Quick Take
Though the Santa Cruz High boys basketball team fell in the Central Coast Section finals Saturday, the Cardinals landed a top seed in the Division III state playoffs and host Oakland's Head-Royce High School in the first round Tuesday.
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).
It’s time for the California Interscholastic Federation state basketball playoffs, and the Santa Cruz High School boys team has advanced.
Santa Cruz (23-6) is a No. 1 seed in Division III and the Cardinals will host No. 16 seed Head-Royce High School (27-4) of Oakland in the first round Tuesday.
In the second round, Santa Cruz could face the winner of No. 8 Enterprise High School (22-8) of Redding vs. No. 9 West Park High School (23-7) of Roseville.
The Cardinals would need to win four games, all of which would be at home, to advance to the state championship at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 8 at 4 p.m. 2024 CIF State Boys Basketball Championships Division III
Boys basketball
Santa Cruz High School lost in the Central Coast Section Division III finals Saturday to Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory of San Francisco on Saturday 49-48.
To get to the CCS finals, Santa Cruz topped Monterey High School 61-53 in the semifinals and Saratoga High School 66-38 in the round of eight on Tuesday.
In the victory against Monterey, sophomore DeMarco Hunter led the way with 15 points and seven blocks. Junior Kirby Seals had 13 points and seniors Ben Dotten and Demeke Smith added on 11 points each in the playoff win.
Against Saratoga, Dotten led the way with 20 points while Seals had 13 and Hunter scored 11.
The season ended for Aptos High School at the hands of Burlingame High School in the round of eight on Tuesday 47-43. Junior Isaiah Ackerman led the Mariners with 13 points. Senior Johnny Cornejo had 8 points while junior Jackson Bloom chipped in 7.
Girls basketball
Aptos High School, Santa Cruz High School and St. Francis High School all saw their CCS playoff runs end in the semifinals Thursday.
Aptos lost to Mills High 58-32 after beating Del Mar High School 52-40 on Tuesday. Sophomore Abby Sherwood led the Mariners with 13 points while senior Laurel Southall had 9 points.
In the win over Del Mar, it was Gabby Wickham lighting up the scoreboard. The freshman scored 27 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the process. Southall was second on the team in scoring with 11 points.
Santa Cruz High School lost to Notre Dame High School of San Jose 40-21 after beating Presentation High School 40-32 on Tuesday.
Junior Tiera O’Connor came up big for the Cardinals in the win over Presentation, scoring 18 points. Senior Linneah Keence had nine points.
In the loss to Notre Dame, sophomore Karolina Espinosa was the leading scorer for the Cardinals with 14 points.
St. Francis beat Notre Dame High School of Salinas 48-44 on Tuesday before falling to Summit Shasta 59-20 on Saturday. In the win over Notre Dame, freshman Maya Calfee had 14 points and 9 rebounds while sophomore Peyton Orradre had 11 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Monte Vista Christian School and Scotts Valley High School both saw their seasons end on Tuesday in the round of eight.
Baseball
Teams are starting to hit the field, and Soquel High School began the season Wednesday by losing a close game to Soledad High School 4-3. Sophomore Trey Sousa had two hits for the Knights. Junior Gabe Virgallito had an RBI for Soquel.
Harbor High School played to a 2-2 tie with King Kekaulike High School in Hawaii on Thursday. Senior Colin Karwick allowed two runs, neither of them earned, in five innings of work for the Pirates.
The next day, Karwick had a hit in Harbor’s 8-5 victory over Kahuku High School in Hawaii. Pierce Fanara and Nico Meisser had RBIs for the Pirates.
San Lorenzo Valley High School tied Rancho San Juan High School 0-0 on Friday. Senior Anthony Griffiths and juniors Dom Aguilar and Jordan Renteria pitched for the Cougars.
Softball
Softball season got off to a blazing start for Monte Vista Christian School, which topped Santa Cruz 11-1 on Thursday. Senior Mae Martin pitched a five-inning complete-game no-hitter in the victory while walking three batters, one of which scored. The Mustangs had a big six-run fourth inning and earned 10 walks in the game. Junior Kayla Fullalove-Silviera, sophomore Juliana Lopez and freshman Gia Johnson all had hits for Monte Vista Christian.
Alumni
Soquel High School alum Quinn Healy is off to a sizzling start for Stanford women’s water polo through the first nine games. The freshman already has 12 goals and four multiscore games for the Cardinal, the No. 4 team in the nation. Healy scored 137 goals as a senior for Soquel and 331 in her career.
This week in history
On Feb. 27, 2016, the Watsonville High School boys soccer team defeated Palo Alto High School 3-2 in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs. With the game tied 2-2, the ‘Catz broke free and Anthony Orendain — who went on to play 73 career Division I soccer games at University of the Pacific — scored the winning goal in overtime.
Watsonville went on to win the CCS title.
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