Russ Pickett has been named the new head varsity football coach of
Ernest Righetti High School.
New football coach at Righetti
Rustin “Russ” Pickett has been announced as the new head varsity football coach of Ernest Righetti High School.
Pickett takes over from former Coach Tony Payne. Payne headed the Warriors’ program for the last five seasons.
SM girls water polo defeats Oxnard
The San Marcos girls water polo team won in dominant fashion against Oxnard on Tuesday, taking the victory by a score of 15-5.
The Royals got out to a commanding 4-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The offensive effort was led by sophomore Reese Danhauer’s seven goals, while freshman Sophie Konker contributed seven steals and four goals of her own.
Defensively, junior Serenity Stansfield led the way with nine saves.
San Marcos is not 5-2 on the season and will return to action with a Friday game at Santa Barbara.
SM boys basketball defeats Ventura
The San Marcos boys basketball team picked up its first Channel League win Tuesday, beating Ventura 53-45.
“I am happy for our guys,” said Royals Coach James Kinzler. “Andre McCullough was a difference maker for us tonight. His tenacity and grit, especially on the defensive end, was big. We’re a work in progress, but I am grateful for some positive strides that we made tonight against a very tough and well coached Ventura team.”
Wyatt Miller led the team with 15 points while Owen Lauderdale added ten. Micah Jacobi contributed nine points in the fourth quarter, helping the Royals to overcome a five point deficit entering the period.
San Marcos will next play Thursday at Royal High School in Simi Valley.
Cate edges SY in girls basketball
The Cate varsity girls basketball team beat Santa Ynez in their final game of the year, turning what Coach Laura Moore called the team’s “best performance yet” to win the matchup 38-31.
“The Ram came out with intensity from the top and when challenged late had tremendous composure to battle back to get a victory,” said Moore.
After outscoring Santa Ynez 9-5 in the first quarter, the defenses took over in the second with Cate limited to three points while Santa Ynez managed only two, making for a 12-7 Cate lead going into the second half.
An offensive resurgence in the third quarter by Santa Ynez saw the team capture the lead after outscoring Cate 13-6 in the period to go into the final frame up by two. But the lead would be short-lived, as the Cate offense exploded in the fourth quarter to the tune of 20 points while the defense limited Santa Ynez to 11, overcoming the deficit to win the game by seven points.
Cate’s fourth quarter resurgence benefitted from an 11-for-17 effort from the freethrow line, while Sophia Ospina scored ten of her team-leading 19 points in the period. Sanai Edwards scored four points in the fourth to finishe the game with nine.
“This was only our second close game this season and we are very proud of the Ram’s ability to battle back from being down 4 early in the fourth quarter to outscore the Pirates 20 to 11 in the final quarter,” said Moore. “We demonstrated our potential tonight when we attack offensively. We look forward to building on this strong foundation when we return to Frontier league play in 2023.”
Santa Ynez’ effort was led by Helina Pecile with eight points and six rebounds, while both Jadyn Gardner and Lexi Molera contributed seven points and three rebounds. Elena Sleiman helped her team in multiple categories, scoring two points while adding five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Kylie Lapoint contributed two points, seven rebounds and four steals.
Cate boys basketball falls to SY
The Cate boys basketball team lost to Santa Ynez, falling 75-51 while playing without leading scorer and rebounder Babacar Pouye.
“Today we played extremely well in sprouts, but just need to limit our turnovers and box out,” said Cate Coach Andy Gil.
Cate was led by Marcus Scudder and Jengus Ercil, who scored 16 and 12 points, respectively, while accounting for all of the team’s first quarter scoring.
Santa Ynez’ winning effort was led by Jackson Ollenburger’s 31 points while Caleb Cassidy contributed 24 points and 16 rebounds and Landon Lassohn scored ten points.
SM, DP girls soccer squads battle to draw
Defense was the theme of the day Tuesday, as San Marcos High and Dos Pueblos High recorded dueling shutouts in a girls soccer matchup.
San Marcos Coach Brian Ziegenhagen said his team “dominated for the better part of the game,” but were not able to capitalize on its scoring opportunities.
“The girls showed great character throughout the whole game, sticking to our game plan and dominating both sides of the game,” said Ziegenhagen.
“Another disciplined effort in our team defense resulted in a second consecutive shut-out. It was a fast and physical battle in the midfield,” said Dos Pueblos Coach Marco Medina. “Credit to Audrey Kling, Paulina Avina, Anastasia Brunner and Riley Roggero for working together in containing a very talented San Marcos midfield. For a rivalry game, not much more you can ask for from the players…they worked hard for 80 minutes.”
SM boys soccer cruises to win over DP
The San Marcos boys soccer team defeated Dos Pueblos on Tuesday, winning 4-0.
All four of San Marcos’ goals came in the first half. Javi Elias scored the first assisted by Leonel Olivo while Jose Ramirez scored the second after a turnover created by Kevin Sanchez and Luke Sheffey. The Royals finished out the half with goals on a pair of penalty kicks by Olivo and Sheffey.
“Our team played a strong first half,” said San Marcos Coach Paul McLean. “Our backline was solid and distributed the ball well and our attacking group did a great job creating chances through pressure. DP had a great response in the second half with a formation change and put us under some pressure. I thought that senior Justin Hess was outstanding winning the balls and starting our offense. In addition, Leonel Olivo created many good chances for our team. Jose Ramirez and Kevin Mora did a great job in the middle for us.”
“Tonight was a tough night for our boys, as we fell to crosstown rivals,” said Dos Pueblos Coach Matt York. “It felt like San Marcos was the stronger team and they were better coached and put into a position to be successful while we were scrambling for answers in the first half. It was nice to see our mixture of boys fight to keep the score line after the intermission, but conceding two penalties and two other goals in one half was a tough pill to swallow.”
With the win, San Marcos improves to 3-0 on the season, while Dos Pueblos fell to 1-3.
– Matt Smolensky
