|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
We are down to the second and final week of the North Coast Section basketball and soccer playoffs and to the surprise of no one, the East Bay Athletic League has fared well in all four tournaments.
Let’s go through each tournament and see where we stand.
Basketball
Boys
Open
In the Open Division, the EBAL is represented in both semifinals.
In the first round, fourth-seeded San Ramon Valley beat No. 5 seed Granada 77-68 to advance to the semifinals where they will face top-seeded Salesian on Wednesday night at Contra Costa College in a 7 p.m. game.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 seed De La Salle will host No. 3 Branson. Branson got by Clayton Valley (6) 62-50 to advance to the Wednesday night game.
The Open Division format is different in that all six teams will advance to the CIF State Northern California tournament. All teams in the NCS tournament will play at least two games.
Also Wednesday night, Granada will host Clayton Valley in the 5th-place game. The two losing teams in the semifinals will meet to decide the third-place team.
Division I
Two EBAL teams — Dougherty Valley and Dublin — have advanced to the semifinals that will take place Tuesday night.
Dougherty Valley (4) knocked off Mt. Eden (70-40) and No. 5 Monte Vista in a 50-49 thriller to advance to the semifinals. There they will be at top-seeded Bishop O’Dowd. The Dragons beat Foothill (8) 64-47 in the quarterfinals. Foothill beat Amador Valley (9) 63-61 in the first round.
Monte Vista beat No. 12 Deer Valley 72-47 in a first-round game.
In the other half of the bracket, No. 3 Dublin beat James Logan 80-37 and No. 6 Campolindo 61-38 to host No. 7 Liberty in the semifinals.
Liberty beat No. 10 Pittsburg 63-53 in the first round, then upset No. 2 seed Berkeley 63-48, giving Dublin the right to host one semifinal.
Girls
Open
The two teams that distanced themselves from the rest of the EBAL — San Ramon Valley and Carondelet — are in the semifinals of the Open Division.
Both games are set for Wednesday.
Top-seeded San Ramon Valley has been off since winning the EBAL tournament on Feb. 10. The Wolves will host No. 4 Bishop O’Dowd. The Dragons beat fifth-seeded Acalanes 63-46 in the first round.
Carondelet (3) beat Piedmont (6) in the first round, 83-53. The Cougars will travel north to take on No. 2 seed Cardinal Newman.
Division I
A very solid California High team had the misfortune of being in the same league as San Ramon Valley and Carondelet. Now in NCS the Grizzlies have gotten away from the Wolves and the Cougars and were deservingly awarded the top seed.
After a bye in the first round, the Grizzlies beat No. 8 Dublin 48-38 in the second round. Dublin beat Clayton Valley 63-39 in the first round.
In the semifinals, Cal will host No. 4 Alameda. The Hornets had a first-round bye as well, then beat No. 5 Liberty 53-49 to advance to the semifinals.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 Heritage will host No. 3 Salesian. Salesian beat No. 6 Monte Vista 70-52 in the second round. Monte Vista beat No. 11 Freedom 67-48 in the first round.
Division II
Foothill (5) beat No. 12 Antioch 53-49 in the first round as the Falcons continued their best year in some time.
The win sent the Falcons to the second round of the tournament where they traveled to No. 4 Moreau but fell 65-44.
Soccer
BoysÂ
Division I
Top-seeded De La Salle thumped Heritage 5-1 in the first round, but then in the upset of the tournament, the Spartans fell 4-2 to No. 8 Clayton Valley.
The Eagles advanced to the second round with a 2-0 win over San Ramon Valley (9).
Facing Clayton Valley in the first semifinal will be No. 4 Dougherty Valley. The Wildcats will host the Eagles on Wednesday after advancing to the game with wins over Vintage (6-3) and Bishop O’Dowd (1-0).
In the other semifinal, Monte Vista (2) will host Berkeley (6).
The Mustangs beat Castro Valley 3-0, then topped Granada 2-1 to get a spot in the semis. The Matadors beat Pittsburg 4-3 in the first round before falling to Monte Vista.
Berkeley beat Montgomery 1-0 in the first round and then needed a shootout to beat Redwood after the two teams were tied 0-0 at the end of overtime.
Amador Valley was eliminated in the first round, dropping a 1-0 game at Redwood.
Division II
Livermore was awarded the No. 8 seed but fell 3-2 to No. 9 Alameda to get eliminated from the playoffs.
GirlsÂ
Division I
The EBAL is turning the D-I playoffs into its own private party as all four semifinalists are from the league.
Amador is the top seed and dispatched of San Leandro 8-0 to open the tournament. The second round was a battle, but the Dons rose to the challenge, knocking off No. 8 Clayton Valley 1-0.
In the semifinals, the Dons will see No. 4 San Ramon Valley. The Wolves got there with a 2-1 win over Liberty, and a 4-0 thumping of Dublin.
The No. 12 Gaels advanced to the semifinals with a big 1-0 win over No. 5 Castro Valley.
Carondelet (2) takes one of the spots in the other semifinals. The Cougars beat Maria Carrillo 3-1 in the first round, then overcame a stingy California defense to win 1-0.
Monte Vista (3) rounds out the semifinals. The Mustangs opened with a 4-0 win over Heritage, then got by Berkeley 2-0 in the second round.
Foothill got a spot in the playoffs as the No. 11 seed but fell 1-0 to No. 6 Berkeley.
Division II
Livermore was seeded 14th and had to go on the road to No. 3 Branson. The Cowboys nearly pulled the big upset but fell 1-0 to be ousted from the tournament.
NCS Wrestling
Boys
The EBAL took three individual championships in the NCS Boys’ Wrestling tournament.
All three of the winners came from De La Salle and all three were impressive runs to the crown.
At 115 pounds Calab Tatad took the title with a 17-3 win in the finals over Tanner Bartonic of Liberty. Tatad advanced to the finals with four straight falls.
Manuel Martir (122) beat fellow EBAL wrestler Yousuf Amin of Dublin 9-0. Martir got to the finals with three pins and a technical fall.
The final winner came at 159 pounds where Franklin Enkhmand beat Camden Bushey of Casa Grande 12-3 in the finals. Enkhmand won by a pin, technical fall, and a decision.
Besides Amin, three other EBAL wrestlers finished second.
Jack Baker (106) of Granada rolled to the finals but dropped a tough 6-5 final to Conner Jeong of Castro Valley.
At 128 pounds, Gio Cuevas of De La Salle lost 8-6 to Mason Evanow of Fortuna.
Finally, TJ Arvizu (152) of De La Salle lost to Jack Farage of Liberty by a 4-2 final.
All the wrestlers will be advancing to the CIF State Meet this Thursday to Saturday at the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.
Girls
The EBAL took five NCS titles on the girls’ side of the action that took place at Albany High.
At 100 pounds, Lauren Nguyen of Granada won the title with a 12-0 win over Graciela Caro of Amador Valley.
The next title came at 115 when SJ Martin, also of Granada, got a 12-8 win over Grace Leach of Alhambra in the finals.
Mason Harsch of Monte Vista won the 125-pound title with a fall at 1:14 over Kameelah Hameed of James Logan.
Dublin picked up a win at 130 pounds when Lana Nguyen beat Yarely Barreto of Albany by an 8-3 final.
Finally, Monte Vista’s Marci Stemmons (135) took out Noelle Alexander of Maria Carrillo 17-2 in the finals.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
