Girls Soccer Playoffs: Claremont knocks out Bishop Amat 1-0 in semifinals


By Fred J. Robledo
LA PUENTE
— Claremont knew was it was getting against top-seed Bishop Amat in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 girls soccer semifinals on Tuesday, a team that had scored over a 100 goals on the season, and had a 41-goal scorer in Stanford-bound senior Sophia Serafin, who knocked in six goals in the quarterfinals.
But Claremont had a plan, and it worked to perfection, scoring early and holding off Bishop Amat and Serafin 1-0 to advance to the championship against second-seed South Torrance, a 5-2 winner over Flintridge Prep on either Friday or Saturday. The dates and times of the final will be released Wednesday.
Claremont’s Oxsana Sosnovsky sent a long throw in front of Amat’s goal in the 20th minute, and somehow Mackenzie Boulware emerged from the crowd to score.
The lone goal stood up, but Claremont (23-2-2) had to withstand a flurry of Amat (24-4) chances, especially in the second half.
“We bent, but we didn’t break,” Claremont coach Tim Tracey said. “I’m very proud of our team. Bishop Amat came after us hard again and again. I’m just glad we were able to absorb what they threw at us to advance.”
How rare is a shutout over Bishop Amat? It was the first all season, and snapped Amat’s 14-game winning streak.
“Claremont did what they had to do, they got the early goal,” Bishop Amat coach Guillermo Gonzalez said. “We knew they were dangerous on set pieces and they got us.”
Claremont central defenders Hope Hyland, Katie Weaver and a host of others shadowed Serafin throughout, but Serafin was not without her chances.
She nearly tied the game on two headers minutes apart early in the second half, and was tripped-up for a penalty kick in the 65th minute, but she missed the penalty, steering it wide right.
“We had our chances in the second half and the missed PK was tough,” Gonzalez said. “It’s always tough against a good defensive team to get any goals, but they did a great job keeping us off the scoreboard.”
Amat has lots of weapons, but clearly the focus was Serafin.
“We were going to double-team her anytime she received the ball,” Tracey said. “We didn’t want to allow her to turn to her strong foot. It was unfortunate she missed the PK, but for the most part, we did a good job keeping her in front of us and away from shooting on frame.”
The Wolfpack really had to roll up their sleeves the final 10 minutes after losing sophomore forward Sophie Jones to a red card, but still hung on with 10 players. Jones will have to sit out the final because of the ejection.
Ironically, Claremont’s last title came in 2012, beating Bishop Amat 2-0 in the championship.
“These girls worked so hard, they deserve the opportunity to play for a title,” Tracey said.

CIF-Southern Section Playoffs Schedule
Girls Soccer
Tuesday’s semifinals

Division 2
La Mirada 2, Temecula Valley 1, double overtime
Division 3
Claremont 1, Bishop Amat 0
South Torrance 5, Flintridge Prep 2
Division 5
Crean Lutheran 1, Gabrielino 0
Division 7
San Gabriel Mission 2, Lennox Academy 1

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Northview’s Eddie Flores, Jackson Serna repeat as CIF-SS Masters wrestling champs


By Stephen Ramirez
ONTARIO >> Northview High School’s Eddie Flores and Jackson Serna were two of the top wrestlers in the area at their weight class all season and the duo lived up to that billing Saturday.Both scored individual titles to lead the area efforts at Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet at Citizens Business Bank Arena.
The area qualified 11 competitors for next week’s CIF State championships at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
Area power Northview, which won its 14th divisional title last week, finished second with the two champions and six total qualifiers. St. John Bosco, with nine qualifiers, was first.
The other area qualifiers were Northview’s Dominick Arellano (113 pounds, third), Gabriel Cortez (132, sixth), Ricky Marin (138, fourth) and Steven Comstock (170, fourth); Rowland’s Richard Rojo (106, sixth) and Armando Murrillo (132, eighth); Bishop Amat’s Sidney Flores (120, third), Charter Oak’s Joaquin Garcia (152, fifth) and Santa Fe’s Ronny Peraza (152, seventh).
Serna, the No. 6 heavyweight in the state by The California Wrestler, won a Masters title for the second consecutive season. He was steady in following up last week’s win at the Inland Division championships, scoring four wins by decision and one by fall. He beat Sultana’s Austin Gillham 2-1 in a final. Gillham is ranked No. 7 in the state.

