Minus the fanfare associated with their titanic showdowns with The Bishop’s School in the previous two weeks, the CHS Boys Water Polo Team went quietly about their business last week and won their two Western League matches, including an 8-5 victory over La Jolla, which was followed closely by a 6-4 win over Scripps Ranch.

If it were a Broadway play, Wednesday’s game at La Jolla game would be titled ‘The Preston Lujan Show,’ as the junior driver scored three goals, committed three steals and was credited with two field blocks (blocking an opponent’s shot) in the contest. "Lujan had the game of his life against La Jolla," commented Head Coach Randy Burgess. "This is his first year in Coronado, and Preston is beginning to understand his role a little bit. He has the capability of dominating any game. He forces the defense to make adjustments and I hope to see more of that from Preston."

Lujan’s quite capable supporting cast included Sean Castillo with three goals, single scores by both John Landon and Jesse Farquhar, plus three assists and a steal from Jacob Smith.

Coronado surged to a 4-1 lead at halftime, but La Jolla recovered to play the Islanders to a draw in the second half. Holding a potentially precarious 6-4 lead at the end of three quarters, Lujan scored a goal in the early going of the fourth frame and to help stem the Vikings’ momentum.

Friday’s match against Scripps Ranch found Farquhar with three goals, Castillo with two tallies and Eric Clapper with one goal.

Nice efforts all, but the game ball from the Scripps Ranch contest went to senior goalie Dylan Carr, who had nine saves, two steals and an assist. Added to the nine saves he earned against La Jolla, Car had a superb week. "He was the key to the game," Burgess said of Carr’s effort in goal against Scripps Ranch. "He was very solid and stingy defensively."

Burgess saw the victory over La Jolla as a snapshot of Coronado’s season, which finds the Islanders with an 11-4 record. "It wasn’t their best game," said Burgess of his squad. "It was indicative of the team. We went up 4-1 and it could have been more. They didn’t fold or panic. We are young and inexperienced, but we are showing flashes of experience, and that is exciting. It’s been an interesting season."

This week finds the Islanders playing Wednesday against University City in a Western League match at the La Jolla Jewish Community Center. Saturday the squad travels to the Belmont Plaza Pool to face Long Beach Wilson, which is ranked No. 2 in the state. Said Burgess of Saturday’s opponent, "They’re tougher than nails."

Coronado’s pursuit of a Harbor League title took a tough turn Friday afternoon with a 26-21 loss to Clairemont, in the conference opener for both teams. The game had more subplots than a bad Russian novel, but the Chieftains, who were picked by the "San Diego Union-Tribune" to win the league, prevailed in the final chapter.

In the course of the game, Coronado intercepted seven Clairemont passes, with senior captain Ryan Cummins picking off three, one of which he ran back 73 yards for a touchdown. Will Purvis, Chris Arthur, Doug Scott and Kelcey Fisher also intercepted errant Chieftain tosses. Senior captain, Jed Considine, blocked a Clairemont extra point.

In addition to his pass interception, Fisher rushed for over 100 yards and was acknowledged for his efforts by Head Coach Bud Mayfield. "He was the player of the game on offense and he continues to spark our offense. He runs hard, breaks tackles and gets yards on his own." Cummins earned Black Shirt recognition from the coaching staff as did the team’s third senior captain Nick Shepherd. "Nick led the defense with 10 tackles," Mayfield added. "He’s our defensive spark. He plays sideline to sideline."

"We made a couple of key mistakes and the game slipped away from us right at the end," Mayfield said. "It was the second time this season that we weren’t able to hold a lead. It would have been a great victory for us."

"The game came down to a couple of plays," continued Mayfield. "It was not a game where they did a lot to us. They had two long passes for touchdowns and they blocked a kick and ran it back for a touchdown. I have never had any kick or punt blocked and run back (for a touchdown) during my career. I was very disappointed about that. Their guy came free off the edge and got the block. The ball bounced into his hands and he was gone. It was our fault for letting him come free. Rarely would anyone have seven interceptions in a game and lose the game. We had enough points to win, but didn’t do it. It was a pretty disappointing loss."

And the schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Islanders (3-3, 0-1 in Harbor League play) host the undefeated Crawford Colts (6-0, 1-0 in the Harbor League) next week at 7:30 pm at Niedermeyer Field.

Mayfield knows the Colts will be tough. "They have won 17 games in the last year and a half and they are the second best team (after the USDHS Dons) on our schedule without question. Each of the last 2 years, the winner of this game won the Harbor League. This is a ‘must’ game now. Hopefully we’ll be back closer to full strength."

Injuries are becoming a factor in the Islanders efforts. Kyle McArthur came back in the last game from injury to contribute, but senior lineman Doug Scott is questionable for Crawford and junior Mike Baker-Denson has sustained a shoulder injury. "It’s a factor," said Mayfield of the injuries. "It’s hard on morale as well. We have a long way to go (this season). We have to find a way to pull together."

CHS Head Track Coach George Green delivers the good news regarding the Islander Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams. "Seniors Jake Ruzevick and Brad Munns easily outdistanced the field in Coronado’s first dual meet of the season against Clairemont, leaving freshman Ben Enowitz to contend with the Chieftains top runner, Bernardo Bahena. It was close at the finish line, but Bahena had the better finishing kick.

