Dolphins Win 50-40, Advance to City Division II Semifinals

The last time Palisades High was still playing football after Thanksgiving, the seniors on this year’s team were barely old enough to carve a turkey. Perhaps that is why the Dolphins seemed to savor every morsel of last Friday’s 50-40 City Section Division II quarterfinal romp over host Sun Valley Poly’ for whatever they do from here on out is pure gravy. The victory ensured the Dolphins their first winning season since 2000, when they went 8-3 and lost to Birmingham in the first round of the reached the City Invitational semifinals. The second-seeded Parrots (9-3) simply had no answer for Palisades’ wishbone attack, which sliced through the Poly defense like a warm knife through butter. Malcolm Creer rushed for 162 yards and three touchdowns in just eight carries, Hakeem Jawanza had 145 yards and one touchdown in a mere six carries and Arte’ Miura added 98 yards and one touchdown in eight carries for the Dolphins, who piled up 434 offensive yards. “The Poly game taught us to believe’ believe in special teams and the offense that we can come up with big plays when we need them,” Jones said. “It taught us perseverance and that if we want it bad enough we can take it.” The seventh-seeded Dolphins (7-5) feasted on numerous Poly miscues to build a 36-20 halftime lead and led by at least two scores the rest of the way. Nathan Dodson threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Mann, Kemonte Reed ran for a short touchdown, Brian Brewer intercepted a pass and Kolmus Iheanacho made seven solo tackles for Palisades. Kevin Ervin ran for 316 yards and four touchdowns in 28 carries and Edgar Alejandro added 138 yards and two touchdowns in 22 carries for Poly, which pulled to within 43-34 in the fourth quarter before the Dolphins put the game away with a late touchdown. Poly needed just three plays to score on its first possession, but the Dolphins answered on their first drive and tacked on another score at the end of the first quarter to lead, 15-7. The Parrots crept to within 23-20 in the second quarter but Palisades got two more scores before halftime. This is the furthest Palisades has advanced in the playoffs since 1999 when it lost to Gardena, 46-20, in the City Invitational semifinals. Awaiting the Dolphins in this year’s round of four Friday night is sixth-seeded Chatsworth (10-2), which beat No. 14 Panorama, 35-28, last week. “They’re well coached, they run the ball out of a spread formation and defensively their linebackers read the play very well,” Jones said. “They run a Cover 3 so hopefully we’ll be able to exploit some things. They’re a lot like us, a rebuilding program and I expect a tough game.” Palisades is the lower seed so the Dolphins will be on the road again. Kickoff is 7 p.m. Friday at Chatsworth High. Tomorrow’s winner meets the Arleta-Fairfax winner in the finals December 10 at East L.A. College.

