Coronado High School’s Varsity Football Team returned to their winning ways Friday afternoon via a 30-0 romp at Kearny High School, in the Central League opener for both clubs. By virtue of their victory over the Komets, the Islanders improved their overall record to 4-2, and rebounded from a tough loss the week before at El Centro Southwest.

The Islanders kicked off to begin the game and the Coronado defense held the Komets to three incomplete passes and a 15-yard punt to open the proceedings. Islander Tailback Ricardo Oberwager scored four plays later on a 31-yard touchdown run.

A similar pattern repeated itself as the Islander defense stopped a Kearny run for no gain, held a completed pass play to a loss of one yard, before a fourth incomplete pass forced a second Komet punt. On this possession, it took Oberwager and the Islanders six plays to find the end zone on a four-yard scamper. The score was 14-0 eight minutes into the game and Coronado was never threatened.

To mix it up a little, Oberwager scored on a 72-yard pass play from Stephen Conrad in the second quarter and ended the game with three touchdowns and 135 yards rushing in 16 attempts from the line of scrimmage.

Lineman Ben Thorne dominated both sides of the line for Coronado, playing most of the game against a Komet athlete listed at 6-7, 295 pounds, but who looked from field level similar in size to the Point Loma Lighthouse. Thorne is listed at 6-0 and 255 in the Islander game program, which is probably a little light on both counts, but the senior co-captain turned in what Islander Head Coach Bud Mayfield described as "probably his best game." Mayfield continued his praise of the lineman drawing Division I recruiting interest. "Twice on plays Ben knocked him flat. He gets a bottle of pancake syrup for that." Simply from the sound effect alone he generated from one of the blocks, Thorne deserves two bottles of syrup.

Thorne, Oberwager and linebacker Eddie Gomez, who led the team with 10 tackles on the day, all earned ‘Black Shirt’ recognition as Islander Players of the Week.

In due deference to the trio referenced above, the play of the game was turned in by junior tailback Kyle Brown. On the third play of the fourth quarter, Brown took a handoff, sprinted around end, reached a running gear few athletes are gifted with, turned the corner, headed up field and scored easily on a 26-yard run. It was Reggie Bush-esque.

"Kyle is new this year," said Mayfield. "He’s coming along and is just about to hit his stride. Before now he had always played in the defensive secondary and we’re making him into a tailback. He has the moves, speed and is very graceful. He had a good game in the secondary as well. He’s the fastest kid on the team. Among Conrad, Brown and Ricardo, we have good team speed."

Speaking of Conrad, the junior signal-caller had a strong game, completing four of eight pass attempts for 135 yards and a touchdown. He also ran enough to keep the defense honest and from keying on Oberwager or Brown. "Conrad played well," Mayfield noted. "He checked off when they overloaded a couple of times on defense. He threw the long ball and was still scrambling some of that time. I’m pleased with his progress."

The game also marked the first varsity start for sophomore Chris DeClercq, who played defensive end for the entire game.

Next week the Central League race heats up when the Islanders travel to Clairemont Friday for a 2:30 pm game. The Chieftains are coming off of a Saturday afternoon 18-14 victory over Crawford, in a game that went down to the wire, according to Mayfield. "Clairemont has been running a spread offense and running with the ball a lot. Against Crawford, they played with two tight ends and ran the ball from a single back set. They could be searching for an offense or running multiple offenses. They changed quarterbacks about halfway through the game. Clairemont won the game in the last minute, which may give them confidence. We see each (Central League) game as a must win game. They’re 1-0 in league, the same as us."

The Islander Sports Foundation, Coronado Youth Football and Cheer and the Blumenthal Family have reached agreement to have two weekends of football played on the new artificial turf surface at Niedermeyer Field.

According to CYF President Mike Fridgen, the games will be played on successive Saturdays, Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, with starting times both days slated for 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. The Blumenthal Family provided funding for the games.

The CYF has approximately 225 players and cheerleaders in the program.

