Winter Sports Notebook : Sanchez Lets Elizarraras Step Up as Santa Paula Takes Soccer Crown

Usually, passes intended for Marco Sanchez reach their destination, regardless of whether they are on target.

It doesn’t make a bit of difference whether he has to go over, around or through a defender, the Santa Paula High senior has made a habit of coming up with the ball.

It was true in football season, when he won All-Ventura County honors as a wide receiver, and it was true in soccer season.

But on one occasion, in the Southern Section 1-A Division soccer championship game against Calabasas on Saturday, Sanchez could not get to the ball.

And is Santa Paula ever glad.

Sanchez was the intended target of a free kick by teammate Jose Elizarraras six minutes into the game.

Instead, Jose’s brother, Gilbert, picked off the pass and fired a shot past Calabasas goalie Jon Mighdol for a goal.

“I was just standing there and the ball was there, so I had to take a shot,” Gilbert Elizarraras said. “I didn’t think it was going to go in.”

It was one of only three shots Santa Paula was able to take in the game.

And it gave the Cardinals a 1-0 victory.

Santa Paula goalie Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a freshman, stopped 12 Calabasas shots.

Calabasas finished second for the second time in three seasons. Santa Paula was making its first appearance in the championship game.

Santa Paula (18-4), the top-seeded team in the 1-A, had split its two previous meetings with Calabasas, which was seeded second.

Royal performance: Royal defeated Marmonte League rival Newbury Park, 1-0, to win the boys’ 4-A Division soccer title.

It was a typical performance by the Highlanders: Push in a goal and let the defense do the rest.

Thomas Cavner scored Royal’s only goal of the game and goalie Karl Holt made it stand up.

The Highlanders finished the season 26-1-2, 23 of the victories by shutout.

Yet Royal may be in danger of losing the title if the Southern Section rules that senior Cam Rast was ineligible because he took a trip to the Soviet Union in January with the U. S. Junior National Team. Southern section bylaws state that a player becomes ineligible if he competes on an outside team in the same sport during the season of that sport.

A change for the good: The Buena girls have brought home another championship, but this time--surprise--it’s not in basketball.

The Bulldog soccer team defeated Esperanza, 2-0, Saturday to give Buena a 3-A Division title in only the second year of the program.

Buena finished the season with a 22-4-1 record. Goalie Rustie Stevens recorded the shutout--the team’s 14th of the season--with some strong defensive support.

Tricia Kimble and Patty Leivas scored the goals.

Looking for perfection: Coach Bob Hawking is still awaiting that “perfect game” from his Simi Valley basketball team.

Fortunately for the Pioneers, “fair” was enough to defeat Capistrano Valley, 70-64, in overtime in the 4-A Division championship game at the Sports Arena on Saturday.

The Pioneers made only 18 of 56 field-goal attempts, but hit 30 of 36 free throws to capture a title that had eluded them the previous two seasons.

A better performance had better be in store, however, or Simi Valley’s venture into the state playoffs will be a short one.

Simi Valley, which defeated Santana, 92-67, in a first-round regional playoff game Tuesday night, will play host to Manual Arts tonight. Manual Arts defeated Bishop Amat, 94-91, Tuesday in another regional playoff game.

Should Simi Valley win again tonight, it will likely set up a showdown with Crenshaw, the No. 1 team in the nation, in the regional title game Saturday at the Sports Arena.

Moving up: Don MacLean, Simi Valley’s All-American center, is about to crack the top five on the Southern Section career scoring list.

The 6-10 senior has 2,308 points, 6 behind Wayne Carlander, who played for El Toro and Ocean View from 1978-81.

Leon Wood, who played at St. Monica from 1977-79, is No. 1 on the list with 2,693 points.

MacLean needs only 27 points to become the first county player to score 1,000 in a season.

Flip side: While MacLean has moved up the Southern Section scoreboard this season, point guard Butch Hawking has passed everyone on the Simi Valley assist list.

Butch, the son of Pioneer Coach Bob Hawking, has a school-record 245 assists this season and 412 in his career.

Dirk Schwab previously held both records with 197 assists in 1978 and 314 from 1976-78.

Crash advance: The Santa Clara girls’ basketball team played perhaps its worst game of the season in losing to top-ranked Valley Christian, 60-39, in the 1-A championship game last Friday.

The loss snapped an 18-game winning streak by the Saints. But they may have a shot at revenge.

Santa Clara advanced to the state Division IV playoffs by finishing second. And they moved closer to a possible rematch with Valley Christian--the only 1-A team to defeat the Saints this season--by defeating Holtville, 54-29, Tuesday night.

Santa Clara (22-7) will travel to Wasco (25-0) in the regional semifinals Thursday.

College all-stars: Maurice Pullum of UC Riverside and Steve deLaveaga of Cal Lutheran have been selected to the NCAA Division II All-West Regional basketball team.

Pullum, a junior transfer from Ventura College made the first team. He averaged 14.9 points a game during the regular season and set a school record by making 85 of 176 three-point shots during the regular season.

DeLaveaga, the player of the year in the Golden State Athletic Conference, was a second-team selection.

Taking the fifth: Adam Flores of Buena placed fifth in the heavyweight division at the state high school wrestling championships in Stockton last week.

The 240-pound senior won his first three matches--one by pin, one by decision and another by default--to make it to the semifinal round.

He lost his next two matches, however, the first, 10-6, to Luke Parham of Cajon, and the next, 8-7, to Mike Pease of Poway.

Flores, the Southern Section 3-A Division champion, regrouped to pin Zack Rix of Vacaville in his final match and finish the season with a 41-6 record.