December 14, 2007

Evergreen Sports

Sporting girls place second at Norcal state cup

The Sporting U10 girls’ soccer team placed second in the top division at the Norcal State cup tournament. The tournament was held at Granite Park in Sacramento on Nov. 17 and 18 and throughout the state for the preliminaries. The team took second place, losing only one game out of six during the tournament to the Danville Explosion in the final game.

Sporting Girls: Front row; Kylie Nall (Guest Player), Megan Wheelock, Sierra Painter. Second Row; Ashley Lawrence, Shaelan Murison-Brown, Maddie Cavanna, Erica Nakano, Hanna Gratny. Third Row; Reese Gonzalez, Erin McCoy, Danielle Hadfield, Regan Heslop, Julia Houk. Back Row; Head Coach Jim Lawrence, Assistant Coach Jamie Berg.

Qualifying for the tournament began in October with the Sporting Team playing three qualifying games for seeding and assignment to one of five levels. A total of 42 teams throughout Northern California emerged from the qualifying rounds of hundreds of teams. After the bracket play on Saturday, the Sporting girls were placed in the top division with a number two overall seed.

The Sporting girls’ coach, Jim Lawrence, was elated with the girls’ performance throughout the tournament. “Our team has just completed an amazing accomplishment by playing in the top division of the Norcal State Cup finals two years in a row with the best of the best in Northern California,” he said. “These girls have consistently proven themselves to be champions and I am so proud of them.”

The Sporting girls are expanding their roster this December to support the 11v11 format they will play beginning in February of next year. The club will be holding tryouts and information can be found on the Sporting club’s website.

A Perfect Storm

The annual North Valley Youth Soccer League’s December Classic tournament was hit by a perfect storm on the weekend of Dec. 1 and 2.  The Tsunami Storm, an Evergreen/ Mt. Hamilton under 12 girls’ soccer team, took first place in the tournament comprised of six class 4 recreation teams. The Storm competed in two games on Saturday, earning 19 out of 20 possible points thus setting the stage for Sunday.  The Storm went head to head with another Mt. Hamilton team, the Dragons, in the Semi-Finals the Dragons provided the Storm with their toughest challenge in the tournament.  The Storm's 2-0 victory launched them into the championship game under the lights on Sunday evening against the North Valley Bruins.  The prevailing winds of the Storm held the Bruins scoreless with a commanding 3-0 victory.  The December Classic championship was the second championship win for the Tsunami Storm and marked the end of a great season.

Local gymnast crowned State All-Around Champion

In her first year of competition in gymnastics, 9-year-old Alexandra Dudschus wowed the crowd at the Level 4 State Championship meet, scoring 37.95 and becoming the All-Around State Champion. Not only is this Evergreen resident the state champion in her age division, her score was high enough to place her in the top six in all age divisions combined, which had more than 400 competitors. In addition to winning the All-Around title, she was also the beam champion and floor champion. Training three days a week on her skills, her determination and hard work paid off. The competition had brought together all the best Level 4 girls in the state, and Alexandra finished on top.

Dudschus trains at the Champions Academy Gymnastics of Morgan Hill.

Evergreen Valley and Branham soccer teams tie, 2-2

By Gary van den Heuvel
Staff Writer

An often repeated cliché in sports says “a tie is like kissing your sister.” No one aspires to tie a game, and nobody is ever really happy after a deadlocked result.

But sometimes a tie game is almost as sweet as a win – and this was the case for the Evergreen Valley High School soccer team, after escaping from Branham High School Friday with a 2-2 tie after a late goal by Diego Ochoa.

“This is a great opportunity for our kids to work on some things,” said Evergreen Valley head coach Hernan Diaz. “We know them real well, so it’s good for us to see where we need to improve.”

The Cougars spent much of the game playing catch-up. The first goal came in the first ten minutes of the game when Branham’s Kevin Faridi chased down a loose ball in the Evergreen goal box and nudged it past goalie Emmanuel Espinoza.

The score remained 1-0 in the Bruins’ favor until the 25th minute of the first half, when Cougar forward Rene Velazquez took a pass in the goal box and deposited the ball into an empty net – Branham goalkeeper Chris Duke being too far out of position to prevent Evergreen Valley from evening the game.

Branham went on a near-flurry towards the end of the first half, during penalty time. Jeff Anderson booted the ball from about 10 yards into the left corner of the Evergreen goal, past the lunge of Espinoza, who got a hand on it but couldn’t keep it out of the net. Branham quickly followed that goal with two more assaults on the net, but Espinoza saved the first one and the second attempt was thwarted by the Evergreen defense when Espinoza was out of position.

The half ended with Branham leading 2-1, but with Espinoza writhing in pain on the ground. Espinoza was removed for the second half and replaced by Erik Brasil.

Speaking of the injured Espinoza, Coach Diaz said, “We’ll see how he’s feeling. They’re pretty even keepers; they’re both freshmen and we’re going to try both of them out.”

The new goalkeeper displayed impressive quickness on another Branham scoring opportunity, when, out of position, he scrambled back to the goal and punched a Bruin shot out of bounds. A few minutes later Brasil made another punch-save off a header by Sean Baxter following a Bruin corner kick.