Ruzevick finished in 16:53, Munns in 17:11 and Enowitz in 17:38 over the 3-mile Morley Field course to lead the Islanders to a 23-33 victory. For Coronado, Jose Tijerina was eighth in 19:50, Josh Fink was ninth in 19:57, Drew Lewis finished in 10^th place in 20:02, Reid McLean was 11^th in 20:12, followed by Alton Smith, Olivier Schmied and Tim Bowman.

We were missing a couple of girls due to the usual soccer conflicts and injuries, but Clairemont couldn’t field a full team of five runners, so Coronado won by default. Karolin Ivarsson placed third in 22:38, followed by Hope Alexander in fourth place (23:34), Katie Gomrick (sixth in 24:55), Sarah Player (seventh place) and Anneka Nelson (eighth place).

In CMS action, Sallie Privett (7^th grade) and David Grimes (8^th grade), who have been tearing up the local middle school cross country league, ventured north to Walnut to run in the 57^th annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Championships.

Mt. SAC is our nation’s largest and most prestigious cross country meet, with thousands of athletes from the 4^th grade through junior college competing over two weekends. This was David’s first big race and due to time constraints, we put him in the most competitive heat, the 6^th-7^th-and 8^th grade Sweepstakes. He placed 26^th out of 133 finishers over the tough 2-mile middle school course.

Sallie Privett vied for the lead over the first half of the race in the Girls Sweepstakes, but succumbed to a respiratory problem over the dusty course in the latter stages and finished well behind the leaders.

Based on the way she’s been training with the older kids, we thought Sallie’s younger sister Mollie Privett (Village Elementary School) might do well in the 5^th Grade race, but we didn’t expect her to take the lead at the half-way point. After making two wrong turns and doubling back, Mollie dead-heated for first place out of 137 finishers."

Last week Coronado’s Girls Volleyball Team hit the road twice and emerged with a victory over Morse (25-13, 25-20, and 25-16) on Tuesday and then fell to Our Lady of Peace (25-21, 25-18, 27-29, 25-18) on Thursday. The latter score is significant because the loss drops the Islanders into a first place tie with OLP atop the Eastern League standings.

"To their credit, they played extremely well," said Head Coach Phil Trotter of OLP. "We have a target on our back now. A loss at this point isn’t a bad thing, as long as we can learn from it. They played great and we didn’t play as a team. We’re going to have to correct that if we’re going to do well in the post season."

The Islanders stand at 18-5 on the season and received some encouraging news on the medical front. Senior captain Deidre Kelly, who was previously thought to be lost for the balance of the year, played in the OLP match. Senior Captain Jamie Klages gets her protective cast off this week and will start rehab on her left foot.

Trotter named last week’s key contributors. "Megan Mushovic is still playing well. We’re really going to need to have her fire and leadership for the rest of the season. She provides great energy to this team. Kelly Phelps is playing well, as are Emily Howe and Ashley Copp. If we play as a team, we’re going to be tough to beat. If we don’t we’ll be vulnerable."

This week’s lone match is a Thursday home affair against Serra, with the varsity game played at 3 pm and the junior varsity contest following, usually around 4:30 pm.

The Islanders No. 1 doubles team of Elizabeth Hopkins and Justine Gordon won four of their six matches last week against La Jolla High School and OLP, although the CHS squad lost both Western League matches by the identical scores of 15-3. Junior Nicole Aponte accounted for the other two sets won in last week’s matches.

This week the Islanders have three matches, including an early-week Western League match vs. USDHS; a non-league road match against El Capitan Thursday; and another Western League road tilt at University City Friday afternoon.

Close wasn’t quite good enough for the CHS Girls Golf Team, as they fell to Western League leader La Jolla Monday by the score of 236-237 at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course. CHS senior Moncia Ascolani was the match medalist with a 40.

"We got a good contribution from Isabelle Sanchez," said Head Coach Kari Weidner. "But we should be shooting even lower (as a team)." Later in the week, Coronado shot a 230 to defeat both Bishop’s and Scripps Ranch in a tri-match. Last week’s effort ran the Islanders’ overall record to 7-3. They remain in third place in the Western League. "We’re looking for a wild card slot in the CIFs," said Weidner.

An early-week match against Point Loma is the only contest on this week’s slate.

CYF Coach Ken Maskevich provides our youth football report. "The Junior Midget team traveled to Point Loma and defeated the Coastal Tritons 47-22. The offensive line once again controlled the game and was responsible for seven rushing touchdowns from the trio of Keith Englehart, Billy Garigen and Patrick Toomey.

Chris Maskevich had a big sack to end a scoring threat at the end of the first half. Eddie Vita and Cody O’Connell made key plays on defense in the second half to secure the victory.

Other Coronado Youth Football scores include: the CYF Pee Wees fell to the Eastlake Blue Team 14-12, the Coronado Junior Pee Wees fell to Eastlake 46-0, and the Coronado Mitey Mites fell to Balboa 36-0."