St. Francis gets wins in field hockey, girls tennis

All Julian Montoya could think about was not allowing his team to fall behind.

The Menlo-Atherton boys water polo senior and team captain was about to take a penalty shot in a tied game with its rival Woodside.

With a possible Peninsula Athletic League title on the line, Montoya delivered a shot into the back of the net with 23 seconds remaining in the third period to put the Bears ahead to stay in an 11-6 victory over the Wildcats on Thursday evening.

Menlo-Atherton (15-4, 7-0) took a two-game lead over two-time defending league champion Woodside (10-4, 6-2) with three games remaining to play.

“We haven’t clinched anything yet,” Montoya said.

M-A will be favored to finish unbeaten in league play but that doesn’t mean the Bears are comfortable. The school has been waiting for a boys title since 2014, when the league championship always went through Menlo School, now competing in the West Catholic Athletic League.

Woodside’s program has been on the rise, beating M-A twice during the 2019 regular season. The Bears, en route to the Central Coast Section Division I title, upset Woodside in the CCS playoffs that season.

Winning a PAL Bay Division title is unfinished business and M-A won’t be satisfied until it has a championship in its collective hands.

The Bears are at home the rest of the way, with Mills coming in Monday and Burlingame coming in Wednesday. They also play Aragon.

Woodside has a bye Monday and meets Aragon and Sequoia in its two final matches.

If everything falls into place, Wednesday could bring a double celebration. The M-A girls are currently tied for first place with Burlingame.

Woodside, which beat M-A the first time around, fell out of a three-way tie for the lead when the Bears won 8-3 earlier Thursday.

After Montoya broke the 5-5 tie, M-A went on a scoring spree, opening a 9-5 edge in the fourth period on goals from Jackson Garff, Owen Taylor and Montoya on a second penalty shot.

Garff and Montoya each finished with three goals. Taylor and Jon Goker each added a pair of goals. Karim Nasr also scored.

Andrew Mills scored three goals for Woodside.

M-A goalie Jake Taylor did his usual magic show in the net, somehow keeping the Wildcats from going on any kind of run, though they had several opportunities.

The M-A girls broke a 2-2 tie by outscoring the Wildcats 6-1 the rest of the way. Whitney Allen scored three goals to lead the way. Cate Whittaker and Amelia Peyton each added a pair of goals and Ella Nelson also scored.

Elsewhere, the Gunn boys remained unbeaten in the SCVAL De Anza Division (10-0) with a 18-6 win over visiting Homestead. The Titans play powerhouse Mater Dei in the opening round of the North vs. South Challenge on Friday afternoon.

Harvard Westlake scored twice in the final two minutes to edge Sacred Heart Prep 14-13 in a non-league match Thursday night.

Harvard Westlake is the No. 3 seed in the North vs. South tournament while SHP is seeded No. 2.

Luke Weigle gave the Gators (15-2) a 12-9 advantage early in the fourth period but Harvard Westlake kept pounding away. SHP’s final lead was with 2:29 remaining when Jake Tsotadze made it 13-12.

Gavin West scored three goals and had two assists for SHP. Jack Vort added two goals and two assists. Weigle, Tsotadze, Luke Johnston and Will Swart each scored twice.

In other girls games, Castilleja fell (12-5, 10-1) into a first-place tie in the De Anza Division after dropping an 11-5 decision to Los Gatos (15-4, 10-1).

The game was tied at 3-all at halftime and then Los Gatos exploded for six goals in the third period.

Sydney Lowell scored three goals to lead Castilleja. Serafina Cortez and Talula Seale also scored.

Gunn won its match by default when Homestead could not field a complete team.

Girls golf

In their final SCVAL regular-season match, Gunn seniors Alanna Lee, Athina Chen, and Catherine Chu came up big.

The trio led Gunn to a 209-232 win over Saratoga at the Baylands Golf Links, par 37.

