Earning a 2-2 draw against Cathedral Catholic and a 4-0 victory over University City, the Coronado High School Girls Soccer Team secured their second consecutive Western League title last week. The Islanders have been so dominant this year that they sewed up the title with two conference games left to play.

“It’s unbelievable that we could do it with a week to go,” said Coronado Head Coach Kiko Medina. “We’re definitely happy about the league title.”

Attempting to stir up some controversy, but unable to do so as it turned out, the next question asked of Medina was the ‘continue to play hard or rest the team’ proposition that faced the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL in their pursuit of the Super Bowl last season. Medina was both appropriately diplomatic, and confident in his response. “The girls want to prove something to themselves and to everybody else. They would like to go undefeated in league. We’ll start the same lineup and if it’s close, we’ll leave some of the players in the game. Realistically, we have girls who aren’t starting, who could be starting at other schools. We should get the two wins without a problem.”

The Cathedral game was played on the Dons’ field in North County, in what Medina described as an awful storm. “It was cold and the rain was coming down hard and sideways,” Medina elaborated. “Had it been played in normal weather or even  light rain, we might have walked away with a win. The girls were blue in every extremity. We played well and fought hard. I was definitely pleased with the result.”

Scoring for the Islanders came on goals from Olivia Lillegraven and Mallory Mitchell.

Then it was on to University City and the domination of the Centurions, a site which according to Medina hasn’t historically been fortuitous for Coronado. “We seem to struggle playing there. The rain softened the field a little bit and we really played well. The team listened to the adjustments I gave them at half time and we played well.”

Lillegraven found the back of the net twice against University City and Kaitlyn Couture scored once. The game was sufficiently one-sided, and that allowed Medina to release Cassie Callahan from her defensive duties and let her play forward. “She’s been dying to play up all season,” Medina said of the junior, who has concentrated on defense this year. “With our injuries, she hasn’t had the opportunity this season. Within a couple of minutes she scored the final goal. Cassie has been working hard in the back and it was good for her to get a goal and be rewarded.”

Both Lauren Tobin and Danielle Gillberg, who have been injured, will likely return to training and then to playing this week, in preparation for the CIF Division III playoffs, which begin the next week. “It’s great that we have so much talent and other girls are stepping up,” summarized Medina. On the down side, sophomore Ariel Ochoa, who has been trying to play on an injured right knee, will have surgery soon. “She has been fighting the knee injury since club season,” Medina said. “She’ll come back stronger than ever.”

This week Islanders play Tuesday at Christian at 3 pm. Thursday they return home for a 6 pm game against the Academy of Our Lady of Peace.

Islander Girls Water Polo Snares Conference Crown

Another CHS team putting together a title skein is the Islander Girls Water Polo Team, which won the Western League title outright last week. For the three prior seasons, Coronado had been Co-Champions in the Western League with their long-standing rivals from The Bishop’s School.  Or to put it another way, the Class of 2010 has won or shared their league title for all of their collective high school careers.

To grab the gonfalon (make words your friends, as my high school senior English teacher used to say) outright, Coronado had to take out both La Jolla and Bishop’s last week. The first part of that task occurred in the Islanders home pool with a 12-5 win over the Vikings. The Islanders held leads at each of the quarter breaks by scores of 2-0, 7-1 and 11-3 on their way to a 12-5 victory. “After we went up 10-1, we made a 7-for-7 substitution,” said Head Coach Dave Throop. “The second group got a lot of minutes against a good team.”

Coronado’s scores came from Ashley Young with four goals, and two goals each from Sidney Hoshko and Kendall Martin. Single goals were scored by Maddie Murphy, Shelby Couture, Hannah Green and Kaylee Ginnane. Kelly Ronimus contributed three assists. Colleen Moore recorded eight saves and a steal in just over one half of play, with Brooke Bernardy contributing four saves during her stint in goal.

Thursday’s game at Bishop’s had the No. 1 seed in CIF Division II on the line, along with the aforementioned league crown hanging in the balance. Throop took a philosophical approach to the game. “I told the team we’re here to win the game and to try and play better against Bishop’s than we did the last time.”

The Socratic approach came up short, at least in the early going, as the Knights scored on their first possession and held a 1-0 lead for much of the first frame. But the Islanders didn’t rattle and rebounded to take a 2-1 lead at the conclusion of period No. 1 and held a 6-3 lead at intermission. The score ballooned to 8-3 at the end of three on the way to a 10-7 final in favor of the Islanders.

