Page 9 - Sanger Herald 1-25-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2018
Apaches put some pieces together, but still need the goals
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Madera’s Coyotes wanted a win and rallied repeatedly behind senior midfielder Brooke Gill in attempt to mount a scoring drive Jan. 17.
But this was Tom Flores Stadium, and Sanger High’s girls soccer team had senior defenders Jackie Segura and Sabrina Aguirre coupled with the talents of junior Monica Villicana. The power trio rebuffed everything the Coyotes engineered no matter how furious the assault.
“Really good game,” Aguirre said on the way to the locker room. “We should have won. We just need to push ourselves (a little harder).”
Segura agreed. “We just need to be hungry for the goal,” she said, adding that the elements are all in place with the team communicating and moving the ball. “We’ve improved a lot.”
The two teams fought. Hard. But even through two overtime periods, neither
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Apache Victoria Martinez wrests control of the ball from Madera's Brooke Gill in a showdown between the two teams at Tom Flores Stadium last week.
Senior forward Victoria Martinez initiated a number of offensive drives and woreabagoficeonher ankle after the game. “We couldn’t get the goal,” she said. “But we fought to the end and gave it our all.”
The Apaches have an overall record of 8-10-1, coming off a subsequent Jan. 19 loss of 2-1 to San Joaquin Memorial. The Panthers had just a slightly better record of 9-8-2 in the Division II County Metro Athletic Conference. Edison, which leads league standings with a 5-0 record, also defeated Sanger on Jan. 12 by a 2-1 score.
Madera has a less-than- stellar 4-9-3 overall record and likely saw Sanger as a way to improve its standing.
That wasn’t happening.
Apache goalie Brianna Alarrazabal said she felt more confident in the game and showed it with several key saves after Madera’s offense was allowed a brief opening.
“It was intense,” she said of the game.
She also mentioned that
Sanger’s improving. Jovanovic said the
girls played a very good first half. “We wore them out, and they couldn’t recover,” he said. “But we need the finishing touch. The finishing touch with patience.”
Jovanovic said the team has “real talent.”
As for the offense, it appears quite close to turning close games into wins. Junior forward Sarah Calderon thrilled the vocal Sanger fans with a couple of drives in the closing minutes of overtime. Martinez collided with a Madera player near the end of the first overtime near the Madera goal. And junior forward Rachel Pimentel also pushed into scoring position a number of times as did junior Audrey Reyna.
Next time.
At the Madera game was Consuelo Luna, who played on last year’s Apaches and this season’s Fresno City College Rams in the championship win against
See Soccer, Page 2B
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Sanger’s boys basketball team had just come off a big win against San Joaquin Memorial earlier in the week. The Apaches thumped the Panthers 85-75 even though the team has gained attention with nationally ranked sophomore Jalen Green.
Sanger fans went wild.
But that was then. On Jan. 19, the Apaches faced Madera South. On paper, the Stallions don’t quite measure up to the prowling Panthers. The two recent losses, Jan. 12 to Bullard 74-66 and Jan. 16 to Edison 64-52, indicated a team still gelling despite a 13-7 overall record.
However, over the past couple years a rivalry has formed between Sanger and it’s northerly neighbor.
“Something about Madera South,” said Caleb Bravo, a former Apache and purveyor of Maverick’s Screen Printing in Sanger, at halftime. “When they play Sanger, they elevate their game.”
Bravo was one of the many fans to pack the Coach Dean Nicholson Gym on Jan. 19. Whlle the crowd wasn’t the near capacity draw of the Memorial contest, it was substantial and loud — on both sides.
And Bravo was right. The Stallions did indeed elevate their game, winning 69-68 in overtime.
Madera South coach Jody Sharp said game-day intensity between the two schools has been high.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “Every time we play them, the games have been like this. You don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s been like this two to three years.”
Sharp also added, “It’s always good to win on the road. So you take it in put it in your back pocket.”
The Apaches were hardly pleased and disappeared into a classroom across
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
The Madera South Stallions made the Apaches work for every point on every possession Jan. 19 in Sanger. Here's guard Isaiah Cuevas shooting for three points.
found the goal. The result was a 0-0 draw.
Coach Sarah Bartley fed her players advice during the game as they passed close enough to hear. They nodded then moved on. Assistant coach Mihailo Jovanovic kept the praise flowing at a somewhat
higher decibel.
Their Apaches passed
ball effectively. They talked to each other. They moved the ball upfield, downfield and away from their opponent. And they kept control most of the game.
“The game was good,”
Jovanovic said after the second 40-minute half concluded. “I think we were the better team. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score. But the intensity of the play (is there). The execution and finishing, that’s the part we’re missing.”
A rival's elevation follows big SJM win
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
The struggle is real. Senior Apache guard Romeo Little fights to get the ball in overtime as Madera South center Kingsley Thomas does his best to hold onto the Stallioins' lead.
celebrity. Maybe it should. Stallion senior guard Hakeem Primes led scoring with a game high 25 points and seven rebounds while senior point guard Junior
Segura contributed 18. Senior Isaiah Rodriguez led the Apaches with 16 points, shooting six of seven from two-point range. He also had five rebounds. Norris added 11 points, and senior Romeo
Little scored 10. Sanger master
statistician Ron Blackwood said the Apaches had 17 turnovers. “But nine of them in the fourth quarter and overtime,” he said in his game notes. “They were five of 10 at the free throw line in the same periods.”
Rodriguez said he wasn’t overly concerned with the loss. “We’ve got to forget about this one and move onto the next one,” he said.
“We got kind of big- headed because we had a great game (against the Panthers),” said Cameron
Stanley, a junior guard. “We’ve got to come back tomorrow and play basketball.”
But the win against Memorial was a big one. In fact, photographer and major Apache and Bulldogs sports fan George Armenta said, “I’d say this is the biggest win we’ve ever had here.”
Another photographer, Vince Thao, who was shooting the game for his nephew, Little, said, “This is the most pumped up I’ve ever seen Sanger.”
Eugene Rodriguez, Isaiah’s dad, wore a big grin as the community mobbed the Apaches. “This is the best game I’ve seen him play,” he said of his son.
Little, who often does not say a lot after games, did offer this quote after the win against the Panthers. “Pump ‘em up,” he said. “Best defense in the league.
See Basketball, Page 2B
from the gym for a longer- than-normal conversation with coaches.
“We could’ve beat them,” said Scorpio Purnell, a player from last year’s Apaches. “But we weren’t playing our game. Against Memorial, that game we were playing our game. That’s how we won.”
That game, earlier that
same week, was flawless. Or at least it appeared to be. Whenever the Panthers got close in the second half to retaking the lead, the Apaches responded. Nearly everybody on the Sanger bench contributed. And the starting lineup, led by Morice Norris’ 25 points, did major damage.
Even Sanger’s mayor
showed up. “This is the big game,” said Frank Gonzalez. “That’s why I’m here.”
About that moment, Sanger Unified superintendent Matt Navo walked up. “Yeah,” he said. “You know when the mayor shows up it’s a big game.”
Madera South doesn’t usually elicit that kind of