Prospects could be better this week, however, with the opening of the annual Fremont-Sunnyvale Tournament--a Bay Area institution that has been around longer than most of the current coaches.
Menlo-Atherton (4-2) got a jump on everyone with an opening-round game on Tuesday. Palo Alto (2-3) meets Yerba Buena on Wednesday at 4 p.m., with Gunn (1-6) taking on host Fremont in the 8:30 p.m. contest.
The Bears are coming off an eighth-place finish in the Lowell Tournament. M-A opened with an 84-58 thumping of San Francisco's International Studies Academy (ISA) as Kwayzar Thibeaux led a balanced attack with 16 points. William Brown and Billy Brooks added 15 points each.
From the heights, the Bears plummeted--losing to University, 69-61, and falling to Lowell, 74-53, in the seventh-place game.
Palo Alto didn't start off as well in the Burlingame Lions Club Tournament, losing to Westmoor, 70-60, despite a career-high 18 points from 6-foot-6 senior Peter Hansen.
The Vikings then escaped with a 43-40 win over Pinewood behind Arun Chopra's 14 points, but the consolation final produced another setbak for Paly, 57-54 to South San Francisco. Senior forward Dan Millman had a season-high 19 points and senior center Tony Ara matched that total, his career best.
Pinewood didn't fare well in either of its first two outings, falling to host Burlingame in its opener, 70-44.
Sacred Heart Prep (5-2) found the most success of anyone last weekend, winning two of three games to finish third in the Cougar Classic in Half Moon Bay.
The Gators humiliated Pescadero in the opener, 91-24, as Scott Parsons led the rout with 21 points. Zack Holderman added 18 while his brother, Dane, added 13.
Sacred Heart's offense came to a screeching halt in the second round, a 51-31 setback to Los Altos. The Gators trailed at halftime, 25-11, and by 43-16 after three quarters.
With that behind them, the Gators charged back in the third-place game to ruin Lahaina's vacation from Hawaii, 55-41. Sean Mackinnon led SHP with 22 points.
In other games, Mid-Peninsula (4-4) got a season-high 28 points from Tony Clarida in a 72-45 setback to San Francisco Christian in the consolation final fo the Valley Christian Invitational. Menlo School (3-3), meanwhile, fell to Carlmont in nonleague action, 68-40.
Boys soccer
A loss didn't prevent Menlo-Atherton (3-2) from advancing to the quarterfinals of the Homestead Christmas Cup tournament, but a tie did end Palo Alto's hopes of doing the same.
Paly (1-0-3) had to settle for a 2-2 deadlock with North Salinas on Saturday, a tie that knocked the Vikings out of the tourney on points. Paly had to rally from a 2-0 deficit to get that tie, too. Jon Brandt got the first in the final 30:00, then Josh Neiderman got the equalizer to earn the Vikings second place in their four-team group. A 1-0-2 mark, however, wasn't good enough to advance.
Despite a 3-2 setback to James Lick on Saturday, when Lick tallied two goals in the final five minutes to steal away the triumph, M-A moved on by virtue of earlier victories in the tournament. Gonzalo Guerra and Kyle Murrell tallied for the Bears, who needed to beat Prospect on Monday to reach Tuesday's semifinals.
Earlier last week, Gunn rallied in the second half to force a 2-2 tie with Palo Alto. Rony Garcia tallied twice for the Titans (1-0-2) while Ben Elkin and Neiderman scored for Palo Alto.
--Keith Peters
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