Branham’s Duke kept Evergreen Valley at bay with some impressive goalkeeping of his own, one coming on a beautiful diving save off a volley kick by Cougar midfielder Chris Garcia.

Evergreen had other chances near the Branham net and each time was denied, but their golden opportunity came when Diego Ochoa was tackled in the Branham goal box and got to line up a shooter vs. goalie penalty kick from short range against Duke. Ochoa’s kick was true, and in the 87th minute of the game, the score was tied 2-2, which was the end result.

“We’re expecting to do quite well this year,” said Coach Diaz, whose Cougars compiled a 17-5 record last year (13-1 in the league). “Hopefully we can do it again, but it’s a work in progress.”

The Creakers

Senior golfers, nicknamed the Creakers, at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club play tournaments with other golf clubs. At a recent match with the Villages, some of the the Creakers were: left to right, Jack Bindon, Charlie Hyde, Larry Rosier, Rich Southerland, Dave Trindade, Phil Green, Rich Petrys. Front: Jim McAfee, Roy Walsh, Fred Pilster.

EVERGREEN SPORTS SCHEDULES 12/17 - 12/28

Evergreen Valley High
12-18 – Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at Homestead tournament, TBA
12-18 – Girls’ soccer v Del Mar, 3:15 p.m.

12-19 – Boys’ soccer at Yerba Buena, 5 p.m.
12-19 - Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at Homestead tournament, TBA

12-20 - Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at Homestead tournament, TBA
12-20 – Girls’ soccer v Pioneer, 3:15 p.m.

12-21 - Boys’ soccer vs. Sobrato, 5 p.m.
12-21 - Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at Homestead tournament, TBA
12-21 –Girls’ basketball vs. Wilcox, 5:30 p.m. JV and 7 p.m. Varsity

12-22 – Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-23 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-24 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-25 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-26 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA
12-26 - Girls JV basketball at Monta Vista tournament, TBA

12-27 - Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at San Mateo tournament, TBA
12-27 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA
12-27 - Girls JV basketball at Monta Vista tournament, TBA

12-28 - Boys’ Frosh/Soph basketball at San Mateo tournament, TBA
12-28 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA
12-28 - Girls JV basketball at Monta Vista tournament, TBA

Mt. Pleasant High
12-18 – Girls’ soccer v Gunderson, 3:15 p.m.
12-18 – Boys’ basketball at Andrew Hill, 5:30 p.m. JV and 7 p.m. varsity

12-19 – Boys’ soccer v Lincoln, 3:15 p.m.

12-20 – Boys’ wrestling at Westmont, 6:30 p.m.
12-20 – Boys’ basketball at Irvington (Fremont). 3 p.m. JV and 4:30 varsity
12-20 – Girls’ soccer at Overfelt, 3:15 p.m.

12-21 – Boys’ soccer at Live Oak, 3:15 p.m.
12-21 – Boys’ basketball at Overfelt, 5:30 p.m. JV and 7 p.m. varsity

12-22 – Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-23 – Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-24 - Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-25 - Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-26 - Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-27 – Girls’ JV San Jose High tournament, TBA
12-27 - Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-28 - Girls’ Varsity basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA
12-28 – Girls’ JV San Jose High tournament, TBA

Silver Creek High
12-18 – Girls’ soccer vs. Westmont, 3:15 p.m.

12-19 – Boys’ wrestling at Independence, 6:30 p.m.
12-19 – Boys’ soccer at Prospect, 3;15 p.m.

12-20 – Girls’ basketball at Monta Vista, 5:30 p.m. JV and 7 p.m. varsity
12-20 – Girls’ soccer at Sobrato, 3:15 p.m.

12-21 – Boys’ soccer vs. San Jose, 3:15 p.m.

12-22 – Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-23 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-24 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-25 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-26 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

12-27 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA
12-27 – Boys’ basketball v King City, 5:30 p.m. JV and 7 p.m. varsity

12-28 - Girls basketball at Del Mar tournament, TBA

For more information on local games, log on to the BVAL web site at www.bval.org.

TimesSports Briefs

San Jose Strikkers 18u – 2008 Summer Tryouts
The San Jose Strikkers 18u will be holding their 2008 summer tryouts on the dates listed below.  Just in case you have not heard we have already qualified for the 2008 ASA Nationals in Moline, Ill.!  Our main objective is to develop softball excellence and to assist each young lady in the achieving their goals on the softball field and assist them with their dreams of obtaining college scholarships.  Come and be part of our exciting team!  To learn more about our team philosophy and goals please visit our website. http://eteamz.active.com/sanjosestrikkers18u/.

Dates;  Sundays, 11/18, 12/2, 12/16, and (if needed) 1/6/08

Place:  Oak Grove High School

Times:  9 a.m. Pitchers & Catchers / 10:30 a.m. Position Players

If you have any questions, please contact Richard Fangonilo (408) 439-7383 or Frank King (408) 406-8191.
E-mail:  Richard Fangonilo rfangonilo@sjm.com  or Frank King fgking25@aol.com.


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