Quick Take
The Monte Vista Christian School girls and boys basketball teams are both 2-0 in Pacific Coast Athletic League play; in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, the Scotts Valley High School and Santa Cruz High School boys teams are 2-0 ahead of a Tuesday meeting.
Editor’s note: Welcome to Lookout’s high school sports coverage. We’ll send you an email each week as it is published each Monday — just sign up here. Thomas Frey, an alum of Cabrillo College who has covered high school sports locally, leads our coverage, his column appearing weekly and his athlete of the month feature mid-month. We welcome your tips and stories — email thomas@lookoutlocal.com and news@lookoutlocal.com (with high school sports in the subject line).
Monte Vista Christian School has a pair of undefeated basketball squads so far in league play as the boys and girls squads are each 2-0 in the Pacific Coast Athletic League.
The boys team has won its games by an average of 28 points, beating Pajaro Valley High School and King City High School in the PCAL Cypress Division. Junior Nico Downie led the Mustangs in scoring against Pajaro Valley, while senior Bryce Brogan was the team’s leader against King City. Next up for the Mustangs is a Wednesday visit from Gonzales High School.
Playing in the PCAL Mission Division, the Mustangs girls team scored a big 41-14 victory over Carmel High School on Tuesday before winning 24-23 on the road at Stevenson High School on Thursday.
Senior Rhazelle Gonzales hit a buzzer-beater to top Stevenson. The Mustangs will continue league play Wednesday at Seaside High School.
Boys basketball
Scotts Valley High School and Santa Cruz High School have both opened Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play with perfect 2-0 records. The two will meet Tuesday. Scotts Valley beat Aptos High School 66-44 before going on the road and topping Harbor High School 66-36.
Against Aptos, junior Will Shilling led the Falcons with 22 points and junior Taylor Knox had 19. Later in the week in the victory over Harbor, Knox had 17 points and senior Chase Welle had 11 points.
Santa Cruz reached the 2-0 mark with a 71-27 win over Harbor and a 56-44 victory against Soquel High School. Ben Dotten, Liam Jones and Kirby Seals all had at least 14 points for the Cardinals in the game against Harbor.
Girls basketball
St. Francis High School is 2-0 in the PCAL Cypress Division after a 44-34 win over Notre Dame High School and a 50-34 victory against Pajaro Valley High School.
Senior Nevaeh Litel led the Sharks with 12 points against Notre Dame. St. Francis was dominant definesely as seniors Aaliysah Gomez and Emily Raich each had 5 steals. Then against Pajaro Valley Raich came up big again, scoring 22 points while recording 5 steals. Freshman Maya Calfee had 11 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 8 steals.
Pajaro Valley is 1-1, with the win coming against Pacific Collegiate School, 36-22. Senior Giselle Quintero led the way for the Grizzlies with 17 points.
Santa Cruz High School and Aptos High School each lead the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League with a 2-0 record. The Cardinals topped Harbor High School 64-12 on Tuesday and Soquel High School 51-25 on Friday.
Santa Cruz spread the scoring around against Soquel, with junior Tiera O’Connor and sophomore Karolina Espinosa putting in 11 points each.
Aptos won its games over Scotts Valley High School 54-37 and San Lorenzo Valley High School 72-36. Senior Laurel Southall led the way for the Mariners in the victory over Scotts Valley, scoring 23 points, grabbing 5 rebounds and dishing out 3 assists. Freshman Gabby Wickham scored 13 points. Wickham came up big again against San Lorenzo Valley by chipping in 19 points. Junior Berkeley Ashby and sophomore Abby Sherwood each had 14 points.
Boys soccer
Watsonville High School started its PCAL Gabilan Division season off with a 2-1 win over North Salinas High School. Cristian Flores and senior Gabriel Sanchez were the goal-scorers for the Wildcatz. Watsonville then tied Seaside High School 1-1 on Saturday.
Pajaro Valley High School tied Rancho San Juan High School to open up PCAL Mission Division play. Sophomore Abraham Tirado scored the goal for the Grizzlies.
League play starts in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League this week.
Girls soccer
Pajaro Valley High School has shot out to a 2-0 league record in the Pacific Coast Athletic League Mission Division, scoring a 4-1 victory over North Salinas High School and a 2-0 shutout over Seaside High School.
Junior Valeria Acosta had a hat trick against North Salinas; senior Maricza Rodriguez and junior Isabella Brandon scored the goals versus Seaside.
Also in the Mission, Monte Vista Christian School is 1-0 in league play after taking down Carmel High School 3-1 on Tuesday. Sophomore Ashley Drago had two goals and senior Julia Reiland also got into the scorebook with a goal.
Like the boys, the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League girls slate begins this week. In nonleague games, Aptos High School and Harbor High School each notched six victories.
Soquel High football honors
A state championship parade will be held for the Soquel High School football team Saturday at 11 a.m. in Capitola Village. The route will go from the police station at 422 Capitola Ave. to Stockton Avenue, then along the Esplanade to the bandstand at the beach for a small ceremony.
A police escort will lead the team with floats, cheerleaders, drum line and marching band. The event is free.
Later that day, the Knights will be honored at halftime of the Santa Cruz Warriors’ game against the South Bay Lakers at downtown’s Kaiser Permanente Arena. A limited number of tickets remained as of Tuesday afternoon and were available here, starting at $51.
Members of the team and community will speak.
The Knights beat Fontana’s Jurupa Hills High School 28-7 on Dec. 8 to win the California Interscholastic Federation Division 4-AA title, the first time a Santa Cruz County team won a state football championship in the current format.
Alumni
Santa Cruzan Kaitlin Imai, who starred at Scotts Valley High School and was the 2022 SCCAL girls basketball MVP, is the second-leading scorer on the women’s basketball team at Willamette University in Oregon. Imai is a sophomore who has scored in double digits in five consecutive games. In that span she is averaging 13.6 points per game.
This week in history
The 2004-05 state champion Santa Cruz High School boys basketball team began league play by taking down Harbor High, Aptos High and Watsonville High within eight days of each other. That Cardinals squad ended the season undefeated in league play and finished the season on top of the state with 36 wins and just one loss.
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