Based on their previous result, when Serra defeated the Coronado Girls Varsity Volleyball Team in five games in their first Eastern League go around, Your Natterer was prepared to pitch a tent and poised to call for a local pizza delivery for dinner Thursday. But the Islanders quickly dispatched the Conquistadores 25-20, 25-21, and 25-19 to avenge their prior loss.

Sophomore outside hitter Madison Boomer paced the Islanders in the early going and junior outside hitter Christy Mebust came on strong late to lead Coronado to the relatively easy victory.

"She is maturing as a volleyball player in every practice and every game," said Head Coach Christina Lahr of Boomer. "There are days she shocks me, in a good way, that she plays so well. It’s nice to see her maturing so much. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure she was ready for a starting role. But she has stepped up and has shown everyone that she is ready. She definitely has found her position and her role on the team."

According to Lahr, Mebust has a difficult and complex role, the player that draws the opposition’s defensive focus. "Christy has the unfortunate position of being the hardest hitter out there and teams see that right away. Christy has a dominant role on the team and you see it in warm-ups. She is a strong passer and hitter. The team counts on her to be all-around solid and consistent and that’s hard to do."

Another young player, freshman Danielle Gillberg, has earned important playing time and came through with a number of key serves against Serra. Lahr recognizes Gillberg’s inherent talent. "Danielle is going to be an amazing player. She played middle (blocker) at the beginning of the season, but she has found her position on the right side. She knows that if (setter) Karli Massie takes the first ball, she has to take the second ball. She has large hands, which are a tremendous asset. She knows when she can set it or has to pass the ball, give it back to Karli or push it outside. She has really stepped up. (Freshman) Kori Fitzgerald, Danielle and Madison have really shown that they were more prepared for the varsity level than I thought in tryouts and at the beginning of the season. They know their roles and they are doing well."

Volleyball may be the ultimate team game and momentum shifts can doom a squad. But Lahr noted that Coronado didn’t let any of that creep into their game Thursday. "Everybody played their part Thursday. We passed well, hit well and did all of the things that we had talked about all week. We want to keep our serves in the court, keep the ball in play and still put the ball back aggressively on the other side of the court. When we weren’t giving them free balls, we were setting the pace of the game. They had a lot of fun. Before the start of the first game, we knew we should win in three games. Our captains Lisa Bernardy and Christy Mebust both said, ‘we have stuff to do and we want to go home early’."

This week the Islanders have three tough matches, including a Monday home contest with Our Lady of Peace, a team currently undefeated in Eastern League play. Tuesday the Islanders travel to San Diego High School and Thursday Patrick Henry will visit Coronado. All three games start at 3:30 pm. "This week will really test them," said Lahr of her team. "There will be a lot of emotion this week and it will be three of our hardest games of the season."

After handling La Jolla 9-6 in their first meeting of the season, the rematch at Coronado last Wednesday figured to be more of the same. However on short notice, starting goalie Kyle Pokorny who was off to a great start this season, came down with mononucleosis and had to yield his place in the cage to converted sophomore field player Jackson Hummeldorf.

The Islanders held a 3-2 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter and a 6-4 lead at halftime. However, the Vikings won the second half 6-2 and the game 10-8. Hummeldorf, who had his first varsity start in goal, was credited with nine saves and one steal. Jacob Smith led the Islanders with four goals, Sean Cook had three and Eric Clapper scored once.

The second game of the week was an 11-8 victory at Cathedral Catholic, which found Smith scoring five goals, Cook three tallies, and Clapper, Adam Ratcliffe and Alex Johnson found the back of the net once each.

"In both games I want to make note of Jackson Hummeldorf’s play," said Head Coach Randy Burgess. "I have to commend him for going in there and he did a good job. It’s tough coming in like that. We’re indefinite on Kyle’s return. Last week our inexperience was exposed. We have to deal with it and make some adjustments. We were in the driver’s seat in league. We had a tough game Friday as well. Now, it’s back to the white board."

Burgess noted Cook’s contributions to the week’s efforts. "We’re counting heavily on Sean. He’s starting to do some things right, based on gaining experience that he didn’t have last year."

This week Coronado hosts Scripps Ranch Monday and then hosts Long Beach Wilson Saturday at 4 pm. "Wilson is young like us," said Burgess of the storied aquatics program. "It should be a good game."

