Taken together, the Coronado High School Boys and Girls Soccer Teams did not yield a goal last week, in the collective total of five games they played. Just because they played and won one more game, we’ll kick off this week’s sports coverage with the Boys Soccer Team.

Starting their competition week Monday, the Boys hosted Canyon Crest in an early evening affair at 6 pm. The last time Canyon Crest played in Coronado, the Ravens left town with the championship hardware from the Islander Invitational Tournament, and on that basis had to be considered the favorites in the head-to-head meeting.

Well, not so fast. After a scoreless tie at halftime, the Islanders stepped on the gas in the second half and emerged with a 3-0 victory. “We dominated the game from start to finish,” said Islander Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu. “We were really consistent, mistake free and we played with a little bit of maturity. It was good to see the boys play really well. That victory brought a lot of confidence to the team for the rest of the week and hopefully for the rest of the season.”

The Coronado goals were scored by Jake Schwartz, Riley Peterson and Eddie Vita. Goalie Patrick Toomey was credited with the shutout.

Since last week’s major thunder storm failed to materialize, the Islanders were able to get their game with Crawford in on Wednesday. The Islanders won 1-0, but paraphrasing Hiatt-Aleu, this game had a ‘war of attrition’ feel to it. “We were tired at the half against Crawford from our work Monday night. In this game we scored early off of a corner kick and we just held our ground. We were strong in our defensive third of the field. Their playing field is gigantic and it the largest legal field you can have. We moved the ball around and the confidence from our win Monday night helped us out. We frustrated them and found a way to grind out a win.”

In the Canyon Crest victory, Hiatt-Aleu only substituted two players. Wednesday afternoon 17 Islanders played in the game. “I told the kids after the Canyon Crest game that it will take all of you to win during the rest of the week. Lots of kids got minutes and it was good to see everybody contribute on Wednesday and Friday.”

Nate Hoffman scored the lone Islander goal. Toomey again earned the shutout.

The field conditions continued to decline through the week and Friday’s game at Madison was played on “the worst field in the league,” according to Hiatt-Aleu. “Once again we scored in the first half and really, we should have put them away. After winning Monday and Wednesday, there was no way we weren’t going to win this game. We had numerous scoring opportunities, but the important thing was that we got the three points (for a league win) and didn’t give up a goal. We didn’t play extremely well, but we found a way to win.”

Senior Jake Schwartz scored Coronado’s goal in the 1-0 win. Hiatt-Aleu elaborated on the defensive center midfielder’s contributions. “He’s starting to use his size a little bit and he is giving us a strong presence in the middle. We use his height on set plays and on corner kicks. Jake scored Monday and Friday off of throw ins.”

Coronado is now 12-3-1 overall and 4-2 -1 in the Central League. This coming week is important to the Islanders chase for a league title, starting with a Monday home game against Hoover at 6 pm. “Playing at home should give us an advantage, but we will have to pressure them hard from the beginning. We are a team that needs to grind out results and take our opportunities off of set plays. It takes a total team effort, including our substitutes. Having everybody contributing last week really helped us and we haven’t given up a goal in the last four games.”

The second game of the week is a Friday road game at Lincoln, which is set for a 3 pm start. The last time the two teams played, the contest ended in a controversial tie game.

CHS Girls Soccer Keeps Kicking and Earning Wins

If you read the opening paragraph of this week’s tome carefully, you have figured out by now that the CHS Girls Soccer Team posted a perfect 2-0 week and didn’t yield a goal in the process. Or as Head Coach Kiko Medina said of the week’s play, “I can’t say we played two great games, but we played well enough to win and that is really all we can ask for.”

Starting their weekly festivities Tuesday at home against University City, Coronado dominated University City 3-0. Two of the goals were scored by Lauren Tobin on assists from Mallory Mitchell. The third was an unassisted goal by Demi Waitley. Cory De Marco earned the shutout in goal.

Medina described Tobin’s goals in detail. “They both came on crosses from Mallory and were both great headers. Lauren used perfect form and had great power on both. It was good to see her finish those chances. We have been working on that for a while. University City didn’t have many chances to score because we were clogging the middle of the field on defense.”

Thursday Coronado hosted Christian, the second of last week’s games that flipped their field location due to potential field condition problems. “It was a little bit of a struggle,” Medina said of the 1-0 home win over the Patriots. “But we got the result. Cassie Callahan scored on a corner kick from Mitchell. Size-wise we match up well with other teams, but we haven’t capitalized on that as much as I would have thought we would. It was great to see it happen and to finally get it done.”

