Valencia, Canyon Climb in Foothill

The way people look at high school girls’ soccer in Santa Clarita is changing. No longer can Hart High be automatically penciled in as the Foothill League champion. Parity has arrived.

Hart has won seven consecutive league titles, but Canyon and Valencia have shown they are for real with impressive nonleague performances.

A stingy and well-organized defense has helped Valencia (12-1-1) defeat Orange County powerhouse Esperanza, which halted Buena’s 36-game winning streak, and rout City Section powerhouse Chatsworth, 6-0.

Canyon (12-0-3) won the La Serna tournament with victories over Redlands, the Citrus Belt League champion last season; Etiwanda, the Mt. Baldy League’s top team; and Hesperia, the Mojave River League champion.

The Cowboys had 1-1 ties against powers Chaminade and Westlake.

“The records Valencia and Canyon have put out there have made people stand up and take notice,” Canyon Coach Gregg Cohen said. “Hart is not the pinnacle in the Santa Clarita Valley anymore.”

So how have Valencia and Canyon closed the gap on Hart?

Factors include a population boom, the cancellation of open enrollment and players having the opportunity to compete for premier clubs and receive top-notch training.

Also, while Hart has had three coaches in three seasons, Cohen has been at Canyon for four years and Tony Scalercio has coached Valencia for three years.

“When I took this job, it was my goal to establish a program that had a strong foundation and now we are reaping the rewards from the efforts of the last three years,” said Scalercio, The Times’ coach of the year in the region last season. “With change came difficult decisions that I did not shy away from, like player selection, scheduling and putting the best players on the field regardless of age or politics.”

Despite Valencia’s and Canyon’s impressive starts, Hart can’t be counted out of the league race. The Indians dominated league play in the 1990s.

“Until someone beats Hart and knocks them off, they are still the favorite,” Cohen said. “It’s the Hart mystique. They still have the advantage.”

The Indians (6-4-2) are playing inconsistently. They tied Buena, 2-2, in the final of the Hart tournament and defeated Chaminade, 1-0. The Indians have one of the best defenders in the region, Dee Dee Sanguinetti, and a top midfielder, Ali Pavoni, but have not played to their potential.

“I kind of liked it when it was just Hart winning. People look down on us this year,” Sanguinetti said. “This is the first year it’s possible for Canyon and Valencia to beat us. I hope we don’t let them.”

Canyon, Hart and Valencia are changing the way teams from the region look at the Foothill League.

“I think there are a lot of good teams in our league now,” Valencia defender Michelle Bontempi said. “Maybe people will take us more seriously.”

The Indians, Cowboys and Vikings are 3-0-1 against Mission League and City Section schools, 4-1-1 against Golden League teams and 3-1-1 against Channel League teams.

“I think a lot of it has to do with heart,” Buena defender Lerin Mundell said. “Each team has more heart this year. They are more passionate.”

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Several coaches who attended the Buena girls’ game against Clovis West, a top team from Fresno, last week were enthralled by a fishing story told by Louisville Coach Jose Perez.

Perez said he rented a boat in Malibu a few years ago and, after catching a lot of mackerel, he set up to catch a much larger fish.

Perez dropped his anchor and went to sleep for a few hours with the fishing pole in his hands. When he awoke, he could no longer see the shoreline and realized the anchor never hit bottom. Sea gulls stole most of the mackerel he caught.

Luckily, a friend who was worried when Perez never met him on shore as planned notified the Coast Guard, which located Perez a few miles off the coast.

“It took over an hour to tow me in,” Perez said. “I’ll never fish in the ocean again.”

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The Top 10

Rankings of girls’ soccer teams from

the region

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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 1 Buena (Channel) 13-1-1 2 2 Westlake (Marmonte) 5-0-3 3 3 Harvard Westlake (Mission) 6-1-4 4 10 Valencia (Foothill) 12-1-1 5 8 Hart (Foothill) 6-4-2 6 5 Chaminade (Mission) 7-4-2 7 6 Canyon (Foothill) 12-0-3 8 4 Louisville (Mission) 10-3-1 9 7 El Camino Real (W. Valley) 2-0-1 10 NR Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 9-3

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(Records through Monday)