Pirates girls tennis doubles team advances to CIF Individual Tournament, while SYHS girls water polo is eliminated by CIF division’s top seed
On Friday, Nov. 7, the Santa Ynez High football team got to do something it hadn’t done in 15 years — host a CIF playoff game as the Pirates took on the Dos Palos Broncos of the West Sierra League in the Central Valley in a Central Section Division IV game at Rio Memorial Field.
However, the contest would end up being the end of the season for the No. 6-seeded Pirates as they fell to the 11th-seeded Broncos 14-0. The loss not only meant elimination for SYHS, but was the first time since 2019 the Pirates had been shut out in a game.
The game was not an offensive masterpiece as the Pirates gained 212 yards of offense, a season low. While offensive statistics for Dos Palos were not provided, the Broncos were able to move the ball at times, and while able to score the two touchdowns, had other scoring chances foiled by an opportunistic Pirates defense.
SYHS forced three turnovers on the night, with Diego Pulido getting an interception to stop a DPHS scoring threat just before halftime, and Greyson Foy and Levi Snow had fumble recoveries. Also, Ayden Finley blocked a Broncos field-goal attempt in the third quarter to prevent another DPHS score.
However, the Pirates were partly done in by a familiar bugaboo: Penalties. At least one of the Broncos’ scoring drives was helpled by flags thrown against SYHS. In the second quarter — after the Broncos had a touchdown called back on a penalty — DPHS’s Jesus Bon kicked a field goal, but a Pirate defender was called for rough- ing the kicker. The Broncos decided to accept the penalty and take the field goal off the board, and a couple plays later, DPHS’s Andre Flores ran it in from the 1-yard line and with the extra point, the visitors had a 7-0 lead.
On their next drive, the Pirates thought they had a potential game-ty- ing TD when Jude Pritchard hit Jaxson Glover with a 35-yard scoring pass, but SYHS was called for an illegal man downfield penalty to negate the score. That drive ended when Pulido missed what would have been a school-record-tying 47-yard field goal.
The Broncos added to their lead in the third quarter when quarterback Quinton Herrera threw a 62-yard TD to Bon, who added the extra-point to make it 14-0, where the score would stay until the final siren.
The game was a disappointing end to the season for the team and head coach Josh McClurg, who was frustrated at the penalties that hurt his team.
“We just killed ourselves tonight,” McClurg said. “I’ve been telling these guys all year not to lose their composure, and tonight we kept getting these unsportsmanlike-conduct flags, which I have to say about 90 percent of them were warranted. They just need to learn they can’t keep taunting or they’ll get called on it.”
Despite the ending, the coach had a lot of praise for the team and how they rose above expectations this year.
“I’m very proud of these guys, proud of the work they did to get here,” McClurg said.“For instance, with our defense, at the beginning of the year, we didn’t know what we had, and they really stepped up and improved, and they kept us in the game tonight.”
The Broncos went to lose to third- seeded and undefeated McLane High of Fresno 46-7 in a Division IV quarterfinal on Nov. 14.
Girls tennis duo advances to CIF Individual Tournament
The Santa Ynez High girls tennis team is out of the team playoff for this year, but one of its doubles teams qualified for the CIF Individual Tournament at Garces Memorial High in Bakersfield last weekend, Nov. 14 and 15.
Keegan Withrow and Haley Townes breezed through their two matches in qualifying on Nov. 9, defeating Atascadero’s No. 2 team of Castorinas and Carbona 8-0 in Round 1, and then AHS’s No. 1 team of Sanchez and Luchetti 6-0, 6-2. They are the No. 9 seed in the CIF tourney; results were not available at press time.
SYHS’s Danielle Hyland won her first match against Morro Bay’s Maggie Apple 8-6 and lost her second match 4-6, 2-6 to SLO’s Zoe Stackhouse. She did not advance to CIF.
Girls water polo falls to top seed in CIF-CS Division III
After defeating Exeter in the first round of the CIF Central Section Divi- sion III playoffs, the SYHS girls water polo team got to face Sierra Pacific, the division’s top seed in the second round. There, the Pirates’ season came to a close with an 8-3 loss to the Golden Bears from Hanford.
Angelina Lefemine, Eleanor Murphy, and Paige Reynolds got the goals for SYHS, who finished the season at 13-11, including a 3-3 mark and third-place finish in the Sunset League.
