Page 9 - Sanger Herald 11-1-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Water polo teams push into post-season competition
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Trenton Wells fired off a shot into the Bullard goal with a little more than 2 minutes on the clock.
Aaron Avalos, on the right side of the pool, fed him the ball at just the right time, bypassing aggressive defenders in a move that appeared to further energize the boys varsity water polo Apaches in their final game of the regular season. Zack Stricker had just stolen the ball maybe 30 seconds earlier.
Sanger ignored the scoreboard and the couple hundred Bullard fans at the Fresno pool. Bullard’s Knights had stacked up the score just before halftime.
“Second quarter we got a little crushed,” Dom Daddino said.
Didn’t matter. Sanger ignored the deficit and kept fighting. Avalos fed Wells another assist, and Wells delivered another goal with 32 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
“Every game we played, we cared more about winning,” Daddino said.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Aaron Avalos feeds the ball to Trenton Wells to score. The pair performed the move twice in the closing minutes.
furious defense, came from the three years playing alongside Avalos. “He’s left, I’m right,” Wells said. “There’s good synergy.”
And he said teamwork in general continued to develop. “Chemistry just got stronger,” he said. “We just work the best together.”
Girls beat Bullard 10-1
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Abby Ellis scored first for the Apaches against an overmatched Bullard squad just a minute and a half into the game at the Fresno school.
Then Addison Williams fired in a second about 35 seconds later. Goalie Bailee Poole, who had about a dozen blocks on the evening, prevented two scoring attempts by the Knights in those first several minutes.
In other words, Sanger being Sanger.
Near the end, Hannah Cooper slammed in a backhand goal for the Apaches’ last score. Final was 10-1. And the Knights
Avalos said he tries to keep his play clean, regardless of how the other team behaves. He said he and the other seniors will leave the Apaches in good shape. "They’re going to shoot to win every single game,” he said. “They’re going to work for it next year.”
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Addison Williams scores.
snuck that single score in on a long shot late in the first quarter.
“I’m excited for the post season,” Cooper said. She said Bullard felt more like a warm-up for post-season play. No. 7 seed Sanger hosted Paso Robles, No. 11, in the first round of the CIF Central Section playoffs Oct. 31. The winner faces No. 2 Clovis on Nov. 3.
“We’re looking pretty good,” Apache head
No. 11 seed Sanger played No. 6 Tulare Union in Tulare on Wednesday in the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section playoffs.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
coach Hillary Boos said. “Everybody’s healthy.”
Cooper said she had been practicing that backhand and figured, “It’s the last (regular-season) game, I might as well.” She said her Apaches have a good chance this year to advance in the playoffs.
Poole said her team, although it’s young, “pulled together, and it’s been a lot of fun.” She said she’s excited for the playoffs.
Aubrie Hartwig said her team is a tight group. “We’re definitely really close,” she said. “It definitely means a lot to play with close friends like that.” She said the team met a lot of its goals and really bonded over the season.
“That’s what makes our team special — we don’t give up.”
Final score, according to my notes, was 12-8 in favor of the Knights. Bullard’s Austin Kern scored near the end, most likely prompting that flurry of offense on the part of the Apaches.
The Apaches ended their regular season with a 4-10 record and, more importantly to them, the respect of their coach, Brian Kratlian. On the
game, he said, “For the most part, we just made too many mistakes.”
But when asked if he was proud of his boys, Kratlian said, “Absolutely.” He reiterated that at the post- game meeting with his team, several times.
Daddino said he believes “strongly” that next year’s team will continue to build on the intensity of this season.
Wells said those two final goals, which appeared to confound the Knight’s
Apaches advance to playoffs after SJM
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
After the game in a stadium long-timers say hasn’t changed in decades, a couple members of the victorious Panthers team visited the trainers’ tent where Tahj Webb nursed an injury he’d gotten midway through the fourth quarter.
