Rose Garden Resident

Sports

Mendoza, Fleet deliver one-two punch

By Kevin Sparrer

Lincoln running backs Chris Mendoza and Michael Fleet just might be the perfect offensive weapons. While Mendoza powers his way through the middle, Fleet takes the ball around the ends--and both players move the ball.

Between the two running backs, the Lincoln Lions generated 335 yards of offense and scored three touchdowns against Live Oak in their 41-13 win on Nov. 3.

Mendoza carried the ball 15 times for 128 yards and caught six passes for 83 yards while Fleet ran the ball 13 times for 70 yards and caught one pass for 54 yards. Mendoza scored all three of the dynamic duos' touchdowns in the game.

Quarterback Tarik Hakmi completed 10 of 15 tosses for 211 yards and two touchdowns. His longest pass of the day was the completion to Fleet.

Jagjeet Sidhu, another of Lincoln's weapons, caught two passes in the win for 72 yards. Sidhu also caught a pass for a successful 2-point conversion.

Miguel Ramirez also moved the ball well, running five times for 21 yards. Daniel MacHuca carried the ball only once, but once was enough. MacHuca carried the ball across the goal line on a 2-yard touchdown run for the Lions.

Tevita Mendoza also caught only one pass, but like MacHuca once was enough. T. Mendoza caught a 2-yard touchdown pass.

With only Branham remaining to play, the Lions have a good chance of qualifying for the Central Coast Section playoffs, pending the outcome of Pioneer-Piedmont Hills game. However, Lincoln will wave the spot in the playoffs to take part in the annual Big Bone game held at San José City College against San Jose Academy on Thanksgiving Day at 11 a.m.

The Lions, 3-3 in the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League and 5-3 for the year, will visit Branham on Nov. 9, 2:45 p.m.

Polo teams in playoffs

Two Lincoln squads that will advance to CCS competition are the boys and girls teams.

The Lincoln girls took a 16-8 season record into the CCS Division I playoffs. The Lions were seeded No. 10 and were to open against No. 7 Mitty (17-10) on Nov. 8. The winner will challenge No. 2 Leland (21-6) on Nov. 11.

Leland won the BVAL title and finished first in the league tournament last week. The Lions were fourth in the tourney, losing 17-4 to Pioneer in the third-place game. Kelly Hendrickson, Katie Silva, Laina Reginelli and Monica Serrano each scored goals for Lincoln in the loss.

Hendrickson scored the lone goal for the Lions in an 18-1 loss to Leland in the tourney semifinals.

Silva pumped in three goals and Hendrickson added two in a tourney-opening 6-5 win over Santa Teresa. Reginelli also scored in the win.

The Lincoln boys, meanwhile, entered the CCS Division I playoffs as the No. 12 seed with an 8-12 record. The Lions were to open against No. 5 Serra (14-12) on Nov. 7 with the winner to meet No. 4 Palo Alto (17-8) on Saturday.

The boys lost to Live Oak 19-5 in the semifinals of the league tournament last week after opening with wins over Santa Teresa (12-8) and Sobrato (17-7).

Brock Williams and Aaron Gough canned three goals apiece and Rush Manbert and Trevor Senkarik added two each in the win over Santa Teresa. Chris Scott and Tyler Shafsky also scored.

Williams and Scott buried five goals each and Chris Smead had three in the win over Sobrato. Gough added two goals and Shafsky and Manbert each had one.

Miller leads Lions pack

Lindsay Miller was the Lions' pride at the BVAL cross country finals held Oct. 30 at Crystal Springs. Miller, a junior, finished first for the Lincoln girls, ending up 30th overall on the 2.95-mile course in 21:16. Junior Jessica Weise was 80th in 23:31 with junior Jessica Gore 107th in 25:25, freshmen Robin Burdick 132nd in 30:42 and Melisa Nolan 133rd in 31:59.

Senior Sam Kass was tops for the Lincoln boys. Kass finished 51st in 18:04 with four juniors behind. Arturo Cervantes was 81st in 18:45, Christian Royer 82nd in 18:46, Nick Gonzales 103nd in 19:12 and Ricky Sabin 133rd in 20:07. Dustin Nguyen and Vince Nguyen also ran for the Lions.