Cross Country Head Coach George Green checks in with a report on his program. "The Islander Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams had their first Central League match-up with Christian High School at Morley Field last Wednesday, but it wasn’t the first meet of the season. Both teams had attended the same four invitational events earlier in the season. Since the results of each meet are posted on the web, both teams knew what needed to be done to win.

Under the tutelage of Head Coach Danny Garcia, the Patriots have fielded strong teams over the past few years. In fact, their Girls team won the Central League title from us last year by one point. After studying the results of all of the other girls cross country teams in our league, it was obvious that this meet would determine the league championship. No other team in the Central League is close and this match-up could go either way.

Coronado’s strength resides in its four freshmen runners Sallie Privett, (undefeated in her four previous starts this year), Adrianna Davies, Coco O’Brien, and Selina Schmeck. This formidable quartet is backed-up by seniors Lindsay Pettee, Sheila Braun, track and field standout Sarah Player, and sophomores Brigid Twomey and Helen Luppi.

Christian’s strength is found in the depth of their roster, with frosh soccer star Devin Marshall too close for comfort to Davies, junior Hannah Pearl right behind, frosh Taryn Dunton only 15 seconds back, with Kaylyn Sofranko and Ashley Naugle within striking range. Christian’s strategy was for Marshall to break up our expected 1-2 finish. Our strategy was to keep this from happening.

Normally Sallie would be so far in front, she’d be out of sight after the first half-mile. With the league championship at stake, she paced Davies for the first part of the race, before taking off to win with a time of 19:19 over the City Conference 3-mile course. Davies held on to win over Marshall to finish second in 20:31 to Marshall’s 20:46. Both girls were spent at the end.

Following were Pearl (21:36), O’Brien (21:42), Dunton (21:50), Sofranko (22:18), Naugle (22:42), Schmeck (23:08), and Pettee (23:30). Coronado won by a single point 27-28, with the low score winning in cross country. Rounding out the finishers for Coronado were Braun, Player and Luppi. The Patriots are a class team and after fighting back tears, they came over to congratulate the Islander girls. This is what cross country is like – there’s a mutual respect because all runners know how physically demanding this sport is.

The Boys Central League championship wasn’t expected to be determined by this meet, but Christian had a plan to beat us. First, a few words about how cross country is scored. A team consists of seven runners. In the Central League, we run everyone together, but only the top seven runners from each team figure in the score. The finish positions of the Top 5 from each team are added together with the sixth and seventh finishers not counted in the score, but they push back the finish position of the other team’s runners. If a team can finish 1-2-3, they mathematically lock the race. This is the dream of every cross country coach, after a 1-2-3 finish he can stop paying attention to the score, the match is won, and he’ll win by at least one point even if the other team places all seven of their runners between his third and fourth finisher.

Juniors Ben Enowitz and Michael Davies, along with sophomore David Grimes, are a formidable Top 3. The only way for Christian to win was to break-up this trio and take the race with their superior depth. Coronado has a large, young Boys team this year, with more than enough runners to field three seven-runner teams. But most of those runners are still in the ‘developmental phase’ of their cross country experience.

Christian’s attempt to break our lock at the top didn’t happen. Enowitz, Davies and Grimes ran a controlled race in that order, over the City 3-mile course, with times of 17:01, 17:11 and 17:22 respectively. The potential spoiler, Christian’s Josh May, was fourth in 17:34, but Grimes was just protecting the lock and has a devastating finishing kick, if needed.

The next six runners were from Christian, so the lock was needed to win the meet. The final score was 28-30. Cotter Stacy was the Islanders fourth varsity finisher, placing 10^th in 18:37, followed by Ben Green (12^th in 18:49), Jose Tijerina (13^th in 19:05), and Turner Stanley (14^th in 19:15)."

The Coronado High School Sailing Team, under the direction of four-time World Sailing Champion Jon Rogers and Assistant Coach Kati Eckert, has been practicing since Sept. 19. Eckert, who sailed for CHS during her prep days, is now in her third year as the program’s assistant coach.