Palisades High Winter Sports Begin This Week

It could be all or nothing for the Palisades High boys’ varsity soccer team this season. The Dolphins want to build on last season’s momentum when they made the quarterfinals of the City Section playoffs. “From a mental standpoint the whole culture has changed,” coach Dave Suarez said. “When you go further than you’ve gone in a long, long time and you’re disappointed with the way you finished, that says something about the program.” Palisades opened the season Tuesday in a nonleague game at San Pedro with no players academically ineligible. The alumni game was two weeks ago and the alumni beat the varsity 5-4 in overtime. Forwards Steve Diaz and Shane Centkowski figure to get plenty of goals with support from midfielders Kevin Strangeway, Marvin Lemus and Lucas Weatherby-Johnson, among others. Freshman Wes Gallie started the opener at sweeper and Brian Escalona at stopper, flanked by Zack Peters-Vernier (left fullback) and David Joy (right fullback). Brandon Newman replaces All-City goalkeeper Casey Jordan, who graduated last spring. Three other starters–Alex Anastasi, Jack Jordan and Nate Cutler–are still playing football, so when they return to the lineup the Dolphins will be both deep and talented. “Our first goal is to win league because that will give us a higher seed and more home games in the playoffs,” Suarez said. “We’ve got potential to score a lot of goals, we just have to keep working hard.” Palisades hosts Santa Monica next Monday and plays in the San Pedro Tournament December 4, 11 and 18 at various sites. Girls’ Soccer New coach Tianna Oliver doesn’t know what it’s like to lose. She never lost a game in seven seasons with the JV and looks to continue that success on varsity. “I expect us to perform like champions,” Oliver said. “My philosophy is to strive for perfection in everything we do. When we all buy in, that’s how we win.” Oliver prefers the 4-4-2 over the 4-3-3 formation the Dolphins used under former coach Kim Smith. She believes the best defense is a good offense: “I believe in attacking, attacking, attacking.” Back to fill the nets are forwards Kathryn Gaskin, Samantha Elander, Lilian McGuire, Katie Van Daalen Wetters and Jacklyn Bamberger. The midfield will be patrolled by returners Meredith Kornfeind, Marika Lundberg, Zoie Aliado and Grady Gitlin and the defense is anchored by Deborah Abber, Brittany Aliado, Nicole Savage, Tiffany Falk and Sarah Thorson. Senior Kiki Bailey starts in goal backed by Molly Kornfeind. Palisades opened with an intersectional game against Harvard-Westlake Wednesday and hosts its annual Holiday Showcase this weekend at Stadium by the Sea. The varsity plays Granada Hills Kennedy at 4 p.m. on Friday, then Roosevelt at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Stockdale at 7:10. Gaskin scored 27 goals to set the school single-season scoring record last season. She needs 30 to break Lucy Miller’s record of 88 career goals. Boys’ Basketball A return to ball-hawking defense is what coach James Paleno wants to see from his veteran squad this season. The Dolphins played too much run-and-gun for his taste last winter and an early exit from the City playoffs was the result. “We have all juniors and seniors on varsity, so we have most of last year’s team coming back,” Paleno said. “Hopefully, we can be a little more consistent at stopping the other team than we were last year.” Despite playing in the toughest league in the City Section with the likes of perennial powerhouses Westchester and Fairfax, the Dolphins still want to improve on last season’s third-place finish. Once again, Paleno has scheduled strong tournaments to prepare his team. Palisades opened the season Monday with a 52-51 victory over Long Beach Jordan in the first round of the Pacific Shores Tournament in Redondo. The Dolphins played Harvard-Westlake in the quarterfinals Wednesday. Next week, Palisades plays in the Santa Monica Tournament, the week after it goes to the Hosea Christmas Invitational and on December 27 the Dolphins open the Oaks Christian Holiday Invitational against Los Angeles Price. Seniors Everett Osborne, Nathan Nazarian, Malcolm Creer (still playing football), Adam Griffin and Ilya Ilyayev are joined by juniors Rob Brown, Christian Boyer, Alex Frapech, John Burton, Dominick Brown, Brenden Otero, Kahlil Johnson, Tyler Duke and Donovan Johnson, who was second in scoring with 14 points per game last season. Girls’ Basketball Forget about league. Never mind winning the City Section title. Coach Torino Johnson has loftier goals for the Dolphins, who return all but two players from last year’s squad that lost to Harbor City Narbonne in the first round of the playoffs. “I believe we will advance far in the state tournament,” Johnson boldly predicted. “The Western League goes through us this year and we’re versatile. We can play any style we need to play to win.” Ashlie Bruner returns at the point guard spot and will distribute the ball to shooting guards Skai Thompson and Kylie Mizushima, center Donae Moguel and forwards Asia Smith and Nicole Flyer. Johnson added former Palisadian-Post Cup winner Leilani Estavan to his coaching staff. In 1999, she led the Dolphins to the state finals in Sacramento before playing in the Pac-10 at Oregon State. “Leilani has been exceptional,” Johnson said. “She’s very humble. She’s volunteering her time and the girls are learning a lot from her.” Palisades opens the season with its annual Beach Invitational this week. The Dolphins routed Marymount 56-25 on Tuesday and continued pool play Wednesday against Dorsey. The semifinals are Thursday and the gold, silver and bronze division championship games are Friday, from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. Rounding out the roster are Kristen Thomason, Jessica Wang, Kseniya Shevchuk, Emerald Bonds, Monica Ide, Amanda Alexander, Hannah Akmal and Hayley Hutt.

