Roundup: San Benito girls soccer team falls to Live Oak 1-0;
Anzar girls basketball routs Kehillah Jewish of Palo Alto
It took the San Benito Lady Balers all of four minutes to find
their
”
sea legs.
”
The two-time Central Coast Section Division I champions opened
their 2009 campaign on Tuesday night, and although first-game
jitters may have been apparent at the opening tip-off, they quickly
subsided midway through the first quarter – just 240 seconds into
the season, to be exact.
Roundup: San Benito girls soccer team falls to Live Oak 1-0; Anzar girls basketball routs Kehillah Jewish of Palo Alto
It took the San Benito Lady Balers all of four minutes to find their “sea legs.”
The two-time Central Coast Section Division I champions opened their 2009 campaign on Tuesday night, and although first-game jitters may have been apparent at the opening tip-off, they quickly subsided midway through the first quarter – just 240 seconds into the season, to be exact.
“Everyone had the first-game jitters,” San Benito post player Victoria Aguilera said, “but everyone got through them.”
Knotted at 8-all with visiting Seaside early on, the Lady Balers upped the tempo, the pressure, and never looked back. Closing out the opening period on an 18-1 run at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, San Benito routed the Spartans 58-16 in non-conference action Tuesday, and seemingly picked up where it left off during last season’s title run.
“It’s your first game, you know, and I think we were real hesitant on team defense the first three minutes,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “We weren’t moving our feet real well – kind of like sea legs, in my opinion.
“But once the rhythm of the game started, I felt like our kids got real confident and that’s when we started to play better team defense.”
Forcing nine turnovers in the first quarter, San Benito quickly turned an 8-8 ball game into a 22-8 romp, and in one minute and 37 seconds, no less.
“Tempo change, definitely,” said Aguilera, who led all scorers with 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting Tuesday. “Overall, we had good defense, and offensively, we just brought the tempo up, definitely.”
Aguilera scored 10 of her 14 points in the first quarter – San Benito led 26-9 after eight minutes of play – and anchored an inside-outside strategy that the Spartans had little chance of defending.
“It worked out great,” Aguilera said. “The guards hit their shots and the posts hit their lay-ups.”
San Benito (1-0) will return to action next Tuesday when they will visit North Monterey County (1-0) in Castroville. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
SBHS Girls Soccer
Live Oak deposited the game’s lone goal in the 75th minute and narrowly defeated the San Benito girls soccer team 1-0 Tuesday in the 2009 season opener in Morgan Hill.
The Lady Balers, who lost to the Acorns by a 3-1 margin last season, were knotted in a scoreless tie at halftime with the Morgan Hill school. But despite posting some 16 shots on net in the game, San Benito couldn’t find the equalizer.
San Benito (0-1) will visit Santa Cruz next Tuesday. Kick-off is 3:30 p.m.
AHS Girls Basketball
The Anzar High girls basketball team easily won its 2009 opener against Kehillah Jewish High 42-17 on Tuesday night, keeping the private Palo Alto school to single-digit point totals during each quarter of play.
Kelsey Robledo led all scorers, and even single-handedly outscored Kehillah by herself, when she deposited 20 points to lead Anzar, which improves to 1-0 on the early season.
The Hawks will return to action on Thursday against Saint Lawrence Academy of Santa Clara. Tip-off is 6 p.m., in San Juan Bautista.