Webb, who collected six tackles, nodded his thanks. He said he was not ambulatory.
That interaction on the sideline, that kindness and concern by wide receivers Jalen McMillan and Joshua Kelly, couldn’t have been more different than the intense animosity on display during the final season varsity football game at the San Joaquin Memorial stadium that ended in a Panther win of 41-25 on Oct. 26.
Sanger head coach Jorge Pena hinted at the battle royale after his post-game chat with his athletes. “I said, ‘We didn’t get what we came here to,’” Pena said. “But that they should be proud of how they played.”
Put into perspective, the Panthers, despite being Division III and Sanger Division I, had the conventional oddsmakers lined up in their corner. The team, now 10-0, emerged undefeated after mostly dominating every opponent this season. The lone exception proved to be Clovis East in a come- from-behind win of 28-21. The Panthers also crushed Edison, the only other team that previously beat the Apaches, who are now 7-3. That score was 41-14.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Kosi Agina, No. 6, scored two touchdowns during a heartbreaker of a game against rival Memorial on Oct. 26.
Gomez said. “That was our only goal. There was still time on the clock. We could still put up some points. That’s what we’re coached to do.”
The difference in the teams, Gabriel Webb said, is that many of Sanger’s players grew up together, played in Pop Warner Youth Football and bonded. “They just brought in their players,” he said of Memorial.
Jonathan Bravo, part of the offensive line, offered this assessment. “It was a tough game,” he said. “We played our asses off. And that’s what matters. We played Banger football.”
Defender Jude Groft gave a similar response. “I have the ultimate respect for my guys,” he said. “It was probably one of our best performances.”
The freshman team collected a 10-0 record after a 31-15 win over Dinuba. Junior varsity lost to the Panthers’ JV team 22-21 (even though it looked as if wide receiver Jose Lunar had a touchdown). Their record is 6-4.
Orlando Douglas ran the ball 15 times for 78 yards and two touchdowns. John Pena led in tackles with nine.
This week, No. 10 seed Sanger faces No. 7 Arroyo Grande at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 on the coast, 164 miles away.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Still, the Apaches ruled the first half against the Panthers, ending the second quarter with a bizarre, you- had-to-have-been-there play to end it 19-14. “The last few seconds were worth the price of admission,” said Dick Sheppard, Sanger Herald editor as the players left the field for the 15-minute break.
“We had the momentum and we didn’t execute,” running back Kosi Agina said on the walk to the borrowed Panthers’ locker room after the game. Agina scored two touchdowns, gaining 181 yards on 10 carries. He also caught two passes for 23 yards and
made seven tackles. However, on the drive
back to Sanger, master statistician Ron Blackwood said, “If they had played like that against Edison (on Oct. 19), the Apaches would have won. Put that in your column.” Ruben Bravo, his longtime spotter, echoed the sentiment.
Gabriel Webb, who has been relegated to the sideline watching because of knee surgery, said the Panthers earned little respect amongst his teammates due to on-field stunts and less- than-exemplary behavior. Memorial racked up 11 penalties for 128 yards,
compared with three penalties and 30 yards for Sanger.
“That’s why we want to beat them,” he said.
Webb said he and several teammates went to the Clovis East vs. Memorial game during Sanger’s bye week. While the visitors saw the closest the Panthers came to losing, they also discovered up close just how the private school could engineer a comeback.
“Clovis East was up 21-0,” Webb said. “But they won.” The Timberwolves failed to get another score as the Panthers put up three touchdowns in the second
half for a 28-21 win. Sanger faced that same
situation to some extent. “That first half we just came out and played,” said defensive back Robert Lopez. The second half not so much. “We had ‘em. We had ‘em.”
During the game and no matter what happened on the field, offensive lineman Steven Gomez stalked the sideline shouting encouragement, rallying his teammates. Like the rest, he didn’t give up hope that his Apaches would find the chink in the Panthers’ armor, resulting in their demise.
“We came here to win,”
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