Statement Title Win for Gators LAX

By Terry Bernal - Daily Journal Staff
Sacred Heart Prep 18, Serra 1
See Full Story


In pursuit of their fifth regular-season league champion, the Sacred Heart Prep Gators saw the door open Wednesday for an outright title.

Thursday, in their regular-season finale, the Gators delivered. Big time.

SHP opened with 17 straight goals — a new season-best — to rally for an 18-1 victory at Serra, claiming the West Catholic Athletic League regular-season title outright. Entering the week, the Gators were tied with rival Menlo School atop the WCAL standings, but that changed Wednesday when Menlo fell 12-6 to St. Ignatius.

The Gators have now won five straight titles in three different league. They started the streak in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with championships in 2014 and ’15, then moved to the Peninsula Athletic League to win two more in ’16 and ’17. This is SHP’s first season in the WCAL.

“We’re really excited,” SHP head coach Chris Rotelli said. “This is what we wanted to do. So, the way it shakes out, you get to win the regular season then you go win the tournament championship. We always feel like the tournament one means a little more because that’s the last game you get to play. And we want to win our last game. … So, it’s going to be a competitive end of the season.”

One of the biggest storylines for the Gators this season was their navigating the WCAL without their star player, Jack Crockett, who hasn’t played since March 17 due to a back injury. The team’s leading scorer for the previous three years, his absence was felt especially last week, when the Gators themselves lost a 7-6 thriller to St. Ignatius.

Many of SHP’s players were in attendance for the S.I.-Menlo showdown Wednesday, which helped to motivate and to propel the Gators heading into Thursday’s finale and, more importantly, into next week’s WCAL playoffs.

“Losing by 1 to S.I., then having Menlo take a bigger loss to them is motivating to us,” SHP junior attacker Joe Sonsini said, “because we’ll probably face both of them next week in the semifinals and the finals. So, it’s exciting.”

Sonsini totaled two goals at Serra, but was a navigating force in setting up an offense that dominated throughout. The Gators stayed on the attack for the first four minutes of play, with junior attacker Tommy Barnds fronting the explosive showing. Barnds scored a hat trick in the first quarter en route to totaling a match-high seven goals.

Entering play Thursday, SHP’s best scoring streak to start a game was 15 goals, this in the second match of the year in non-league action against Menlo-Atherton. The Gators opened with 18 straight goals against Serra, with the Padres getting on the board to start the fourth quarter on a score from junior Brendan Callagy.

“We just came out firing, got some good shots and possessed the ball for a while,” Sonsini said. “Yeah, we just played well.”

Goal No. 16 on the day, the one that put SHP past its previous season-best, came from the stick of freshman John Carter. A recent call-up from the junior-varsity squad playing in just his fifth varsity game, the well-timed three-touch combination from Alex Bean, to Patrick Hagerty, to Carter marked the first goal of the freshman’s varsity career.

“We’ve got a lot of great freshman on this team and the JV team,” Rotelli said. “So, John Carter came up and he’s contributed right away, playing a big role. … He’s got great skills, a great nose for the game. And it was nice to see him get a goal there.”

Quietly, amid the flurry of goals, SHP junior goalkeeper Cody Wiebe stepped up to hold Serra scoreless. Wiebe gave way to the reserve goalies by the time the Padres scored in the fourth quarter. The junior had the best seat in the house early on as Serra didn’t take the ball past midfield until the Gators were already up 4-0.

Wiebe was on point when he got tested though, showing the chops that were prevalent in last week’s showdown with St. Ignatius. Despite the 7-6 final in that one, it was quite a shootout that saw Wiebe and S.I. goalie Mac Gates — who once upon a time played on the same little league lacrosse team — put on a show.

“Both goalies … had over 15 saves each,” Rotelli said. “That was a game where there was a lot of offense, but the goalies just played out of their minds. … It was just two evenly matched teams playing a tough game. That was just a great game.”

Wiebe said it was just such competition that made SHP’s move to the WCAL a welcome one.

“I think we were just excited,” Wiebe said. “S.I. was a team we’d never played before. They’ve been a great team in Nor Cal the last couple years and we just wanted to get our opportunity to see how good we were and really test ourselves against the best.”

Teddy Vought added three goals for SHP and Wilson Weisel had two. Hagerty, Larry Hart, Billy Barnds and Paul Barton added single scores.

The eight-team, single-elimination WCAL playoffs start Monday, with semifinals Wednesday and the championship game Friday. SHP, as the regular-season champ, will host every match it plays. The WCAL playoffs mark the end of the boys’ lacrosse season as the sport is not recognized by the Central Coast Section and therefore, as do other sports, has no CCS postseason.
Back

Sacred Heart Schools Atherton

Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton

150 Valparaiso Ave
Atherton, CA 94027
650 322 1866
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12