Page 9 - Sanger Herald 1-24-19 E-edition

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SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019
Stanley reaches scoring honor as Apaches hit rough patch
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Cameron Stanley reached No. 4 on the all-time Apache scoring list for basketball.
And he’d become the fourth person to score more than 1,000 points on the court for Sanger High. The feat stands as a big deal since that covers 110 years of Apache basketball history. Sanger master statistician Ron Blackwood wouldn’t have noted it had the accomplishment not been significant.
But Stanley and his teammates weren’t much for celebrating at the moment the milestone was mentioned. They had just walked out of the guest locker room at Edison High on Jan. 16 after suffering a pretty withering loss to the Tigers, 72-41. Sanger led byapointattheendofthe first quarter. Then Edison went on an 18-0 run and another 19-6 sprint in the forth quarter.
“Checkmate,” Blackwood wrote in his game notes.
Stanley nodded when he was asked whether he and his teammates would do
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jonathan Dillon goes up for two points against Edison's Jeremiah Hannah, No. 25, at the Tigers' gym Jan. 16.
from that team.
Still, no consolation.
“I don’t know,” Stanley said, commenting on the immediate irrelevance of scoring titles. “Just scoring points. There’s nowayIcangettoNo.1. (Jarred) Contente (who played varsity from 2000 to 2003) has a lock on that for awhile. I can get to No. 3.
“But it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if we keep losing.”
Contente scored 1,629 points during his tenure. No. 2 Patrick Pinkard, who played 2009 to 2011, scored 1,280 points, and No. 3 Tom Bruner, who played from 1986 to 1988, scored 1,114.
Apaches remain a competitive bunch. They don’t like to lose. Stanley’s in his fourth season, a senior statesman overseeing a team that has gone through the fluctuations brought on by graduations and new additions from the younger classes.
Edison has experienced similar turbulence. The team was 14-8 overall after the win over Sanger, while Sanger dropped to 11-5.
“We’re young, very inexperienced,” Edison head coach Tim Wilkins said after the game. “So we’re learning on the go.”
And sophomore Tyrece Fairley, who scored 14 for the Tigers, said his team is pretty good. “We only lost to Memorial by seven or eight (points),” he said. San Joaquin Memorial has Jalen Green, who at 6-foot-5 was ranked among the top sophomores in the country last year and has nearly every big college basketball program trying to recruit him.
Edison in its Jan. 11 game against Memorial actually lost by six, 87-81, and outscored the Panthers in the first and fourth quarters.
Sanger played Memorial on Friday and emerged similarly accosted, losing to the Division II powerhouse 89-52. Junior guard Green, ranked the Class of 2020’s No. 2 player nationally by 247Sports, scored 34 points for the Panthers, a bit more than his average this season. Memorial coach Brad Roznovsky told CBS Sports, “He wants to be the
best, and I think there’s a good chance that’s gonna happen.”
Stanley led scoring for the Apaches in the Memorial game with 14 and pulled down 8 rebounds. A plus for Sanger was its 92 percent shooting at the foul line, led by Luke Dillion, whowas6for6.Heand his little brother Jonathan scored 11 apiece, and Jonathan had 10 rebounds.
The Apaches bounced back against Tulare Western on Jan. 21, winning 55-47 with Stanley pulling down 16 points to lead his team.
In the locker room after the Tigers game, coach Al Alvarado III did what he could to explain to his team what happened. “It is what it is,” he said. “They’re bigger, they’re stronger. We’re at their house. They turned it up after the half.
“But we’re not doing ourselves a favor when we’re not working together. We have to hang our hats on defense. We need to be big and strong and play man to man.”
See Basketball, Page 2B
better the next time they faced Division I Edison. Sanger is Division III and definitely no slacker on the court, this year or the past several. In fact, the
team beat Edison in its house not all that long ago (Jan. 27, 2017) for the first time ever, Blackwood noted at the time. Stanley is the only remaining Apache left
Apaches down Tigers in shootout
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
On the main soccer field at Edison High, the lack of lighting meant that the game between the Apaches and Tigers started at 3 p.m. on Jan. 16.