WCAL girls golf match: Valley Christian 199, St. Francis 207.

Lee delivered a season best round of 2-under-par 35. Chen and Chu were close behind, each with a solid round of 40.

Rounding out the scoring for Gunn were junior Stephanie Yu with 46 and freshman Namya Kasturi with 48.

The Titans finished the regular season in third place with a 5-4-1 record in the SCVAL De Anza Division. Palo Alto won the title with a 10-0 record.

The SCVAL Tournament will be played Tuesday at Santa Teresa Golf Club. Gunn will be vying for a berth in the CCS Championship, to be played on Nov. 2.

Menlo-Atherton and San Mateo tied, each scoring 250, in a PAL match at Poplar Creek Golf Course.

Nathalie Benrey shot a 41 and Katie Spivakovsky fired a 45 for the Bears, who will compete with both San Mateo and Aragon in a special playoff at Poplar Creek on Tuesday. The PAL tournament will be held at Poplar Creek on Thursday.

Girls volleyball

Menlo School won its 13th consecutive match, defeating Notre Dame-San Jose 25-8, 25-20, 25-11 at home Thursday.

The Knights (23-5, 7-0) play at Harker Tuesday. That’s followed Thursday against Notre Dame Belmont for senior night, and then Sacred Heart Prep (21-3, 6-1) on the road.

Against NDSJ, sophomore Cleo Hardin recorded nine kills and senior Zoe Gregory had five aces and 15 assists.

Senior Simone Adam added seven kills on .778 hitting while Hanna Hoffman had 15 assists and senior Hallie MacDonald recorded 13 digs for the Knights.

Sacred Heart Prep stayed a game behind Menlo, beating Mercy Burlingame 25-23, 25-12, 25-17.

Senior Millie Muir recorded a triple-double with 10 kills, 11 digs and 30 assists to lead SHP. She also added a pair of service aces.

Mia Radeff added nine kills, Dani Parker and Isabelle Marco each had seven kills and Tatum Baker had six.

Marco added 14 assists, seven digs and three aces while Ellie Wheeler recorded 20 digs and Kellyn Zim added nine. Iris O’Connor, Sara Alnajjar and Eduarda Sjobom also scored for the Gators, who play at Notre Dame in Belmont on Tuesday.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Palo Alto beat Mountain View 25-13, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21, further scrambling the standings behind leader Los Gatos (17-4, 8-0). Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos each have three losses with three matches to play (Mountain View has two remaining) and all three of them have a match remaining with Los Gatos.

The Los Gatos vs. Los Altos match originally scheduled for Thursday night was moved to Friday, Oct. 22.

Palo Alto won its first two sets, dropped the third set and was trailing 15-9 in the fourth set before rallying behind senior outside hitter Thea Enache, who delivered the final, emphatic, point.

In the PAL, Menlo-Atherton fell at home to Aragon, 24-26, 25-14, 21-25, 25-19, 23-2, Woodside lost 25-13, 25-9, 25-16 to league leader Hillsdale and Sequoia was swept by Burlingame 25-21, 25-21, 25-13.

Girls tennis

Gunn won on the road at Santa Clara 7-0 to improve to 8-1 in the SCVAL El Camino Division and 9-5 overall.

In other SCVAL matches, Palo Alto fell 4-3 to Homestead and Los Altos beat Saratoga 5-2.

In the PAL, Menlo-Atherton topped Aragon 7-0, Woodside beat San Mateo 5-2 and Sequoia knocked off Mills 7-0.

In the WCAL, St. Francis beat Sacred Heart Cathedral 7-0.

Field hockey

St. Francis (10-1-1, 7-1-1) beat Presentation 3-0 Thursday in a SCVA De Anza Division contest, setting up a rematch at undefeated Los Gatos on Tuesday.

In other games, Los Altos fell to Mitty 1-0 and Palo Alto ended in a 1-1 tie with Cupertino.

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