12 COMMUNITY NEWS GROUP • JANUARY 22, 2010
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Lady Eagles steal game from city rivals, boys continue season-long slide
the half with six rebounds. In addition, Glenn (13-6, 2-2) missed 10 free throws in the first half and were outrebounded 23-19. “The only thing that worried me was their starters were on the bench and we were only up by eight at half,” Parra said. The sloppy play by both teams continued in the third quarter as each team scored seven points. In the fourth quarter, Norwalk By Loren Kopff chipped away at the lead thanks to Love, who scored 10 of her game-high 17 points. The turnover statistics are overwhelm- With 1:09 left in the game, junior Giselle ing for the Norwalk girls basketball team in Sanchez scored her only field goal to make it a negative way. John Glenn has also seen a 43-41 contest. But 22 seconds later, Acuna its share of ball handling issues but in bas- dished a pass to junior Sharae Moten to inketball, there are no crease the lead to ties; someone has to four points. With SUBURBAN LEAGUE win. 25 seconds remainBASKETBALL Whether it’s in ing, Love would convincing fashion, grab a rebound from or an ugly win, Glenn will certainly take a missed free throw but the ball was turned any victory it can get against its cross-town over and following a missed field goal, jufoes and last Friday, the Lady Eagles had nior Arlene Gomez put back an offensive 29 steals as they ended a four-game los- board to seal the victory. ing streak to Norwalk in a 48-42 triumph. “The problem with my team is it seems Norwalk turned the ball over 38 times and like the sloppiness comes from the half court has averaged just over 27 miscues each time set,” Parra said. “It wasn’t the full court it hits the court. Since Jan. 1999, Glenn is pressure that Norwalk brought on us. It was 17-6 against the Lady Lancers. what they did in the half court, especially in “It felt good,” said John Glenn head the second half. That’s what frustrates me. coach Linda Parra. “They played hard; our We’re not seeing the left side of the floor guards played really hard. We were very very well.” lucky to win that game.” Senior Karina Rodriguez tied her careerNorwalk (8-10 overall, 2-4 in league) high of 14 points and pulled down eight rescored the first five points of the game as bounds while Moten added 10 points, eight Glenn missed on its first 10 shots from the steals and five rebounds. Norwalk had 10 field but was able to tie the game at the 2:43 more rebounds than Glenn with Love getmark of the opening quarter. A steal and ting 15 of them. Norwalk visited Artesia this basket from senior Carla Acuna closed out past Wednesday with someone picking up the first quarter with Glenn leading 12-10. its first league win. Tonight, Norwalk will The close game began to fade away for the be home to La Mirada, then welcome MayLady Lancers late in the first half when ju- fair on Wednesday as the second round of nior Arlene Gomez stole her second pass league play begins. The Lady Eagles visited and turned it into her only basket of the half Bellflower this past Wednesday and will be with 41 seconds left, giving the hosts a 24- home to Artesia tonight and La Mirada on 18 lead. Although Glenn would lead 28-20 Wednesday. at the half, the big story was Norwalk senior Alexis Love sitting on the bench for the en“This was a very big game for us because tire second quarter with three fouls to her we had dropped those two to Mayfair and name. She would score only three points in Cerritos that were really good games,” Parra said. “We needed this win. I think playing on Wednesday was beneficial to us. At least we kept our legs fresh.” On the boys side, it was another loss for the Eagles, who haven’t won a game on the court since Nov. 30. Despite holding Norwalk senior Anthony Holliday to a seasonlow six points, Glenn fell behind early and never recovered in a 45-27 loss. Glenn is now 2-13 overall with one of those wins coming in the forfeit fashion. “That seems to be the pattern,” said Glenn head coach Darin Elisaldez. “It’s become a habit and we’re trying to break through those barriers of possibly mental fatigue. We let things get away from us and it kind of steamrolled. But I love the heart of these guys. I can’t question the heart or desire.” The Eagles were down 12-2 but managed to creep back to trail 20-16 late in the first half on a basket from senior Will Perez. But the Lancers (9-10 overall, 2-2 in league) scored the next eight points, including the first basket of a low scoring third quarter. Both teams combined for a dozen points in
the third quarter and the Eagles were down by 12 points heading into the fourth quarter. Holliday scored his only field goal with 5:26 left in the game, which made it a 37-21 contest. Junior Manuel Castaneda led everyone with 12 points while sophomore Terrance Traylor had nine rebounds. Glenn was led by senior Jose Escobar’s eight points but it was the play of junior Andy Aguirre that drew some praise from Elisaldez. He grabbed 20 rebounds with 15 of them coming in the first half. “Andy is a great athlete,” Elisaldez said. “He’s just learning the game. If he were to understand the little things, the nuances of the game, he’s going to be an extremely strong rebounder if he goes to the next level.” The Eagles, who have finished no better than sixth place for eight straight seasons, are trying to avoid their third straight season of at least 20 losses. They would need to win at least three games to avoid that. “We always feel we should be in the game no matter who is on the other side of the floor,” Elisaldez said. “We have different matchups but none the less, we come to bring it no matter who is on the other side.”
