Valley Roundup : Conejo Valley Entries Forge a Tie

It might have been a pickup game played on a high school football field in the Conejo Valley.

When the West met the South in field hockey at the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival on Sunday, there was a distinct Southern California flavor to the game even though it was played more than 1,000 miles to the East.

Of the 30 players who were suited for the game, 23 came from Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and surrounding cities.

A single-session Festival record crowd of 1,084 watched the teams battle to a 1-1 tie.

Mark Ruvalcaba of Thousand Oaks scored the South’s goal 7:55 into the game. The West’s scoring came from Benjamin Maruquin with four minutes left in the half.

The South missed a chance to go ahead on a penalty attempt when John O’Neill of Newbury Park kicked a shot over the top of the goal with seven minutes left in the game.

SPEED-SKATING

Charles King of Studio City won the gold in the men’s 1,500-meter race with a time of 2:49.81.

His brother, Keith, failed to make the final, finishing fourth in a preliminary race earlier in the day.

TEAM HANDBALL

Kevin Withrow of Thousand Oaks led all scorers with seven goals, but the West fell to the East, 27-21.

Valley-area players accounted for 14 of the West’s goals, and have scored 26 of the team’s 38 in two games. Denny Fercho of Camarillo scored four times against the East, giving him nine goals.

FIGURE SKATING

Sharon Carz of North Hollywood and Doug Williams of Playa del Rey won a silver medal in the pairs competition, finishing behind Calla Urbanski of Chicago and Mark Naylor of Harrisburg, Pa.

In the singles event, Tisha Walker of Thousand Oaks placed fifth and Tamara Kuchiki of Canoga Park finished 12th.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

For the second consecutive day, Don MacLean scored 10 points and the West lost in overtime--this time to the East, 94-87.

MacLean, a UCLA sophomore from Simi Valley, was three of eight shooting, 4 of 5 from the free-throw line and grabbed six rebounds. He also committed five turnovers.

Mitchell Butler, a UCLA-bound freshman out of Oakwood School, scored four points and had seven rebounds in 23 minutes. Adonis Jordan, a Kansas freshman from Cleveland High, missed his only field-goal attempt in 12 minutes.