This week the Islanders host Our Lady of Peace Monday at 4 pm and then travel Thursday to La Jolla for a 3 pm game. The return match with the Vikings is important in the Western League standings, according to Medina. “That’s a big game. Another good result against them would, in a sense, wrap up league for us. That would put us a 6-0 and shut the door on everyone else. Cathedral lost to La Jolla and if we win, that would give both of them two losses.”

Girls Soccer Golf Tournament Fundraiser Reminder

A reminder that the Third Annual CHS Girls Soccer Golf Tournament is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12 at Sea N Air Golf Course at NAS North Island. The event will have a 12 noon shot gun start, with the tournament fee of $100 per golfer. The fee includes greens fees, a golf cart, a box lunch and a dinner ticket. Players can register through Friday, February 5th and sponsorship opportunities are still available.

This is the major annual fundraiser for the CHS Girls Soccer program. For additional information, please go to www.islandersgirlssoccer.com. Click on the link on the home page which says ‘Golf Tournament.’

Islander Girls Water Polo Wins Three More Games

Counting their five victories on the way to a title in their own 32-team America’s Finest City Tournament from two weeks ago and last week’s perfect 3-0 mark, the Islander Girls Water Polo Team has now run off eight straight victories. That makes their overall record 12-7, to go with a perfect 3-0 mark in the Western League.

Last Monday Coronado traveled to Cathedral Catholic, where the Lady Dons employed a pre-game ritual to psyche themselves into a winning frame of mind against their visitors. Coronado won 11-3, so back to the drawing board on that concept.

“It was a game where everybody played,” said Head Coach Dave Throop. Apparently someone or perhaps it was just the other team, annoyed Ashley Young as the senior scored six goals and committed five steals. Other stats included two goals, two steals and an assist from Shelby Couture; one goal, two assists and a steal for Maddie Murphy; Kelly Ronimus had a goal and a steal; Kaylee Ginnane contributed a goal and a steal, while Hillary Estrada dished out six assists and was credited with two steals. Colleen Moore played in goal for three quarters and had three saves and two assists. Brooke Bernardy played the rest of the game and had three saves, including a save on a Cathedral penalty shot. Unfortunately, Bernardy sustained a broken finger in practice the following day.

Wednesday the Islanders to hosted Bishop’s in a game that was re-scheduled due to inclement weather from the previous week. Due in large part to Coronado defeating Vista in the AFC Tournament the week before, Coronado and Bishop’s are now ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in San Diego County.

Coronado dominated the game early, taking a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, which became 5-2 at the half. When the Islanders scored 16 seconds into the second half to extend their advantage to 6-2, it looked like this could be a rare one-sided result in the long Coronado vs. Bishop’s rivalry. Coronado eventually prevailed 6-5, but had to play hard to earn the victory. A brilliant save by Moore with 22 seconds remaining in the third quarter prevented the Knights from gaining even more momentum.

Young led Coronado with two goals and three steals, with single goals coming from Estrada, Murphy, Ginnane and Ronimus. Moore had eight saves and field blocks from Estrada (two) and Ronimus (one) were important elements in the close victory as well. Coincidentally, both teams were 2-7 in their man advantage situations.

“There were some positives,” Throop said of the game. “They forced us to play their style. Our defense was active and we made some mistakes on offense. But we made up for them on the defensive end. That was one of possibly three times we will play Bishop’s. We have another league game and if we play them a third time, it will be for the CIF championship.”

The third game of the week wasn’t competitive, as Coronado defeated J. Serra of Orange County 15-4. In what turned out to essentially be a scrimmage, the Islanders were up 6-1 at the end of the first quarter and 10-1 at the half. The game marked the varsity debut of freshman goalie Emma Renly, who had three saves in 10 minutes of game action.

Another player making big strides after playing on the JV last year is junior Kendall Martin, who had three assists in the game. Murphy and Young had three goals each, followed by Estrada and Lauren Carroll with two goals each. Single goals came from Megan Meloche, Ginnane, Sidney Hoshko, Couture, and Ronimus. Assists, steals and field blocks were too numerous to mention.

