With their two victories last week, the Coronado High School Boys Basketball Team improved their overall record to a very respectable 17-6, which includes a 7-2 mark in the Central League. Both victories, though lop-sided, had the feel of a ‘grind it out’ sort of game. That concept particularly applied to Friday night’s home game against Crawford, which featured 57 free throws between the two teams, in the second half alone. More on that concept a little later.

Monday evening the Islanders hosted Clairemont, a team Coronado defeated on the road in their first swing through the Central League schedule, despite yielding 25 offensive rebounds to the Chieftains. In the re-match Coronado “fixed that problem” according to Head Coach J.D. Laaperi and prevailed by the score of 53-43. “We were up 18 with a couple of minutes to go and we let them hit three three-pointers,” Laaperi said. “I thought our kids played well. Danny Hebert and Justin Hebner had 15 points each.” In addition, Billy Schmitt posted a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The Clairemont game was the season finale for Hebner, as the junior guard who was the team’s leading scorer for the season will not be eligible to play due to grades. Hebner however provided considerable assistance in a supporting coaching role Friday night in the Crawford game, according to Laaperi. “When we went down 19-10, I called timeout and Justin got in Danny’s ear and told him ‘they can’t cover you.’ That flipped a switch for Danny, who scored 11 points in the second quarter.”

Hebert played an outstanding game for Coronado, finishing with 25 points, six rebounds and four steals, while keying the Islanders 20-0 run in the second quarter which clinched the game. Hebert fouled out of the game late in the third quarter on a startlingly bad call on a block/charge play under the Colts basket. The game officials let the game get physical in the first half and attempted to rein in the contact in the second half. Both teams were in the bonus midway through the third quarter.

There were several key performers in the contest for Coronado, none more important than Schmitt, who Laaperi said “played his best game of the year.” Schmitt scored in double figures for the fifth consecutive game, this time finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. Twice Schmitt was on the receiving end of beautiful bounce passes from Peter Zeller, who had attacked the basket and found Schmitt rolling to the hoop and finishing for scores.

Hebner’s scoring load had to be picked up by others and Josh McNeal did his part and more with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Laaperi liked what he saw from his senior guard. “For the first time since I coached Josh on the JV, he had to play the entire game. He was just dead tired at the end.” McNeal was playing with a heavily taped hand, which covered a floor burn the size of a quarter picked up during practice earlier in the week.

Laaperi noted that other contributors to the victory included Eric McAdam and Tyler Hill-Hanson. “I liked what Eric did. He was our first sub in for Josh and gave us good minutes. Tyler also gave us some great minutes. They work hard in practice and I told them both they were going to have to give us between five and ten minutes each Friday night. Neither of them had any turnovers and both players had some steals and points.”

Bryan Beverly scored six points and grabbed nine rebounds. Chris Maskevich was active in the middle for the Islanders with six rebounds and three steals.

This week Coronado is home for two games, hosting Madison Tuesday at 4:45 pm. Friday Christian comes to down for a Girls/Boys doubleheader, with the Girls game tipping off at 6 pm and the Boys game following at approximately 7:30 pm. Christian’s Boys team is currently undefeated in Central League play and as you will see below, is ranked in the county.

North County Times Basketball Poll

For those of you who follow basketball on the county-wide level, here is the current Sportswriters/Sportscasters Boys Prep Poll from the “North County Times.” 1. Hoover; 2. Foothills Christian; 3.Torrey Pines; 4. La Costa Canyon; 5.Christian; 6.Lincoln; 7.Eastlake; 8.Morse; 9 Poway; and 10. Escondido.

Not To Be Outdone, CHS  Girls Basketball Wins Twice, Too

Keeping pace with their counterparts from the Boys Basketball Team, the Islander Girls Basketball Team earned two Central League victories as well last week. The Girls started their week on the road at Clairemont, where they won 34-29. “It was a little tighter than I would have liked,” opined CHS Head Coach Toler Goodwin. “Clairemont is awkward and we don’t play well there. We have dumped some games there over the years. Last year it cost us a tie for the league title. We split with Kearny (the eventual Central League champs) and lost at Clairemont. It was a slow, lethargic game.”