Young had three goals and three assists, with Hillary Estrada filling all of the categories on the positive statistics sheet with two goals, an assist, three steals and a field block. Murphy chipped in with two goals and four assists, and both Ronimus and Couture had one goal and two assists. Green had a goal, one assist and one steal. Moore played the whole game and committed four steals to go with her seven saves.

To complete their regular season, the Islanders hosted Foothill of Santa Anna Friday night and prevailed 10-7. As Throop recounted, this one wasn’t easy. “We were down 3-1 in the first quarter. Then we talked about what they were doing and we closed the score to being down 4-3 at halftime. At the half we made one point of emphasis on offense and we went up 7-5 at the end of three quarters. We were a whole different team after the half. Things were clicking, we were playing good help defense and we were proactive on defense instead of reacting and then figuring it out. We had played Foothill once already and we still found a way to get the ball to Ashley, even though they were accustomed to our system.”

Young scored five goals, followed by Estrada with three goals and three assists, and Couture with two goals. Murphy contributed two assists, despite being in early foul trouble. Ronimus had four assists and two steals. More had a steal and eight saves in goal. The victory concluded the Islanders regular season with a mark of 20-9.

“It was nice to see us play well in a competitive week,” Throop said. “I thought we got better every game. This week was a dress rehearsal for the playoffs. It’s time for the team to go out and make it work.”

The seeds for the CIF tournament won’t be announced until after our deadline, but Throop expects Coronado to draw the top seed, followed by Bishop’s, La Jolla and probably Cathedral Catholic. Next in line could be University City or Scripps Ranch.

With the No. 1 seed, Coronado will host a first round game Thursday at 6 pm, with the opponent to be determined. If form holds, the Islanders will play again Saturday, the following Wednesday and the CIF Division II Finals are to be held Sat., Feb. 27th at the La Jolla Coggan Family Pool.

Islander Boys Soccer Weighs in With Two Victories

CHS Head Boys Soccer Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu was only slightly amused when Your Natterer characterized his team as ‘schizophrenic’ in our weekly phone conversation, as he reminded me that his team was 14-4-2 on the season. Going back a week in time, the Islanders were coming off of an 0-1-1 effort, which left the veteran coach a little on the perturbed side.

But that was then and this is now and Coronado rebounded with a very handsome 2-0 week. In their first outing they knocked off the Central League leading Clairemont Wednesday at home by the score of 3-1, on goals from Paul Romero, Seth Willey and Eddie Vita.

Hiatt-Aleu employed some strategic changes to help defeat the Chieftains. “We went with three players up top (forwards) from the beginning, which made Clairemont really uncomfortable. We got a lot of throw-ins and corner kicks early in the game. On a counter attack, Clairemont got the first goal of the game on their first shot. We showed maturity and didn’t get rattled. We really dominated except when they scored. We played strong and smart. We were all over them the whole 80 minutes of the game. Everybody stepped up and it was a quality win.”

Then it was on to Christian High School Friday and the Islanders unleashed a 4-0 assault on the Patriots. Riley Peterson scored twice, with Nate Hoffman and Sean Mackenzie scoring one goal each. Patrick Toomey earned the shutout in goal.

With the one-sided win came playing time for all, according to Hiatt-Aleu. “Every kid on the team played. Everyone went in the game in shifts. It was really hot out there (El Cajon). It was a nice win for us. Everybody has been sick, so it was good that we got to sub in and out. Connor Marcone and Tommy Hart played well in both games. They were the most consistent players all week for us.”

Other than with Hiatt-Aleu, the whole world-wide communications revolution including text, E-mail and presumably cell phone use, has apparently skipped past the other Central League coaches. “Nobody knows the league standings,” said Hiatt-Aleu. “We don’t have any communication from our league rep. Clairemont is in first and Coronado is either second, third or fourth. I really don’t know.”

The lone Coronado game this week is Friday at 6 pm when the Islanders host Crawford at 6 pm. The normal Wednesday game is a bye in the Central League schedule for the Islanders.

Girls Basketball Wins Twice

The CHS Girls Basketball Team hit the road Tuesday and traveled to Madison, where they grabbed a win from the War Hawks by the score of 48-25. Peri Curtis paced the Islander attack with 22 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Alex Evans posted another double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Nicollette (Coco) Abrantes scored nine points. Samantha Kirk and Katiani Lynch rounded out the scoring with three points and two points respectively.

According to Head Coach Toler Goodwin, the Islanders took a circuitous route to the victory. “We were down 10-3 in the first quarter, but we were aggressive defensively. Coco single handedly fouled out their point  guard, who was trying to keep her from the basket. Peri would have had more assists, but Coco kept getting knocked down and going to the line instead of making layups. Their two big shooters sat down early with three fouls each and we outscored them 16-1 in the second quarter.”

