As expected, the Sacred Heart Prep girls, Castilleja girls and Menlo School boys put the finishing touches on their regular-season water polo titles on Wednesday.
Perhaps unexpected, the Sacred Heart Prep boys did not as the Gators dropped a 12-7 decision to visiting Bellarmine and lost the regular-season crown in the West Catholic Athletic League.
“We certainly showed our youth and inexperience tonight,” said SHP coach Brian Kreutzkamp, whose team fell to 5-1 in league (14-6 overall). “They came to play and beat us in every single aspect of the game.”
The Bells held a 4-3 halftime lead before pouring it on in the third period with a five-goal outburst to take a 9-4 advantage.
Sacred Heart Prep, which dropped its third straight contest — losing twice on Saturday in the North-South Water Polo Challenge while finishing fourth — failed to convert any of its seven power-play advantages.
Junior Jackson Enright tallied three goals and senior Finn Banks added two for SHP with junior goalie JC Marco stopping 13 shots.
“I am hopefully we can turn this around and play them again in a few weeks,” Kreutzkamp said of the upcoming WCAL playoffs.
The rivals actually could meet again this weekend in the Memorial Cup, a 16-team tournament held at Bellarmine and Gunn. The Bells open at home on Friday against Los Osos while the Gators face Los Alamitos at Gunn at 10:10 a.m.
Should SHP and Gunn — the Titans host Foothill (Pleasanton) in the first round — win their openers, they’ll meet in Friday’s second round at 2:50 p.m.
SHP and Bellarmine would only meet if they both advance to the finals at Bellarmine on Saturday at 5:10 p.m.
The WCAL playoffs begin Tuesday with the finals set for Nov. 7 at Sacred Heart Prep.
The last time SHP failed to go 6-0 in the regular season was 2011. The Gators wound up winning the WCAL playoff title and then won the first of four straight CCS Division II titles.
The SHP girls, meanwhile, wrapped up another 6-0 season in the WCAL with a 16-7 dunking of host Presentation. The Gators (16-4 overall) jumped to a 7-0 first-quarter lead and cruised from there. Junior Maddy Johnston led the way with five goals with senior Malaika Koshy adding three. Addi Duvall, Nadia Paquin and Layla Waters all finished with two goals each.
In the PAL Bay Division, Castilleja and the Menlo School boys wrapped up perfect division seasons at the expense of their Woodside opponents.
Castilleja (7-0, 11-6) won its second straight Bay Division title with a 9-2 victory in the Wildcats’ pool. Senior Celia Aldrete, who scored the winning goal in overtime to give the Gators their first-ever PAL title last year, poured in six goals against Woodside. Jenna Kotcher, Madison Lewis and Maddie Macdonald all tallied once while goalie Georgia Lewis came up with 10 saves.
The Menlo-Atherton girls, meanwhile, topped visiting Carlmont, 6-3, to finish 4-2 in league (7-9 overall). Annabelle Paris tallied four goals to lead the Bears.
In Atherton, the host Menlo School boys won the PAL Bay Division crown for the 21st time in 23 years with a 20-5 dunking of Woodside. Senior James Thygesen led the way with four goals with Niko Bhatia, Ben Wagner, Miller Geschke and Sam Untrecht all adding three goals.
“Today was doubly sweet,” said Menlo coach Jack Bowen. “Today we celebrated our seniors in the last home game of their career and we also clinched the league championship.”
The Knights (6-0, 12-11) put the game away quickly by taking a 9-0 first-quarter lead. It was 12-4 at halftime. Giorgio Fatica led Woodside (4-2, 7-9) with three goals. Woodside junior Max Untrecht faced his brother, Menlo freshman Sam, for the first time and tallied once while Sam finished with three.
Menlo-Atherton, meanwhile, finished second in the Bay Division following a 26-8 romp over visiting Carlmont. The Bears (5-1, 13-6) got nine goals from Mostyn Fero, five from Christian Huhn and three each from Jorge Pont and Alex Hakanson.
Girls golf
Menlo School put itself in solid position to earn a possible at-large berth into next week’s CCS Tournament by shooting a 408 and tying for first place with Harker at the West Bay Athletic League Tournament at Poplar Creek in San Mateo.
The Knights were led by sophomore Sophie Siminoff, who carded three birdies in her 3-over round of 74. Menlo’s other contributing scores included an 81 by Jessie Rong, an 83 by Clarie Wilson, Nicole Henderson’s 84 and Lauren Yang’s 86.
Harker held the lead until Wilson, playing in the next-to-last group, posted her 83 to tie.
Sacred Heart Prep finished third in the team race with a 421 with Lauren von Thaden leading the way with a 78 while teammate Isabelle Chun carded a 79. The Gators likely won’t advance to CCS, but von Thaden and possibly Chun have shots as individuals.
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online Sports