It was also a physical game, as guard and the team’s leading rebounder Alex Evans split her chin, an injury that eventually required five stitches. Evans wanted to re-enter the game, but Goodwin nixed that concept, although he admired the sentiment behind it.

Four players scored for Coronado, including Samantha Kirk and Nicolette Abrantes with six points each, Peri Curtis with 13 and Maggie Harris with nine.

The Crawford Colts came to town Friday night and this contest was physical from the outset. Harris, who is the Islanders primary outside shooting threat, went down with a left knee injury a mere two minutes into the game, after accidentally colliding with the knee of a Colt defender. After reviewing the game tape, Goodwin said, “Hopefully Maggie will be healthy, but we’ll have to see. She had her leg planted and made contact with another player. She was knocked down a couple of times earlier in the year. We’ll see how she is moving Monday.”

The Islanders lead the game at the conclusion of each quarter. The scores were 5-4 at the conclusion of the first quarter, 15-14 at the half and 23-22 at the end of three quarters. “I was proud of the way we got ourselves under control after Maggie went down,” said Goodwin of his team. “It was nice to see them step up after that. We were able to answer any run they made and we made some shots when we needed to. We played a pretty good fourth quarter.”

In fact Coronado held the Colts scoreless for the first 7:08 of the final frame, going on a nice 12-0 run to eventually win the game 35-24. Kirk, who is a freshman guard, scored on a jump shot near the end of the third quarter and then knocked down another jumper to start the Islanders decisive run. Curtis then scored on two layups, both of which came on assists from Cory De Marco. Kirk hit another jumper on a feed from Curtis and the Islanders were off and running. Abrantes snared an offensive rebound and hit a follow shot. Kirk then scored on a layup, which accounted for the last of her 10 points.

Goodwin discussed Kirk’s contribution to the team. “We’re basically all guards and she plays primarily as a wing or a swing player. She jumps and runs well and has the ability to shoot the ball very well. She has had to step up to the pace of her game and last week she started coming on. She is getting more comfortable and with confidence comes success. She needs to get stronger and develop a willingness to run into people. When she does that, she will be fine. She made some key plays in both games.”

De Marco scored three points, but played a fine floor game with six assists and six steals. Curtis had 14 points, six steals and three rebounds. Evans, playing with a bandage on her chin that looked like the lower end of a football helmet, had eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Abrantes accounted for five points and four rebounds.

“Passes from Cory and Alex that set up layups were keys to the game,” Goodwin said. “I thought Peri, Cory and Alex played well and under control. Basically they had the ball in their hands the whole game. They controlled the pace and where we needed to go. Defensively, we were not going to let them turn the corner,  dribbling the ball with their strong hand. Coco, Sam and Alex did a much better job of containing their dribblers and where they went with the ball.”

Tuesday the Girls travel to Madison for a 4:30 pm game. Friday they host Christian at 6 pm.

Girls Water Polo Takes Ninth at Tournament of Champions

The third and most important state-wide tournament of the prep Girls Water Polo season was played last week in Santa Barbara. The Islanders finished in ninth place in the 32-team event, and along the way, won four of the five games they played to run their record to 16-8.

The tournament started on Thursday and first up was Carlsbad. The Islanders won that handily 9-5, after jumping to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Ashley Young, who would go on to score 18 goals in the tournament and earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team, lead the way with three goals and drew three exclusions. Sidney Hoshko scored twice and single goals came from Kelly Ronimus, Shelby Couture, and Hillary Estrada. Goalie Colleen Moore had 12 saves, including one on a penalty shot. Brooke Bernardy returned from a hand injury sustained a couple of weeks ago to play in goal and was credited with two saves in roughly five minutes of play.

The turning point of the tournament came in Thursday’s second game, an 11-10 sudden victory, or in this case a Coronado loss, to Laguna Beach. “We spotted them four goals in the first quarter,” said Coronado Head Coach Dave Throop. “We stayed with it and played better as the game went on. We developed some momentum through the game and did some better things. There was some incidental contact called on us with 25 seconds left in the overtime period. The game was decided on incidental contact.”

Young’s four goals again set the offensive pace for Coronado, followed by Couture’s three goals. Maddie Murphy, Hannah Green and Estrada contributed single goals. Ronimus lead the Islanders in assists with three. Moore had nine saves and a steal in goal.

