Bellarmine 2

Well, our JV Team (Soph.) finally got some of needed competition that we lack in our league and previous tournament play. We had to rise early to meet the better teams and these teams (Menlo, Los Altos, Serra) are consistently top finishers in CCS play at the varsity level. Needless to say, they have considerable experience playing at higher levels of play. We lost the 8 a.m. opener with Menlo 3-6 and played O.K. but could not generate much offense. The second game we lost to Los Altos, 5-8 and did not play to our potential. The third and final game was with Serra, who had demolished Los Altos in dominate fashion, we lost that game 8-10 and shut them down third period, while scoring twice to pull within one goal (7-8) before the final period commenced. We were outscored 2-1 in the final period but showed considerable determination throughout the game. My favorite moment was when Sam Sunde was ejected for trying to steal a ball and Chimay Skinner dropped into goal and teammates packed the "strike zone"; he made two consecutive field blocks and we recovered the ball after a "scrum" in front of the cage to keep Serra from scoring on the goalie ejection! We used our only timeout to set up the front court but could not convert before time ran out. Serra was by far our best game and shows that we can compete with a top team.


Main issues are lack of crisp wing outs on the counter and recognition of weak side drivers early. We also need to work on getting ball side on our drives, drive timing and spacing, and switching to help. Our man up advantage leaves much to be desired yet and is an area to improve on vastly. These will be things to work on before the RLS game and beyond.


Very impressed with our goalie play. Jordan Miller had twelve saves, Sam Sunde had nine and three steals. These guys plus the consistent and solid field defense of Kenny Doo; who had three steals and many defensive stops at 2m D., helped keep the scoring differential reasonable. We can be even better at defense as a team but are looking to help each other more with each game.


Overall Stats for Bell. #2 JV:


Zack Olivas: 4 steals, 10 goals
Chimay Skinner: 2 assists, steal,3 goals
Trey Coppinger: 1 steal, 2 goals
Matt Gibson: 2 assists, 5 steals


The Fr. Team is getting better with each game. They are learning to value inside water both defensively and offensively and they are beginning to see the field better and find open players. Part of learning is gained just from playing games. They have competed with both Fr./Soph. and Fr. teams and will have more challenges at the Monte Vista Tournament on Oct. 9th. We are able to play them is some of our JV league contests as well. They will have good tests of their knowledge and skills at our own JV tournament at the end of Oct, when we conclude the season for most of the JV and all of the Fr. players. Their competition will be with JV programs at that point. Our depth and numbers are remarkable for the size of our school. Remember that we are "stretching" their abilities whenever we can; as we try to prepare them for JV & Varsity challenges in the future. Fr. lost to Valley Christian Fr./So 3-9; lost to St. Ignatius Fr./So. 10-17, beat Monte Vista Fr. 17-8.


Stats. for Fr.:


Ethan Crane: 12 saves (back after missing about 10 days with a cold)
Alon Yoeli: 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 saves, 6 TO's, 17 goals (68% shooting efficiency),
Dylan Larson: 2 steals, 4 goals (80% shot efficiency)
Jackson Trapin: 2 steals, 3 goals (33% shot efficiency)
Joe Bergen & Peter Mellinger 1 assist each