The forecast predicted a storm would roll in about 5 p.m. Ominous black clouds surrounded the Fresno campus, and a blustery wind from the southwest blew in with greater intensity as the game progressed. Brian Penner, Sanger High athletic director, pulled up his collar, mentioning he wasn’t prepared for a downpour.
But on the field, the boys teams didn’t concern themselves with the brief peltings by rain or gust. Each was there to win.
Especially Sanger. The team rallied for a 4-1 win over the rival Tigers.
But the Apaches didn’t exactly light it up early on. Sophomore Michael Esparza scored the first goal near the end of the first 40 minutes, giving the Apaches a 1-0 lead at the half.
And that was when coach Alex Gutierrez took the team aside. His players and assistants closed in a rough circle around him as he spoke.
The group that emerged played differently. Harder. Faster. Their footwork and ball control led them to dominate most of the second half, especially the final dozen minutes.
Gutierrez’s words resonated. Or at least they appeared to. And not just a little but in at a level similar to those delivered by Gene Hackman, playing Coach Norman Dale of the 1952 Hickory High basketball team before the big game. Hackman said in the movie “Hoosiers,” “If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential to be the best you can be, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. In
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Sophomore Michael Esparza goes up for a header in the game against Edison. The Apaches trounced the Tigers 4-1 Jan. 16 at Edison.
my book, we’re going to be winners. OK? All right!”
Gutierrez didn’t quite put it that way. But the effect was the same.
Sanger’s athletes, considered by many long- time soccer enthusiasts to be among the best skilled in some time, took their coach’s message to heart and scored three more goals. Each by a different player.
“I reiterated that this team beat us twice last year,” Gutierrez said after the game and as the wind really picked up in the encroaching darkness. “I let them know if they were out there with pure energy that (they would dominate).
“It took them awhile. I’m happy that we won.”
Gutierrez said he thought there was an emotional feel
to the exchange.
The season hasn’t been
easy. As good as these Apaches are, others are just as good and really ready to compete. “It’s a good league this year,” Penner said.
The win is the first multi-goal victory since a 3-1 win over Sunnyside in November, Gutierrez said.
“Be proud of your effort today,” he told the team after the game. But Gutierrez wanted more, adding, “When we need to put a team away, (we need to do it early). Other teams will kill us when they get that chance. We are that team. We have to have that mindset.”
And Manuel Herrera, a former assistant coach who prefers to go by administrative consultant, added, “We’ve been here
before. We think we’re on top of the world. But it’s one win. Be happy but don’t be content. Keep your minds right.”
These Apaches have had some tough losses. But they never quit, playing hard until the end.
This time, senior defender Levin Thompson, positioned perfectly in front of the Tigers’ goal for a Esparza corner kick, scored the second goal for the Apaches. Edison senior forward Arjun Singh scored early to tie the game at 1-1, and the Apaches responded even though Tigers coach Femi Olukanni repeatedly yelled, “Win this.”
Senior Saul Sanchez soon afterward nearly put one in the net. Then Esparza and Thompson delivered.
“My first goal this
season,” Thompson said. He leaped and headed the ball into the goal. “I was like, ‘I’ll try.’ And I got it. I wasn’t even going to try going for the ball. And I did.
“Hard work, team work and dedication and we get wins like this.”
Junior Luis Villegas scored with an assist by senior Andrew Andrade for the third Sanger goal. The pair made it look easy.
“I was just looking down,” Villegas said. “He (the Tiger’s defender) fell for the first fake. And I did it again.
“And then I scored.”
Villegas nearly scored at least twice before. He said the team is improving. “It’s getting there,” he said. “We just need to focus on the middle more.”
Sophomore Cristian Torres scored the final goal near the end of the game, adding emphasis to the victory.
Senior Juan Garcia played like he wanted to make a statement, recovering the ball and stymying Tiger offensive runs with regularity. He worked midfield and proved a bane to Edison’s attempted comeback.
Garcia said he thinks the team has the ability to continue the momentum. “Don’t get too comfortable,” he said, adding that the win wasn’t easy and that other teams are tougher. “In the first half we could have easily put up three goals.
“I see us getting somewhere.”
See Soccer, Page 2B