With the loss, the Islanders completed the event in the Consolation bracket, which in this tourney means the teams are still very competitive. Next up Friday was El Toro, a team that Coronado defeated in their America’s Finest City Tournament. “It was good to match up with a team like that in their (geographic) area,” said Throop. “We came out and played well and I was happy with the fact that we rebounded from the loss. We are a movement and transition type of team, plus I felt good about our defense. El Toro was an even better team two weeks later than the team we beat in the AFC finals.”

Young erupted for six goals and two steals, Ronimus dished out four assists and Estrada and Hoshko scored single goals. Moore was credited with 10 saves and Bernardy again played the final portion of the contest and had two saves.

Deuces were wild Saturday as Coronado knocked off Montebello, aided in large part by the fact that the Islanders scored on their first three possessions of the game on their way to a 12-4 victory. The ‘deuces’ reference comes from the fact that Young, Ronimus, Couture, Kaylee Ginnane and Kendall Martin all scored two goals. Ronimus had three assists and four steals, thereby disrupting the ‘deuces’ story line. Couture had two assists and two field blocks to right the literary ship, so to speak.

The Islanders’ tournament finale was played against Vista. The two teams aren’t strangers as this is the fourth time they have met this season. The two clubs played a scrimmage game; played again in the Coach Draz Classic which is another pre-season game; Coronado won over Vista in the AFC Tournament semi-finals; and the Islanders prevailed here 10-9 to earn ninth place.

“Vista is a much different team than we played in the AFC Tournament,” Throop said of the No. 1 ranked team in CIF San Diego Section Division I. “It was an opportunity to see how a team would attack us, that is familiar with us. We came out early and played well, but we let them back into the game. I could tell from the body language of our players in the water and on the deck that our focus and mindset wasn’t right. I had seen it before on film from the Bishop’s game. We allowed Vista to get under our skin and allowed them to isolate and we didn’t recognize it. Vista did a good job.”

This week Coronado hosts La Jolla Tuesday at 5 pm and then travels to Bishop’s Thursday for a 3:15 pm game. The Islanders’ regular season concludes Friday night with a home game with Foothill. It will be Senior Recognition Night for the Islanders.

“For the most part we’re headed in the right direction,” Throop said in summary of the season thus far. “Whether we win or lose the last game (CIF Finals) depends on how we put everything together in the next three weeks.”

Islander Girls Soccer Keeps on Truckin’

Please pardon the 1960’s pop culture reference in the sub-headline, but the CHS Girls Soccer Team hung another 2-0 week on the Western League since our last visit, emerging with victories over Our Lady of Peace and La Jolla. First up was a 4-0 home victory over OLP, which featured single goals from Cassie Callahan, Kaitlyn Couture, Stephanie Hamilton and Stefanie Pietkiewicz. Cory De Marco earned the shutout in goal.

“It is a combination of the fact that OLP is real young and the prior week we were a little flat and finally stepped up,” said Head Coach Kiko Medina in assessing the one-sided score over the historically strong OLP squad. “We scored three goals early on and cruised for the rest of the game. The last two weeks we have been hurt a little bit and have had some illness and some injuries. This week we have been able to slowly get players back.” Medina went on to say that midfielder Arden Gillberg had begun light training after sustaining a recent injury, with an eye toward being 100 per cent healthy for the team’s CIF Playoff run.

The second game of the week was a 2-0 victory over La Jolla, which Medina said was a “bit of a struggle. La Jolla does a good job of staying busy and being aggressive. They were first to every ball in the first half and put a lot of tight pressure on us. We were playing nervous, but we adjusted in the second half. We started winning the 50-50 balls and took advantage of our mismatches. We got Mallory Mitchell going on the left side and we created a lot of chances from that.”

After earning a corner kick on a shot on goal that caromed out of bounds off of the La Jolla goalie, Mitchell scored on a corner kick. “Mallory hit it to the front post and bent it in the net,” Medina said. Ali Culora was on the front post, dummied it and let the ball go into the net for the goal.”

The second Islander goal started with Katie Centeno, who passed to Mitchell. Medina picks up the narrative. “Mitchell did a great job at the top of the box, turned her player and kicked it to the far post. That shut the door at 2-0. De Marco had another shutout and five saves.”