“The next two weeks will be challenging, but fun,” Throop said. The team does not play this week until Thursday when they compete in the Irvine SoCal Championships. This 32-team event is now considered to be the unofficial state championship for Girls water polo. Coronado is seeded third in their bracket and they open with Carlsbad in the first round. If the Islanders win, they will play again at 8 pm, likely against Laguna Beach. In the quarters they could see Los Alamitos. The latter two games present opportunities for the Islanders to avenge one-goal losses suffered earlier in the season to those two clubs.  

CHS Girls Basketball Splits Two Central League Results

Last week the CHS Girls Basketball Team played their first game at Kearny High School Wednesday, which was a rare makeup game in basketball. The first time the two schools were scheduled for Central League play, a leaky roof at Kearny caused postponement of the contest.

Kearney, which holds the lead in the Central League race with a perfect 7-0 mark, defeated the Islanders 49-32.

“It was a relatively close game,” said Coronado Head Coach Toler Goodwin. “We were behind 17-15 with 35 seconds to go in the first half. They got a steal and converted a three point play. On the same play Cory De Marco got her third foul, which hurt. It was a three or five point game with five minutes to go and we rushed some possessions. They hit a couple of three pointers. They deserved to win and they got better scoring from their secondary scorers. They outscored us in every quarter.” The Islanders were paced by Maggie Harris with 12 points and Peri Curtis with 10. De Marco wound up with five points.

In basketball, there is always another game to play and in this case it was at Point Loma on Friday night. Coronado won this one 37-26 behind 14 points from Curtis, eight each from Nicolette Abrantes and Harris, and with seven points coming from De Marco. The unusual stat line of the night came from Alex Evans, who snared 12 rebounds, but did not score. Curtis also had five steals and nine rebounds. Harris turned in a solid rebounding night with eight.

“We turned the ball over too much,” Goodwin said of his club. “We had opportunities that we didn’t convert and we weren’t shooting from the foul line like we should.”

Looking ahead to the CIF Division IV playoffs, Goodwin said the Islander should be in the middle range, somewhere between seven and ten in the 16-team field. Goodwin has La Jolla Country Day, Bishop’s, Mater Dei, Santa Fe Christian, Imperial, Horizon and Parker in the first grouping, with Coronado coming into the playoff picture at that juncture. “To move up we need to beat Crawford and Kearny the second time we play them,” Goodwin noted. “It would help to secure second place in the conference. We want to get the No. 7 or 8 seed to host a home game in the playoffs.”

This week the Islanders play at Clairemont Monday and then play at home Friday night in the front end of the Girls/Boys doubleheader against Crawford at 6 pm.

Boys Basketball Falls at Point Loma

With their mid-week bye in Central League play, the Islanders lone game last week was at Point Loma Friday night and Coronado came out on the short end of the 56-49 score. The loss places Coronado’s overall record at 15-6, 5-2 in the Central League.

“Point Loma was physical and their kids played really hard,” said Islander Head Coach J.D. Laaperi. “There were a lot of fouls called both ways and it took us a half to get a sense of things. We were down four with 32 seconds to go, but we missed a three and they went down and scored. It was a free throw exchange after that.”

Justin Hebner paced the Islanders with 26 points and four rebounds, Billy Schmitt added 10 points and five rebounds, with Chris Maskevich chipping in seven points and six rebounds.

“Billy Schmitt played really well,” Laaperi added. “He played good defense in the second half. Point Loma has four kids over 6-5. Chris Maskevich did a great job of matching up against his man. Josh McNeal played well for Danny Hebert. He was all over the court defensively and took care of the ball on offense.”

Hebert was off his game due to an ear infection and had a rare scoreless game. He was still credited with four rebounds.

The Boys Basketball playoff picture is similar to the Girls, with the Boys figuring to be in the No. 7-8 range for seeding purposes. On the Boys side, a total of 12 teams will make the Division IV playoffs. Laaperi scouted the opposition. “Christian and Bishop’s are both good and Parker is good and has everyone back. They went to the finals last year. If Army-Navy can put their talent together, they could be a dangerous team. Santa Fe Christian and Army-Navy are both ranked ahead of us and we have beaten them both. Hopefully that will help.”

This week the Islanders host Clairemont for a rare Monday home game at 5 pm. Friday night the Islanders host Crawford at 7:30 in the second half of the home Girls/Boys twin bill.

Track and Field Info

If you are interested in participating in Track and Field at Coronado High School this spring, members of the squad are meeting with Head Coach George Green at the high school track weekdays at 3 pm for preseason training. You can also check islandertrack.com for information or contact Coach Green at 435-3633.