Ramirez, Redlands roll on in postseason
The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.
Gabe Ramirez (Crescenta Valley High, 2009) University of Redlands men’s soccer, junior: In the midst of a stellar run for the Redlands squad, the junior midfielder was named to the All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s soccer first team. Ramirez was also one of four Bulldogs honored with the distinction of being a Second-Team Academic All-District honoree for NCAA Division III.
In terms of his academic honors, it comes as the sociology and anthropology and liberal studies double major possesses a 3.56 cumulative grade-point average.
As for his on-field prowess, Ramirez and Redlands are still going strong.
After a heartbreaking loss on penalty kicks in the SCIAC postseason tournament final to Claremont Mudd-Scripps on Nov. 5, Redlands defeated Pacific Lutheran, 4-1, in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament on Saturday before a second-round triumph on Sunday in the form of a 3-0 win against Claremont, in which Ramirez scored his team’s final tally of the match.
Redlands will now play Calvin College of Minnesota in the sectional semifinals on Friday night at Redlands.
On the season, Ramirez, who has played in all 24 of his team’s games and started 23, is tied for the team-high with 10 assists and also has five goals on 43 shots, including two game-winning goals.
Teammate Cody Carlson, a Burbank High graduate, was named the All-SCIAC Men’s Soccer Athlete of the Year.
Luke Collis (St. Francis high, 2007) Occidental College football, senior: Collis played his last college football game on Saturday and it was hardly a highlight during a senior season that was full of them for the former Golden Knights’ All-Area selection.
Constantly hounded in the backfield — by the likes of former St. Francis teammate Rian Younker, among others — Collis and the Tigers were defeated by SCIAC champion Cal Lutheran, 70-20.
Occidental ended the year at 5-4 and 3-3 in conference.
Collis completed 18 passes in 42 attempts for 186 yards and two touchdowns.
Still, Collis’ senior season saw him lead the conference in just about every passing category.
He led the conference with an average of 306 yards passing per game and a total of 2,757. He also led the SCIAC with 18 touchdown passes. On the season as a whole, he completed 247 passes in 405 attempts (61%) for 28 touchdowns to 11 interceptions.
Gor Asryan (Glendale High, 2011) L.A. Valley College water polo, freshman: One would be hard-pressed to say one former local water polo player had a better season than the other for the Monarchs, as myriad local talent led Valley to an excellent season.
It was Asryan, however, that led the Monarchs with 58 goals and also notched 12 assists and nine steals.
It was former Crescenta Valley product Alan Dearman that had a team-high three goals in the Monarchs’ 13-6 loss to Grossmont on Friday in the Southern California Playoffs in Riverside. Former Crescenta Valley player Rane Colvin also had 10 saves in the match, while former Falcon Nick Rapose added a goal.
Colvin was the team’s usual starter and tallied 371 saves, while Haik Chatalyan, a Glendale product added 41 saves. Colvin’s saves tally is tops on jcwaterpolo.com.
The greatest overall season for a local product arguably came from either Dearman or Glendale product Martin Narinyan.
Dearman had 54 goals, 16 assists and 25 steals. Narinyan, like Dearman a former All-Area, All-CIF and All-Pacific League selection, tallied 32 goals and team-highs of 40 assists and 32 steals.
Crescenta Valley product Jack Snyder added 12 goals, nine assists and 16 steals, while Glendale product Manuk Hakobyan had five goals, four assists and three steals.