He took a 2-0 lead in second period with an escape and penalty point before holding on for the 2-1 victory.
“It’s great,” Serna said. “To be two-time Masters champion is amazing. But it’s not what I train for. I train to be state champion.
“I had some close matches. I should have scored more, but I got the job done. I’m proud of my team. I did it for my team.”
Eddie Flores was also a repeat winner, taking the 106-pound title with a 7-2 win in the final over Downey’s Jonathan Prata. Flores is ranked No. 1 in the state.
He used n takedown and an escape for a 3-2 lead before getting a takedown and nearfall in the closing seconds for the five-point decision.
“It feels great,” Flores said. “Last year I made it to the final and won by default, so for anyone having any doubts, there it is. I got the ‘W’ in the finals.”
Sidney Flores was a strong third at 120 after finishing fourth at last week’s Central Division championships.
He lost to Santa Ana Calvary Chapel’s Luciano Arroyo in the quarterfinals on Friday before going 3-0 on Saturday, including a 10-4 decision over Alta Loma’s Alex Nunez in the third-place bout.
“Last week was tough,” Flores said. “I had a tough day (last) Saturday and I used that as motivation for this week. I came across two guys who I lost to last week and (beat) this week, so that was great.”
CIF STATE GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Northview’s Angelina Gomez won at 101 pounds to lead the area.
Gomez defeated Riverside King’s Marissa Ritchie, 6-0.

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Glendora girls basketball reaches title game, but won’t face Amat; Rowland’s dream season ends


Glendora advances to title game: There are five CIF basketball championship banners hanging in the Glendora gym, all for the boys.The Glendora girls team will have a chance to put one of their own up next week after knocking off Pacifica (Oxnard) 62-52 in a CIF Southern Section Division 3AA semifinal game on Saturday night.
The Tartans (25-5) will play Thousand Oaks, a 50-40 winner over Bishop Amat, on Friday or Saturday at a time and place to be announced by on Monday.
“This is a special group,” Tartans coach Adam Nunemaker said. “The boys here are expected to be great, great, great but the girls didn’t get a lot of attention but now it’s starting to happen.”
The Tartans broke a tie at the start of the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run to take control of the game.
“It took us three quarters to finally figure out what to do to attack their press,” Nunemaker said. “Then it seemed like we scored on every possession. Michelle (Can) got us going in the third and Alex (Lowden) was her normal self.
All over the place, rebounding, making a shot when we needed one and making passes where they needed to go.”

Rowland’s great season ends: After Camarillo made it to the CIF Southern Section finals in senior Cameran Bahnsen’s freshman year, she vowed to do whatever it took to make it back to the top before the end of her high school career.
After one half of basketball on Saturday night in the Division 2AA girls basketball semifinals, it looked like Bahnsen might come up short in reaching that goal. But quickly into the second half, visiting Camarillo made it a reality as the Scorpions outscored Rowland by 17 points in the third period en route to their 70-55 road victory.
“We’ve just been working staying together as a team for all these years and we do so well because we have great chemistry,” Bahnsen said. “I love my team. We’re all best friends and we have fun and that’s why we’re doing so well.”

CIF-Southern Section Playoffs Schedule
Girls Basketball Basketball
All games start at 7 p.m., unless noted
Saturday’s semifinals
Division 2AA

Camarillo 70, Rowland 55
Division 3AA
Glendora 62, Oxnard Pacifica 52
Thousand Oaks 50, Bishop Amat 40
Division 3A
Lancaster 53, La Salle 47
Division 4A
Knight 47, Pomona 31
Division 4AA
Village Christian 67, Pasadena 53
Division 5AA
Crean Lutheran at Westridge

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Boys Soccer Playoffs: Nogales, El Monte, Wilson fall in PKs; Northview goes down 3-1

Watch El Monte’s heartbreaking penalty kick loss on periscope. It was intense, El Monte had four PKs to win, but eventually lost 8-7 in 13 rounds.

