Rose Garden Resident

Sports

Dorrego gets scholarship, Lions win title

By Kevin Sparrer

Championships are hard to come by, but scholarships are even tougher to get. Amazingly enough, the Lincoln boys soccer team did both this winter.

Ricky Dorrego, senior captain and star soccer player for the Lions, signed a National Letter of Intent on Feb. 7 to attend San José State University on a full athletic scholarship.

Dorrego signed his letter the day after the final game of the season for the Lions--only one day after Lincoln sealed the championship in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with a strong 7-2 win over Pioneer on Feb. 6. The win left the Lions 11-2-1 in league and 16-2-2 overall.

However, it was not Dorrego who had the amazing game against the Mustangs; it was Francisco Heredia who really beat up on Pioneer. Heredia scored five of the seven goals for the Lions with assists from Luis Chaves, Dorrego, Eduardo Garcia and Eduardo Medina. Arnold Lopez also scored an unassisted goal for Lincoln, while the final goal was actually knocked in by one of the Mustangs.

The Central Coast Section Division I playoffs began on Feb. 14 with the Lions, the No. 1 seed in the division, hosting No. 15 Alisal (12-4-9). Pending a win, Lincoln would continue to the second round, where it would host the winner of No. 9 Leland (9-5-5)-No. 7 Santa Clara (13-3-6) game on Feb. 17 with the time still to be determined.

Boys win a pair

Lincoln's boys basketball team had a couple of close wins this past week, defeating Mt. Pleasant 76-73 on Feb. 9 and Independence 48-45 in overtime on Feb. 7.

Against Mt. Pleasant, it was Diego Romero who led the offense with 21 points. Tarik Hakmi added 18 with two free throws, while Tommy Gaeta had 16. Michael Fleet had eight with two from the line, and Bryan Mitsumori and Raul Leon had four apiece.

The win pushed Lincoln to 5-7 in the West Valley Division of the BVAL and 7-15 overall with two games left to play in league.

It was all Hakmi against Independence. Hakmi had 19 with three from the line while the next closest was Gaeta with 11, including a three. Romero had nine with a free throw, Fleet had four, Jagjeet Sidhu had two and Mitsumori had one at the line.

The Lions were to go to San Jose on Feb. 13 and will travel to James Lick on Feb. 16 for their final league game with a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

The girls win, too

The boys weren't the only ones doing well on the court last week. The girls basketball team also won both of its games, defeating Overfelt 54-24 on Feb. 8 and Andrew Hill 46-38 on Feb. 6.

Alex Scoffone was at it again, scoring 19 for the Lions against Overfelt with nine at the line. Whitley Davis was also on fire with 17, including five free throws. Kaylin Mitsumori added 12 points while Jessica Weise had four and Tarah Herning had two.

Against Andrew Hill, it was Davis leading the attack with 14, with Scoffone right behind with 13, including five at the line. Mitsumori added seven with three free throws, and Ashley Guin put up six points. Katie Silva had three with a free one, Weise had two and Alex Dela Riva had a free throw.

The two wins give Lincoln a 10-2 record in the West Valley Division of the BVAL with only two games left to play.

The Lions were to travel to San Jose on Feb. 13 and will host James Lick on Feb. 15 with a 7 p.m. start for their final regular-season game before advancing to the Central Coast Section playoffs.