Over the last two seasons, Washington University women’s volleyball defensive specialist Ali Hoffman has enjoyed playing–and winning–with sophomore outside hitter and fellow Palisadian Drew Hargrave. The Palisades connection propelled the Bears to the 2009 NCAA Division III championship and to the semifinals of this year’s tournament, where they fell to top-seeded Emory, 18-25, 29-27, 25-21, 25-20. The Bears finished the season 35-4 and posted a record of 69-8 in the Palisadians’ two seasons together. Hoffman won a state title her senior year at Marymount High and Hargrave won a CIF Southern Section title as a senior at Brentwood. Hargrave was named American Volleyball Coaches Association honorable mention two weeks ago. She ranked third on the team in kills and hitting percentage and made the Bears Classic and Washington University Invitational All-Tournament teams this fall.

Palisadian Robbie Bellamy and his partner Gage Brymer of Irvine won the Boys National 16s tennis event last weekend in Irvine. The pair won in the 14s divison last year. It was Bellamy’s fifth USTA national title and his biggest so far in the 16s age division. Bellamy and Brymer were seeded No. 1 in the 32-player draw and, after a first-round bye they defeated Palisades Tennis Center junior Alex Giannini and partner Brendon Josephson of Moorpark, 8-2 in the second round. In the quarterfinals they defeated Justin Agbayani of Yorba Linda and Henry Craig of Murrieta, 8-3, and in the semifinals they beat No. 5-seeded Justin Chan of Sunnyvale and Stefan Menichella of Irvine, 8-5. In the championship match, Bellamy and Brymer ousted second-seeded Garrett Auproux of Studio City and Gregory Garcia of Poway, 8-4. Making Bellamy’s feat more remarkable is that he played most of the tournament on one leg. He gutted out his second round match in singles but cramped badly and was forced to default. Bellamy, still only 15, played singles as a freshman for Palisades High’s City Section championship team last spring. Nursing bruised ribs at last year’s tournament, Bellamy paired with Brymer to win the 14s age division last year as the top-seed team, losing only 12 games in five matches.

Harvard-Westlake High junior Cami Chapus won her second consecutive state Division IV cross country championship Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, running the second-fastest time in division history. Chapus, who had won the Southern Section individual title the week before, completed the course in 17:45, three seconds ahead of runner-up Kat Delaney from Junipero Serra. Last year, Chapus was 20 seconds behind with a mile to go and ended up winning by seven seconds in 17:59, propelling the Wolverines to the team title. This time, despite Chapus’ repeat, Harvard-Westlake was fourth in the team standings. The season still isn’t over for Chapus, a Pacific Palisades resident who was a multi-sport star at St. Matthew’s. She will travel to Portland this weekend to compete in the Nike Cross Nationals. After that, she will join the Wolverines’ soccer team for a run at a second straight CIF title. In September, Chapus won the Seaside Invitational in Ventura by almost nine seconds. Last spring, she was the Mission League champion in the 3200 meters and ran on Harvard-Westlake’s 4×400 relay at the state preliminary meet. Palisades High sophomore Jacklyn Bamberger, who won the City Section individual title last week at Pierce College in 18:46, ran the Division I race in Fresno and clocked 19:21, finishing in 106th place. Bamberger finished 55th with a time of 18:56 at last year’s state finals meet. Grant Stromberg, runner-up in the City, was 37th in the boys’ Division I race, finishing in 16:43. The Dolphins’ junior had just missed qualifying for state last fall. Sophomore Drake Johnston ran 16:23 and placed 95th. “It was more like a 5K and it was raining, so I got the conditions I like,” said Stromberg, who said he wants to triple in the 800, 1600 and 3200 in dual meets when the track season starts in the spring. “I tend to like courses with more hills than that one had but I’m happy that I placed ahead of all the City guys except [City champion] Mizrael Mendez.”