CIF-Southern Section Playoffs Results
Boys Soccer
Saturday’s quarterfinals
Division 2

Hueneme 2, El Rancho 0
Division 5
Citrus Hill 0, El Monte 0, 8-7 in PKs, 13 rounds
Division 6
La Canada 0, Nogales 0, LC advances on PKs 5-3
Dunn 4, Maranatha 1
Brentwood 3, Wilson 3, Brentwood advances on PKs, 4-3
Division 7
Santa Clara 3, Northview 1
Tuesday’s semifinals
Division 6

La Canada at Dunn, 3 p.m.

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Diamond Bar girls water polo falls short in title game


Diamond Bar comes up short: Diamond Bar High School has been one of the most proficient teams in the CIF Southern Section girls water polo playoffs this season.
The Brahmas had won their four previous Division 7 games by a nine-goal average. Saturday afternoon, Diamond Bar hit a drought. The second-seeded Brahmas did not score in the game’s final 22 minutes, 57 seconds and top seed Santa Ynez took advantage, rallying for an 8-6 overtime victory at the William Woollett Aquatic Center.“
It was pretty hard,” the Brahmas’ Phoebe Tsui said of being unable to score. “I thought we were going to win; we already had the lead in the first half. We couldn’t put any of them away. We got more tired and did not put away our shots.”
Tsui scored Diamond Bar’s final goal with 2:57 to play in the second quarter for a 6-3 lead. That was it.

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Saturday Recap: Baldwin Park baseball starts the season with a victory

If you have any scores or stats from any local high school sporting events call them into the desk at 626-544-0992 or 0991 or scores@SGVN

Baseball
Baldwin Park 15, Rosemead 1 — Francisco Ruiz was the winning pitcher, striking out four, and Andrew Barboza had six RBIs for the Braves, who won their season opener. Also for Baldwin Park, Pablo Thompson and Jimmy Castro each had three hits.

Softball
Pomona Catholic 8, Katella 3 — Dahlia Ramirez pitched seven innings, striking out six, and had an RBI and Bobbi Aguirre had three RBIs and a triple for the Pacers (1-0) at the Savanna Showcase.

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Boys Basketball Playoffs: Damien wins, advances to Open Division consolation semis; Chino Hills, Rowland falls short in final seconds


Rowland falls short in final seconds: One surprising CIF Southern Section boys basketball playoff run will continue. The other surprising run came to an end.
West Torrance High School held off hard-charging Rowland 64-60 on Friday night to advance to next weekend’s CIF-SS Division 4AA championship game, the Warriors’ first appearance in the final.“
We expected (to get the title game) at the beginning of the year, but nobody else believed in us,” West coach Neal Perlmutter said. “We believed in ourselves.“We’ve never been this far. It’s huge.”

Chino Hills loses in OT: The Chino Hills Huskies fall short to Mater Dei in overtime of the CIF Southern Section Open Division Semifinals, 83-80. LaMelo Ball was unable to seal the game for the Huskies with a 3-point attempt in regulation tied at 72.
CIF-Southern Section Playoffs Results
Boys Basketball
Friday’s games
Open Division consolation quarterfinals

Damien 88, JSerra 82
Semifinals
Open Division

Mater Dei 83, Chino Hills 80, OT
Division 1AA
Maranatha 52, Cantwell Sacred Heart 50
Division 1A
Pasadena 77, Peninsula 65
Division 3A
St. Paul 56, San Bernardino 52
Division 4AA
West Torrance 64, Rowland 60
Blair 76, Riverside Woodcrest Christian 61

CIF-Southern Section Playoffs Schedule
Boys Basketball
All games start at 7 p.m., unless indicated
Tuesday’s Open Division Consolation semifinal

Damien at Redondo Union, 7 p.m.
Friday, Saturday Championship games
Division 1AA

Maranatha vs. Rancho Verde, TBA
Division 1A
Pasadena vs. Harvard Westalke, TBA
Division 3A
Twentynine Palms vs. St. Paul
Division 4AA
West Torrance vs. Blair

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