Our winter teams competed in the first round of their CIF Regional Championships yesterday! Girls Soccer and Boys Basketball defeated strong teams from Aptos and Gridley high schools respectively in the first round of competition. Girls Basketball’s amazing season and postseason run ended with a loss to the #2 seed John Adams Academy, 29-54.
Girls Soccer
The Girls Soccer team beat Aptos High School, the recent winner of the Central Coast DIII section title, with a comfortable 2-0 score. This game marked the first round of the CIF State Girls Soccer Championships in Division III.
Elaina Bruntlett (‘27) outpaced defenders to score only five minutes into the first half, providing the team with an ample cushion before a goal by Dafne Perez Ruiz (‘27) off of a strategically choreographed corner kick five minutes into the second half.
The Coyotes felt a more confident energy in this game compared to the previous Section playoff games, the last two of which ended with high-intensity sudden death rounds, according to Perez Ruiz. She said, “We were a lot more calm and composed.”
She added that the goals, early on in the halves, helped them tremendously with maintaining momentum throughout the game, saying, “That gave us the ability to breathe and collect ourselves and calm the game down a bit.”
Avery Cline (‘26), one of the team’s captains, said that despite the calm energy, she was extremely proud of the team’s performance: “We pulled through. It’s all about the defensive game, right? Keeping that 1-0 lead, that 2-0 lead.”
The team will be playing in the semifinals against Salinas High School away on Thursday, who beat University High School 1-0 on Tuesday (the Coyotes beat University with a golden goal last Friday to win the Section title).
If the Coyotes win, they’ll compete in the NorCal Finals, and will be only a game away from taking the California State Championship.
For more information about the bracket, check out MaxPreps.
Girls Basketball
The Girls Basketball team’s deep playoff run unfortunately ended last night, as they fell to John Adams Academy 29-54 in El Dorado Hills, California. We at the Paw Print wanted to congratulate them on a great season! Their overall record is now sixteen wins and twelve losses for the year.
Siena Jasper (‘28), a sophomore mainstay of the team, was proud of the way that her team played their best against the number two seed in this CIF bracket. “I thought we showed up and showed out, and it was a good end of the season. I am so glad we got to bring our seniors all the way into March in basketball.”
Hana Harrison (‘26) agreed. She added that “we really battled hard, and it showed our cumulative growth this season.”
Even though the Coyotes came down on the wrong side of the scoreline, the game still had some bright spots. Their passing movements allowed them to circumnavigate the regional leaders John Adams Academy’s defense. “We got it all the way ahead to Mila [Hernandez (‘29)] or Summer [Weiner (’26)], which ended in a couple of points for us,” Jasper said.
Even though the team will be losing four seniors this year in Viv Cruz Rodriguez (‘26), Layla Zekarias (‘26), Weiner and Harrison, the future still looks bright for the team as they move into next season. “We definitely have potential in the future,” Jasper said. Grinning, she remarked, “if [the team] lost six seniors last year, and this is what happened afterwards, I believe in us.”
Boys Basketball
Last night, the Boys Basketball team took down Gridley High School 65-60 at home. Powered by Noah Martinez’s (‘28) playmaking and 3-and-1 play deep in the fourth quarter and multiple clutch three-pointer shots by Matteo Foehl (‘27), the team was able to successfully make its way through this first round of the CIF NorCal championships after trailing by three at the half.
Head Coach Kevin Christensen was extremely happy with the performance. “I was really proud of the boys. It was our first ever win in the [CIF Northern California] tournament, boys or girls. Never happened.”
The Coyotes’ hard 52-58 loss against the Eureka Loggers last Saturday really impacted the team. Theo Schneiderman (‘26), captain of the basketball team, noted that “coming into practice on Monday, it was pretty bad. Everyone was hella pissed, even [Christensen]. But, we persevered and played a good team from up north. We just wanted the dub, and that’s what we got. It was low energy, but we still won.”
Christensen agreed, adding that “I don’t think any of us were prepared with how emotionally draining it would be to lose, especially a game, you know, we felt like we could have won. For us to be able to persevere and bounce back last night, even after not having a great first half, to win that game, just speaks volumes about our team as a whole.”
Schneiderman also hit 1,000 points scored over his total career at Sonoma Academy in last night’s performance, which is truly no mean feat. “I honestly didn’t think I was gonna get it,” he said, “but we got 5 playoff games, so there you go, you know? We really clutched [the record] in the end.”
His breaking of the 1,000 point barrier for our school wasn’t the only reason this win was so historic. Christensen illustrated that “in the [CIF State] tournament, we are 3 wins away from playing for the state championship. Next Friday, in Sacramento at the Golden One Center.”
This winter season has been truly historic for every SA team. The boys basketball team has been nothing short of amazing, putting up some lights-out performances home and away. We’re crossing our fingers and hoping that we’ll be able to see the Coyotes light the beam (a post game tradition of the Kings, who play in the NBA at the Golden One Center) in Sacramento next weekend!
You can see their full bracket on MaxPreps here.