The Islanders are at the top of the Western League table (soccer term) with a perfect 6-0 mark. Tuesday the Islanders travel to Cathedral Catholic for an important game which starts at 6 pm. “Tuesday is kind of big,” Medina said in an understatement. A victory over the Lady Dons would virtually assure Coronado of their second consecutive Western League title, a feat that has never been achieved in Islander Girls Soccer history.

Boys Soccer Ties and Loses in Central League

Although last Monday’s home game against Hoover was a tie, it felt more like a loss to those in attendance, as the Cardinals rallied from a 3-1 deficit to score the equalizer (yet another soccer term) with less than a minute to play in injury time. When combined with a 2-0 loss at Lincoln later in the week, the Islanders are essentially out of contention for a Central League title.

“After we lost to them 3-0 at their place, we had to change our system,” said Islander Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu. “We went to a 3-4-3 to pressure their fullbacks. We closed them down early and didn’t give them time on the ball. We lacked a little discipline late in the game. Their last two goals were counter-attacks and we didn’t transition quickly enough on defense. We weren’t aggressive. Sometimes you need to make a tackle. We are trying to work on bringing a soccer personality to the game. We are soft. We can play with anybody, but when we are soft, it hurts us.”

On the plus side, Eddie Vita scored three minutes into the game and Riley Peterson scored on a header 12 minutes later to provide Coronado with a 2-0 cushion. Hoover scored at the 6:57 mark and the score was 2-1 at the half.

With 25:34 remaining in the game, Nate Hoffman scored Coronado’s third goal, which seemingly put the game in the victory column for the Islanders. Hoover scored exactly two minutes later to make it 3-2. Connor Marcone made a save on a Cardinal shot attempt with 9:40 remaining, kicking the ball off the goal line, while goalie Patrick Toomey was recovering from an acrobatic save and out of the goal crease.

“We weren’t intimated,” said Hiatt-Aleu of his team. “We showed character in coming out and taking the game to them. We just didn’t finish it off. I have no problem with losing. I just want to lose to teams that are better than we are. These things happen, but the problem was that we let it carry over into Friday at Lincoln.”

This week the Islanders host Central League-leading Clairemont Wednesday at 4:45 pm. Friday Coronado travels to Christian for a 3 pm game.

Islander Alumni College Baseball Note

Recently an E-mail arrived at Nado Natterings World Headquarters from good friend and former Baseball Booster Club President Rick Fink, that was of interest. A college baseball doubleheader played between Pomona-Pitzer and Westmont College featured an Islander Baseball alumnus on each team.

Tim Leary was the clean-up hitter and DH for Westmont, while Kyle Pokorny played second base for Pomona-Pitzer. It was the first two games for both teams this season. In the first game Leary was 2-5 with six RBIs, including a grand slam, game-winning homer. Pokorny got a hit in the second game, and had seven putouts and four assists in the twin bill.

The point isn’t who won or lost, but that the Islander Baseball program has progressed to the level that several grads have now played at the ‘next level.’ A few short years ago, the same point could not have been made.

Brief Super Bowl Thoughts

The Natter Wife and Your Natterer hit our recliners with a vengeance and joined 114.1 million of our closest friends and watched Super Bowl XLIV Sunday afternoon. The fitty glowed and brightly displayed the results of the coverage provided by 60 cameras on site. Just a stray thought here, but if a mere 30 cameras had been deployed, no one would have known the difference.

It’s a good thing that Your Natterer doesn’t have a bookie on retainer, as I would have bet the condo on the Indianapolis Colts to win, even giving the five points. I might have retained possession of the bottom floor of our abode, as I was equally convinced that the 56 points for the over/under scoring total was too high.

The Better Half was rooting for the Saints and I had $1 on the Colts with the Natter Son, so the die was cast. If Pierre Garcon doesn’t drop the pass in the second quarter, I am convinced the Colts win. But in between, Betty White was a riot playing touch football in the mud at the age of 88 and our chips and salsa proved to be a refreshing treat, so all was well.

 I truly enjoy football, but frankly I was ready to move along to something else, anything else, about a month ago. Now we get to read about the NFL lockout in 2011 and where LaDainian Tomlinson’s will play in 2010. On second thought, where is that tape of the Pro Bowl from two weeks ago?