When the Corpus Christi junior varsity flag football team took the field for the annual Veterans Day tournament in Westwood, there was no telling where it would finish amongst a bevy of talented schools. By the time the games were done, Coach Ryan Bushore’s indefatigable squad was celebrating a championship. Corpus defeated host Santa Fe Springs St. Paul in overtime of the final contest. The Corpus squad, consisted entirely of fifth- and sixth-graders. Fifth-graders were Finn Bradley, Jake Dennis, Dillon Malaret, Joe McNamee, Hans Schenk and Sinjin Smith. Sixth-graders were Jere Ashby, Will Bantle, Zach Comisar, Johnny Dietsch, Will Hobin, Nick Hurley, Jack Mackston, Sam Marguleas, Jimmy McGinnis, Jack McNamee, Jake Miller, Charlie Trout, Joseph Waxtein, Dylan Weekes and Will Winkenhower.

It took until the end of the season, but once the Palisades High girls’ varsity volleyball team finally got healthy, there was no stopping the Dolphins from doing what they do best–winning the City championship. Palisades swept Sun Valley Poly, 25-15, 26-24, 25-15 Saturday afternoon at Roybal Learning Center in Los Angeles to capture its first Division II crown and 26th section title in program history. Coach Chris Forrest has led the girls to three section titles in four years and this was by far the most unlikely. For most of the year, Forrest was making changes to his lineup every match, as one starter or another went down with an injury. Yet, in the end, his was the last team standing. “It’s been one thing after another this whole season,” Forrest said. “We never really had a chance to show how good we are because key players have been missing.” On Saturday, fourth-seeded Poly (27-6) saw firsthand just how dominating the Dolphins can be at full strength. Palisades took command from the opening serve, building early leads in each set and quelling every run by the spirited Parrots, who suffered their first loss to a City foe in a best-of-five match. Palisades (23-7-2) was seeded third after losing twice in Western League play to Venice. However, the Dolphins turned the tables on the second-seeded Gondos in the semifinals, winning in four sets in a match Forrest admitted was “easier than he expected.” After the Dolphins ran away with the first set Saturday, Poly put everything it had into the second set in an effort to level the match. Palisades built an 18-13 lead before the Parrots fought back to tie at 23-23. Palisades reached set point on a kill by Molly Kornfeind, but Poly outside hitter Viridiana Gallardo answered with a kill to tie it again. Poly served long to give the Dolphins a second set point and this time freshman middle blocker Jennifer Krems’ spike was blocked out of bounds to give Palisades a commanding two-set lead. “We didn’t know much about them [Poly],” Kornfiend said. “But we worked on a new blocking technique and it worked pretty well.” Sensing that the championship was near, the Dolphins raced to a 20-12 lead in the third on timely sets by Meghan Middleton, kills by Kornfeind and fellow sophomore outside hitter Shanna Scott, steady blocks by middle hitter Yanise Joseph and accurate jump serves from senior captain Kasey Janousek. As noisy fans on Palisades’ side of the gym stood in anticipation of victory, Janousek served on championship point. After the ball crossed back and forth several times the referee blew his whistle and called a net violation against the Parrots–sending Dolphins players into delirium. The City Section switched to enrollment-based playoff divisions last season and the Dolphins were upset by Woodland Hills Taft in the semifinals. Scott’s return from an injury was instrumental to the Dolphins’ playoff success because it allowed them to attack from either wing. “It was good because she is a really big part of the team,” Kornfeind added. “So it helped a lot having her back.” Janousek believes the turning point was losing to Venice the second time. “After that we took our offense to a whole new gear and played with a common goal,” she said. “This is my senior year, my last chance… so I wanted to win City more than anything.” Having returned the City championship to its rightful place, the Dolphins set their sights on the Division II Southern California Regional tournament, which began Tuesday night. Palisades hosted Southern Section Division II-AA runner-up Chino Hills and saw its season come to an abrupt end, 25-17, 25-19, 25-10. “I give them a lot of credit,” Janousek said. “It’s the state playoffs. We were expecting them to be a really good team and they were.” sports@palipost