at the season's No. 2 Center Meet last Thursday at Crystal Springs in Belmont. Senior Scott Himmelberger clocked a personal best of 15:59 on the 2.95-mile layout to finish third overall. Paly senior Francis Reynolds also ran a PR of 16:07 to grab fourth and help his team take second with 123 points.

Despite not having a single runner among the top 10, the Gunn boys nonethess ran away with the title with 119 points. Carl Reid's 16th place of 16:46 led five Gunn runners among the top 33.

Like the Paly boys, the Gunn had Joanne Reid finish fifth and fellow freshmen Allie Mayer take seventh but it still wasn't enough as the Titans settled for second behind CCS-favorite and top-ranked Aptos, 56-85.

Reid's time of 19:04 ranks No. 8 all-time in school history and Mayer's clocking of 19:08 ranked 10th.

Boys soccer

Sacred Heart Prep opened this week in first place (10-2-1) in the Private Schools Athletic League, but needs to win at least two of its final three matches to successfully defend its league title.

The Gators reclaimed first place following a 6-0 romp over visiting Fremont Christian last Friday while erstwhile leader Harker (9-2-3) was being tied by St. Lawrence, 1-1.

Two wins will give SHP 37 points, one more than Harker can total by winning its last two matches.

Girls volleyball

Menlo (8-2) fell back into a two-way tie with Carlmont in the PAL Bay Division following a 19-25, 28-26, 25-18, 25-18 loss to visiting Woodside last Thursday night. The Knights bounced back to finish seventh out of 32 teams in Saturday's Milpitas Spikefest II tournament.

In the West Bay Athletic League, Castilleja came off a 10-day break and showed the resulting rustiness a five-game loss to Harker last Friday, despite 17 kills and 14 digs from senior Ariel Baxterbeck. Harker now leads the league at 8-1 followed by the Gators (7-1, 21-5).

E-mail a friend a link to this story.