The Islanders have found their team identity, which is playing an up-tempo style, explained by Goodwin. “We have started playing better, the faster we play. We can’t sit back and play half court basketball with our (lack of) size. We have to continue to run. We play full court pressure on defense, which takes 10-15 seconds off the clock. That doesn’t give the opposing team much time to power attack the basket. We have moments when we look really good.”

Friday evening Coronado hosted Christian High School and the home team thoughtfully tinkered with their press to throw a new wrinkle at the Patriots. “We changed the press and gave Christian a different look,” Goodwin said. “We went four up and stymied them. We matched everybody they had.”

Abrantes led the scoring attack with 13 points, including 5-5 from the foul line. Curtis had 13 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Cory De Marco added three points, seven assists and six steals. Evans narrowly missed a double-double, but had 10 points, eight rebounds and eight steals.

The Islander squad is entering the final week of the regular season with smaller numbers. Senior Co-Captain Maggie Harris has sustained a sprained right knee and appears to be lost for the season. Meganne Weissenfels was involved in an altercation at Clairemont Feb. 1 and is out for six games due to a CIF suspension, but will return for the playoffs. Coronado appealed the controversial suspension, but her six-game embargo was upheld.

Coronado is locked into a second place finish in the Central League behind Kearny, their final regular season league opponent. The Islanders and the Komets tangle in Coronado Tuesday at 4:45 pm. Goodwin, who is the Central League representative, thinks the Islanders will be seeded in the seventh or eighth spot in the 12-team Division IV playoff field.  

“The top six spots are locked down,” said Goodwin in assessing the playoff field. “The first three will be La Jolla Country Day, Bishop’s and Mater Dei in that order. The fourth and fifth spots will be a coin toss between Imperial and Parker and No. 6 should be Horizon. Coronado and Santa Fe Christian will be seventh or eighth. Beating Crawford, Christian and Madison should keep us at home for the first round of the playoffs.” The first four seeds will receive first round byes in the 12-team field. Teams 5-8 will play home games in the first round against teams 9-12.

In addition to the Kearny game Tuesday, Coronado will play at home Friday night at 5 pm in the first game of a Girls/Boys doubleheader with Borrego Springs. It will be Senior Night for both Coronado teams. Coronado is currently 14-9 and 9-2 in the Central League.

CHS Boys Basketball Loses Two Tough League Games

Last week the Islander Boys Basketball Team had two tough victories over Clairemont and Crawford. Entering this week they knew they had home games against Madison, who Coronado defeated on the road 62-54 on their first trip through the league schedule, as a prelude to Friday night’s game against County Top 10 team Christian.

The Madison game proved to be a trap game of sorts, as the Islanders held the lead at home for 24 minutes and 41 seconds of the 32-minute game, but lost the lead with 4.1 seconds remaining in the contest. The War Hawks pulled the upset by the score of 42-40, outscoring Coronado 18-8 in the final quarter.

Danny Hebert paced the Islanders with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.  Center Chris Maskevich was a perfect 5-5 from the field and finished with 10 points and four rebounds. “Chris finished at the basket,” said Head Coach J.D. Laaperi. “That was something we had trouble with all night.”

Peter Zeller scored two points, but had nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Billy Schmitt grabbed seven rebounds and blocked five Madison shots.

However ‘warp speed’ (“Star Trek: The Next Generation” pop culture reference) is defined in prep basketball, both Christian and Coronado were at that level Friday night. Christian won the game 53-37, but the game was closer than that score would indicate.

Laaperi knew the Patriots were a tough assignment for his club. “I told the guys it would take a team effort. Everyone played as hard as they could play. All eight or nine kids who played stuck to the game plan and gave it everything they had. We struggled all night offensively. Christian picked us up 30 feet from the basket. They normally score around 80 points a game and we held them to 53. But we’re not going to win many games scoring 37 points.”

The Islanders are currently 17-8 and 7-4 in the Central League. In all likelihood they will finish in second place in league play, behind Christian. Tuesday Coronado travels to Kearny for a 4:45 pm game. Friday night they host Borrego Springs for a 6:30 pm game on Senior Night.

Track Coaching Opportunity Available at CHS

If you love track and hate field, or vice versa, there is a coaching opportunity available on Head Coach George Green’s staff for the spring sports season. “The start of the season is fast approaching and we’re looking for a coach or two to round out our staff on the Islander Track Team,” said Green. “Depending on your specialty, experience and qualifications, this could be either a paid or voluntary position.”

If you are interested, please contact Green at 619-435-3633 or visit IslanderTrack.com for more information on the team.