St. Ignatius, Monte Vista soccer rise to top
The first CIF Northern California soccer tournament furthered the case that has been known for years: The Bay Area is a hotbed for the sport.
The St. Ignatius boys and Monte Vista-Danville girls each won Division 1 crowns Saturday.
St. Ignatius (19-1-5) finished a superb two-year run with a 3-2 win at Montgomery-Santa Rosa (23-3-1) on goals from Seamus Lucey (13th minute), Nick Brown (76th) and Alex Bailey (84th).
The Wildcats, coached by Alan Downey, finished first in the state and fourth nationally, according to the MaxPreps computer rankings, after winning West Catholic Athletic League and Central Coast Section titles for a second straight season.
The team played six postseason games in 12 days, winning the last four by single tallies, including a 1-0 semifinal win at top-seeded, nationally ranked and previously unbeaten Folsom on Thursday.
Brown scored the only goal (55th minute) and WCAL Goalkeeper of the Year Nate Kushner made it stand up, thanks in part to the back line of Sean Bilter, Sean Fitzgerald and Chris Miglio, along with wingbacks Kol Van Giesen and Lucey.
David Woodruff was the WCAL’s Forward of the Year and Bailey was another firstteam All-WCAL performer.
Monte Vista (25-1-1), which beat Mitty 1-0 on a goal by Megan Edelman (assisted by Rachel Anderson), is also No. 1 nationally, according to MaxPreps.
The Mustangs outscored their opponents 97-7, but scored only once in each of their two games against Mitty. Mitty, behind WCAL Player of the Year Hailey Smith, finished 22-2-2 and fifth nationally.
Other NorCal girls champions included Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (D3) and Lowell (D4). The Richmond (D2), University (D3) and Leadership-San Francisco (D4) boys and the Branson-Ross (D2) girls were all NorCal runners-up.
Keely Roy scored both goals for sixth-seeded Newman (15-10) in a 2-1 win over Bradshaw Christian-Sacramento.
Lowell (19-3), the fourth seed, won three straight onegoal matches, including 2-1 over Ripon in the final on goals from freshman Sarah Ginsburg, the second coming in sudden death.
The team was led all season by goalie Sierra Kirkpatrick, defenders Fiona Plunkett and Mariko Hokamura and midfielders Hannah McCord, Kikki Tucker and Camila Bodden.
“It was a magical season,” Lowell coach Gene Vrana said. “We had a lot of new players, so it took about a month to develop cohesion. Once they meshed, it was really special.” Basketball: CIF Northern California semifinals are Tuesday. Some thoughts and fodder:
There are 26 Metro teams (14 girls, 12 boys) still playing, at least one in each of the 12 statebound divisions. There are four each in Division 1, guaranteeing at least two spots in the state finals.
With top-seeded SalesianRichmond being upset by Folsom on Friday, Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland is the lone Metro team in the boys Open Division. The Sac-Joaquin Section flexed its collective muscle with three wins Friday.
It was a rough weekend for Salesian guard James Akinjo, who asked out of his letter-ofintent to Connecticut after head coach Kevin Ollie was fired on Saturday.
The last surviving WCAL boys team could be the lastplace team, Valley Christian. Second-year Warriors coach Mark DeLuca has his 16-13 team in the D3 semifinals at Central Catholic-Modesto (30-2).
The only other WCAL boys team left is third-seeded D1 Mitty (13-16), which travels to Las Lomas-Walnut Creek (29-3) in a game to be streamed on NorCal Sports TV. It would be remarkable if Mitty, which was 1-8 and 2-12, won three straight to take a state title and finally, at long last, get to the .500 mark.
The best rebound in the NorCals is that of the Menlo School-Atherton boys, who lost CCS Open games by 22 and 32 points. As a 13th seed in D1, the Knights shocked Clayton Valley-Concord (65-61) and Central-Fresno (64-56), teams that averaged 78 and 77 points per game, respectively. Menlo coach Keith Larsen, who previously coached at Stanford and Stanislaus State, told his team after CCS play: “Do you really want to end the season with three straight losses?”
The WCAL girls are more than holding their own. National No. 1 Mitty (28-0) was expected to go far, but Presentation (23-5), St. Francis (16-12), Sacred Heart Cathedral (13-14) and Valley Christian (15-14) are all still alive from the six-team league.
Two University squads have taken very different routes to the semifinals. The boys have won 85-83 in triple OT and 78-75 in one OT. University’s girls, the top D5 seed and led by former USF head coach Mary Hile-Nepfel, has stymied offenses, winning 53-18 and 43-21.
San Ramon Valley-Danville (27-5), the fourth seed in D2, is going after its second state title; the first came in 1990. The Wolves hit hard times and had just two winning seasons (15-14 and 16-12) over a 10-year span starting in 2006-07, before coach John Cristiano took over the program last year.