After four tryouts sessions, a total of 18 sailors were selected for the team.

In the Single-handed Championship held last month, the team was represented by Kirsten Krock, Alex Wood, Ian McRae, Ryan Sullivan and Philip Lozier.

In the team’s first competition of the year, the Sea Otter Regatta in Monterrey, the Varsity ‘A’ Division Team consisted of Ryan Sullivan/Cragan Smith; the Varsity ‘B’ was Pike Harris/Nick Gomez-Hall; the JV ‘A’ was Kirsten Krock/Lisa Joy Juergens, the JV ‘B’ was Jessie Kephart/Alexa Cavalieri, with Chris Jones serving as alternate crew.

The program President is Scott Harris, the CHSST Team Rep is Kevin Nicholls, the Financial Officer is Karen Paquin, Communications Director is Susan Harris, Travel Coordinator is Helene Kephart and the Team Captain is Jessie Kephart.

Tax deductible contributions have helped fund junior sailing programs, including the Dee Fuller Memorial Fund, the Adopt-A-Boat Program, and equipment upgrades. These programs are considered to be crucial to providing opportunities to as many sailors as possible.

The Islanders Girls Golf Team pasted Scripps Ranch at Torrey Pines golf course last Monday by the score of 256-301, before running into the proverbial buzz saw that is the Cathedral Catholic golf squad and fell to the Dons 194-263 last week at Riverwalk Country Club.

Alexcie Sanchez was the medalist in the Scripps Ranch match, shooting a 43, her seventh outing out of 10 where she shot a round of 45 or lower this season. Sanchez leads the Islander scoring race this season averaging 43.5 strokes per round. In second place is Giovanna Ascolani at 45.8; third place is held by Mackenzie Coutts at 49.0 and Lexi Donovan is in fourth at 50.5.

The squad continues to be active off and on the golf course, according to Head Coach Hanna Cohan. Sunday they raised $200 for the team’s spirit fund, by holding a club cleaning fundraiser at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course.

The team has reached the clubhouse turn, so to speak, of the season and hosts Point Loma Wednesday. Only La Jolla remains on the second round of Western League play. Coronado concludes the regular season with a match Oct. 24 against San Pasqual at The Vineyard Golf Course.

Head Coach Robbin Adair checks in with his report on the CHS Girls Varsity Tennis Team. "We lost two this week, but played very well in both matches.

On our courts last Tuesday, University City beat us 14-4, which was an improvement over 17-1 in the first round. Spencer Berman took one set in singles, defeating the No. 3 6-3 and losing to their No. 1 and No. 2 by identical 3-6 scores. Allie Gordon got swept, but continued to play very well. Her long rallies, long points, and real persistence made all three of her matches very competitive. Cori Morse played third singles and dropped all three. For her, this was a learning experience. She’s a physically strong athlete, but doesn’t have the experience of the players she faced that day. Over in doubles, Jen Carney/Hannah Schneider took two of three 6-3, 6-2 and 1-6. The second team of Natalie Brooks/Simmi Deo defeated their third team, but lost really close to the No. 2 squad before falling to a really good No. 1 team. Their scores were 6-2, 4-6, and 1-6. Finally Hannah Glasoe/Andrea Wheeler lost all three, but showed a willingness to come to the net and volley.

Thursday we traveled to Scripps Ranch and lost 12-6. This too was a marked improvement over our 17-1 loss in the first round. Several of our lost sets were very close and at one point it looked like we might even forge enough wins for a tie and win on the game count. Berman and Gordon both took two out of three sets, while Amanda Purvis lost all three, with one of them being a pivotal tiebreaker which she lost at 5-7. Over in doubles, Carney/Spencer won one but lost another 5-7 tiebreaker. Brooks/Deo were swept, but they too lost a close set a 4-6. Finally, Tatiana Chahine/Angelina Graumann won one of their three sets. If we could have taken those close sets, we could have won the match. The Scripps Ranch coach was in a bet of a stew.

This week we play two more Western League matches and have a non-league match with Canyon Crest. Then there is one week remaining of the regular season. We have five more matches and then the playoffs."