Notebook: Bishop Amat, South Hills, Diamond Bar in Aliso Cup; Walnut/Charter Oak name new coaches

amatsoccer

By Fred J. Robledo
Bishop Amat, South Hills and Diamond Bar girls soccer teams are among a talented field in the Aliso Cup girls soccer tournament, which features powerhouses from all over Southern California, and so far local teams have done fairly well.
Bishop Amat, which welcomed the return of super senior Sophia Serafin, has done done well, beating Orange Lutheran 4-1, then falling to a talented Hart squad, 2-1.
Serafin, who scored three goals in the win over Orange Lutheran, earned all-area first team honors as a freshman after scoring 28 goals with 16 assists. But the Stanford commit didn’t play for the Lancers her sophomore and junior seasons, partly due to injuries and club commitments. She’s been in the U.S. national team age-group player pool for a while, but her return makes the Lancers an instant Division 3 threat.
South Hills won the CIF Southern Section Division 3 title and CIF State Division 3 Southern Regional championship last year, and will compete in Division 1 this season.
The Huskies graduated super players like Hailey Zerbel, Amber Marinero and senior Skylar Robledo will be out a while with a knee injury, but the Huskies have a chance to win their group in the Aliso Cup after defeating Northwood 4-1 behind a pair of goals from Maddie Warren, and a 1-1 tie with Etiwanda in round-robin play.
Either South Hills or Etiwanda will advance in the winner’s bracket as the pool champion depending on the Etiwanda-Northwood result on Thursday.
Diamond Bar, which struggled last year, lost a close game to San Clemente 1-0, but gets a chance to bounce back in its second round-robin game on Thursday at Long Beach Poly at 5 p.m.
The eight pool winners advance to the Champions Cup and will play quarterfinal games on Saturday. Teams that finish second and third in group play will advance to consolation brackets.

Duarte, Rowland on a collision course?
Without a doubt, Duarte and Rowland are two of the best girls basketball teams in the San Gabriel Valley, and they could meet in the championship of the Duarte girls basketball title game on Saturday at 6 p.m., if both take care of group play.
But advancing to the final is no guarantee with a small, but talented 10-team field.
Duarte, competing in Pool A, opened round-robin play with a 44-5 win over Bell followed by a 48-25 victory over South Pasadena.
Rowland opened with an easy 76-19 win over Banning, but will likely have to go through Walnut. The Mustangs rolled to a 58-42 win over Knight and a 71-39 victory over Bellflower.
Walnut and Rowland compete in Pool B and will play Friday at 6 p.m., in what will likely decide the winner of its group.
Duarte’s ticket to the final likely goes through Upland, who the Falcons will play on Friday following the Walnut-Rowland game (7:30 p.m.) in what likely will decide the winner in Pool A.

New coches named in baseball, football
Bishop Amat defensive line coach Eric Peralta was named the head football coach at Walnut High this week.
Peralta was a walk-on at Bishop Amat, but he already is a teacher at Walnut, giving the Mustangs an on-campus coach. Peralta has quite a task in front of him. He takes over a squad that was 0-10 this past season and competes in the tough Hacienda League with Los Altos, Charter Oak, and West Covina.
Charter Oak baseball, which was 15-12 and tied Walnut for the Hacienda League title last season, announced that Elias Chavez will take over the baseball program. Chavez was a longtime assistant coach of Kevin Smith while he was at South Hills and Mt. San Antonio College. Ironically, Chavez and Smith will now face each other with Smith being named the head coach at West Covina a few months ago.

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