Quick Take
The top-seeded Santa Cruz High boys basketball team has won its first three games in the CIF Division III state tournament and will face Fresno's Bullard High on Tuesday night for the NorCal title and a trip to the state championship game in Sacramento.
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).
Santa Cruz High School is one game away from reaching the California Interscholastic Federation Division III state championship after taking down Ygnacio Valley High School 57-40 on Saturday.
Senior Ben Dotten continued his exceptional season by scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
The No. 1 seed Cardinals (26-6) will host Fresno’s sixth-seeded Bullard High School (26-8) on Tuesday night for the NorCal title and a trip to the state championship, which will take place at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Friday. This would be the Cardinals’ first NorCal title since 2005, when they also won the state championship. Tuesday’s game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. at Santa Cruz High, tickets are available here.
Junior Kirby Seals had 16 points against Ygnacio Valley, while sophomore Demarco Hunter had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.
It was the third playoff victory of the week for Santa Cruz. On Tuesday, the Cardinals beat Oakland’s Head-Royce School 61-47, and on Thursday topped Roseville’s West Park High School 62-44.
Santa Cruz High’s Ben Dotten (12) puts up a shot as he’s surrounded by West Park High defenders. Credit: John P. Hefti / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Santa Cruz High’s Demeke Smith (2) is guarded by Head-Royce High’s Osagie Enabulele. Credit: John P. Hefti / Lookout 
Santa Cruz High’s Ben Dotten (12) is guarded by Micah Riebel (2) of Oakland’s Head-Royce High during Tuesday’s first-round playoff matchup. Credit: John P. Hefti / Lookout 
Santa Cruz High’s Kirby Seals (11) takes it to the rim against Rosewill’s West Park High. Credit: John P. Hefti / Lookout Santa Cruz
Against West Park, Seals had 22 points and Hunter scored 20.
Baseball
Watsonville High School fell to Seaside High School 10-7 on Monday. Despite the loss, the Wildcatz bats came alive. Seniors Aiden Rodriguez and Josh Ybarra II each had two hits while fellow class of 2024 player Brody Legions ripped three hits. The trio combined for four doubles.
On Tuesday, Soquel High School played Watsonville and won 16-0 in five innings. The Knights were led by sophomore Dylan Hull and senior Sam Crane on the mound. The duo combined to pitch five shutout innings with six strikeouts.
Seniors Tito Ramirez and C.J. Claydon, juniors Gabe Virgallito and Enzo Goff and sophomores Jake Escalante, Sam Whelen, Cash Moran, Hudson Summerrill, Kane Humecky and Brady Downs all drove in runs for the Knights.
The Knights won again on Wednesday, 7-5 over Everett Alvarez High School. This time it was sophomore Conner Corlett who twirled a gem pitching as he went four innings and allowed one run. Escalante had a multihit game, with a triple, and knocked in three runs.
St. Francis High School topped San Lorenzo Valley High School 13-3 on Wednesday as the Sharks had 11 hits in the five-inning victory. Senior Junior Ibarra picked up the win on the mound and junior Evan Dyer pitched a pair of shutout innings for St. Francis.
Ibarra also had two hits for the Sharks while driving in three runs. Seniors Trey Silva and Micah Cervantes, juniors Nash Horton, Javier DaRosa-Fonseca and Donovan Dominguez and freshman Nicholas Fantl all had hits.
Softball
Harbor High School defeated Trinity Christian School 15-8 on Tuesday and Paige Buck went the distance in the circle for the Pirates. Buck also knocked in a run offensively, as did Morgan DeVillires, Malibu Dominguez and Jaye Nash.
San Lorenzo Valley High School won its game Thursday over Westmont High School 16-2. Junior Angie Fulkerson paced the Cougars with four RBIs. Seniors Ali Reger, Olivia Renouf and Alyssa Struthers, junior Jori Fields-Rapley and freshman Grace Purtscher also drove in runs. San Lorenzo Valley was led in the circle by junior Abigale Krepelka, who allowed just one hit.
Monte Vista Christian School took down Redwood Christian School 21-7 on Saturday.
Ava Alvarado, Jewels Skipton, Juliana Lopez, Kayla Fullalove-Silveira, Sophia Canobbio and Sophia Cortez all had multiple hits for the Mustangs in the victory.
Alumni
Former St. Francis High School softball star Mariah Montalvo is now getting at-bats in college. The sophomore plays at Santa Clara University and on Sunday, she recorded her first RBI of the season in a victory over Wagner. Montalvo has appeared in four games this season for the Broncos.
This week in history
On March 8, 2011, Santa Cruz High School basketball ended the hoops career of future NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Jared Goff. Goff was a sophomore at Marin Catholic High School when his squad met Santa Cruz High in the first round of the CIF state playoffs. Goff didn’t play basketball again after that. Santa Cruz reached the third round of the state playoffs that year.
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