when junior midfielder Blanca Meza took a shot that went off the fingertips of Glenn senior goalkeeper Vanessa Ochoa and just under the crossbar. For Meza, it was her first tally of the season. The remainder of the first half would be owned by Glenn, especially Mendosa and senior forward Diana Jimenez. The two completely owned the right side of the field, crossing beautiful passes that the Norwalk defense couldn’t get to in time. In the 23rd minute, Jimenez put her team in front when her shot from the right corner of the penalty box found the left side of the net. Eight minutes before halftime, Norwalk junior Andrea Lomeli stopped one of Glenn’s seven shots of the half. But Mendosa retrieved the rebound and scored the eventual insurance goal. “What we were doing before was have [senior] Evelin [Pineda] go as a defensive midfielder rather than an attacking one because we’ve been having a lot of injured players,” Sandoval said. “At this time when we had a full squad, we were able to have Erica stay as a defensive midfielder and move Evelin to the right side.” “Our defense wasn’t reading it right away,” DeVries said. “Towards the second half, they started getting it a little bit better. We did make a switch that helped a little bit on that end.” The final goal of the game came in the 67th minute when senior midfielder Jasmin Ortiz fed a pass to Jimenez who scored her fourth goal. It was the first time that Jimenez, who led the team with 15 goals last season, had scored multiple goals this season. By Loren Kopff The Lady Eagles, a 4-16 squad last season that finished in sixth place, visited BellflowThroughout the majority of December, er this past Wednesday, weather permitting, life was good for Norwalk girls soccer head and will host Artesia today. On Wednesday, coach Wendy DeVries. Almost 10 months the team is home to La Mirada. following the school’s As for the Lady first trip to the CaliSUBURBAN LEAGUE Lancers, they went fornia Interscholastic to Artesia this past GIRLS SOCCER Federation-Southern Wednesday and Section playoffs, her will come back team had begun this season 3-1-1, she gave home for games against the league’s top birth to Dylan Duke two days before Christ- two teams-La Mirada today and Mayfair on mas and she was looking forward to another Wednesday. solid Suburban League season. “These girls have much more skill than But the new decade hasn’t been what what they’re showing,” DeVries said. “But she had expected as the Lancers dropped for some reason they’re lacking in determitheir fourth straight game after a 4-1 setback nation. In practices they show a lot of good to John Glenn last Friday. Norwalk remains qualities but it just doesn’t transpire in the the only team without a league win or tie games. We’re going to go back and keep while the up and coming Lady Eagles went working on what we need to work on.” to 4-6-1 overall and 1-3 in the circuit. “In the summer time, everything was looking good,” DeVries said. “Right before league started, I lost my assistant coach and with him, I lost quite a few players and continued to lose players. So, we’ve been trying to regroup since the winter break.” “We actually don’t emphasis just one win,” said John Glenn head coach Gilberto Sandoval. “When [my coaching staff] got this program, we told them it was going to take time for us to get it straight. We take it as it is and it’s a win and we’re looking By Loren Kopff forward to the next one.” Streaks of any type are meant to be broGlenn set the tone in the fifth minute ken and the Norwalk boys basketball team when senior midfielder Erica Mendosa will definitely remember Jan. 20, 2010. scored her second goal of the season. But That was the day that the Lancers, behind six minutes later, Norwalk tied the contest a game-high 16 points from senior Anthony
John Glenn’s Jimenez, Mendosa double trouble for Norwalk
Holliday gets back on track, Lancers post rare win against Artesia
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