Vanessa Abrahamson Blog: SHP boys take control of SCVAL lacrosse race

The Sacred Heart Prep and Palo Alto boys’ lacrosse teams last faced each other during the 2011 SCVAL tournament, with the Gators notching a 10-game unbeaten streak in their exceptional inaugural season of college play.

The Vikings roughly greeted the newcomers that day with a 12-3 drubbing, but on Tuesday night Sacred Heart exacted revenge under the lights of Palo Alto. The Gators led 4-0 at halftime, capitalizing on disciplined defense and Paly penalties on their way to a 10-8 win and a 4-0 record for first place in the De Anza Division (5-0 in total). Palo Alto falls to 1-1 (4-1 on aggregate) in division play.

Sacred Heart’s standings were led by their second attack: Duncan Hoskinson had four goals, Frankie Hattler had two goals and three assists, and Noah Kawasaki had one goal and one assist. Sophomore midfielder Ryan Mattison scored three goals and newcomer Austin Appleton made 13 saves with his exceptional goalkeeping.

SHP midfielder Duke Moran man-marked Vikings’ Kris Hoglund for most of the evening, pinning him to a single goal. Hoglund averaged more than five points per game for Palo Alto. Jordan Gans and Matt Lam each scored two for the Vikings, while Skyler Anderson, Jonny Glazier and Logan Mendenhall scored once.

Early Tuesday afternoon, host Menlo School defeated previously unbeaten Menlo-Atherton 10-9 in overtime to set both schools identical 2-1 records in the De Anza Division (Menlo is 3-1 on aggregate; MA 6-2 on aggregate) . Mt. View, SCVAL runners-up in 2010 and 2011, is 3-0 in the division (4-1 agg) with losses to Paly, MA and Menlo suggesting this could be a year of rebuilding for the Spartans.

Sacred Heart previously defeated Menlo 15-10 despite missing Knights Star forward Nick Schultz, who was sidelined with an ankle injury. Schultz made his season debut against MA and scored three goals, as did Connor Stastny.

Wiley Osborne scored the winner after Shultz leveled the game with less than two minutes left. Osborne also scored the winner in last year’s league semifinals playoff win over MA, also in OT.

The Knights’ midfield wasn’t as tired anymore, and the defense took it personally when challenged and blocked late in the game, Menlo coach Todd Blumbergs said.

Osborne finished the game with two goals and two assists and Ryan Grzejka had two goals and one assist. Luc McNally finished the game with nine saves.

Nick Schlein had three goals and two assists for MA while Pierce Osgood had two goals.

baseball

For the third time in as many weeks (all on Tuesday afternoon), Gunn won the opening game in a home-and-home series against a SCVAL El Camino division opponent. This time it was against visiting Fremont, 7-1. The Titans improved their league record to 3-2 (6-5 overall) while the Firebirds fell to 2-1 (3-9).

Junior right-hander Chris Rea, the youngest of the baseball-playing Rea family, gave up an undeserved run with two hits in a complete game gem. He equalized his record with 1:1.

At the plate, Rea helped his own cause by going 2-on-2, with an RBI and a run scored. Batterymate Ben Sampson, also a junior, also had two hits that day, plus an RBI and a run made. The Titans’ eight hits – all singles – were Gunn’s most in two weeks.

Outside of the league, hosts Sacred Heart Prep lost their second straight win when Lowell (San Francisco) scored four runs in the sixth to secure a 7-5 win. Luke Thomas had two hits for the Gators (8-3-1).

golf

Gunn stayed at the top of the SCVAL De Anza division with a 195-221 win over Fremont in Palo Alto Municipal on Tuesday. Avinash Sharma led the Titans (3-0, 4-0) with a 1-over-37 while Jack Jaffe shot 38 and Jayshree Sarathy carded a 39. Anna Zhou (40) and Anson Cheng (41) rounded out Gunn’s hit while Stephen Wong also fired 41. Fremont’s Jordan Stibbard was awarded a 1-under-35 medalist.

Lacrosse for girls

Defending West Bay Athletic League champions Menlo School opened their title defense on Tuesday with a 15-3 win over hosts Menlo-Atherton. The Knights (1-0, 2-3) had six goals and two assists from Michaela Michael for a season-high eight points, three goals from Ali Kim and two goals from Brooke Bullington.

Meredith Geaghan-Breiner, Sydney Novak-Federmeyer and Emily Carlson scored for the Bears (0-1, 2-2).

The Knights dominated in every category, including combination, to make 75 percent of their shots.

Menlo will attend Sacred Heart Prep Thursday (4 p.m.) before hosting Cherry Creek, Colorado on Monday. Cherry Creek was No. 1 in the West last season and is the defending champion.

Outside of the league, Castilleja defeated hosts Sacred Heart Cathedral 17-0 at Crocker-Amazon Park in San Francisco. The Gators were led by senior Martha Harding with six goals and one assist, while Katherine Hobbs added four goals and four assists, Lou Biffar added three goals while Suparna Jasuja, Ellie Zales and Julia Brug also made their contributions.

To swim

Sacred Heart Prep showed some top individual performances but didn’t have enough depth to deal with St. Francis’ visit and dropped two non-league meetings on Tuesday.

St. Francis prevailed in the girls’ meet 100-70 and won the boys’ showdown 94-76.

Sophomore Ally Howe led the SHP girls by winning the 200 free (1:53.11) and 100 fly (57.87), in addition to leading the relay teams in the 200 individual medley (1:52.48) and 400 free (3:37,15) on.

Junior Erica Myers won the 500 Free (5:16.27) and 100 Back (1:01.20) and swam in both winning relays, while senior Erin Sheridan anchored both relays and won the 100 in a solid 53.83. Selby Sturzenegger won the 100 breaststroke (1:09.86) and also contributed to the relay win.

At the boys’ meeting, SHP Senior Tom Kremer led the way by winning the 200 IM in 1:50.66, just short of Austin Staley’s 2006 school record of 1:49.66. Kremer also won the 100 fly (51.01), while Harrison Enright won the 200 free in a season-best 1:50.16 and Chris Hinrichs won the 500 free (5:02.50).

However, the Lancers defeated all three relays – with fast times of 1:29.07 in the 200 free relay and 3:20.86 in the 400 free relay.

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