The Hamilton girls soccer team ended the 2010 portion of the 2010-2011 season with two invitational titles. Hamilton won the Diablo Classic three weeks ago. And the latest was acquired Friday morning with the Huskies 3-0 victory over Flagstaff to win the Dobson Mustang Soccer Classic at Dobson High.
Oozing with tradition, Archbishop Moeller, Ohio and Mesa Mountain View,were the final matchup of the 2010 VisitMesa.com Basketball Challenge. The teams did not disappoint.
Sporting unbeaten records in the tournament and for the season, the teams gave fans a fitting marquee matchup as Moeller trimmed Mountain View, 36-35, in a classic defensive battle at Toro Gym.
Rick McConnell will likely never pass his father in coaching victories, but together nearly 1,300 wins is mighty impressive.
It was an uphill battle all the way for Corona del Sol on Wednesday night in its bid to reach the finals of the McClintock Holiday Shootout. And it took help from more players than usual to make up what once was a 14-point deficit in the second period.
The Aztecs finally took the lead with a little more than four minutes left and hung on to edge Brophy, 53-47, at McClintock High School.
The Mesa Mountain View boys basketball team can lay claim for another day to being the only unbeaten Arizona team in 5A-I.
It did not take long for the Visitmesa.com Arizona Basketball Challenge to get going with some tight contests.
St. Marys withstood poor free-throw shooting late in regulation and a technical foul that opened the door for Sunnyslope to tie the game in the final seconds, but the Knights prevailed, 85-78, in double overtime in the first game of Monday\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s first round at Mountain View High School.
Mesa Mountain View and McClintock high schools will be hot beds for boys basketball Monday through Thursday as the new year approaches with both hosting invitationals in the East Valley.
Sixteen girls teams and 14 boys squads invade Mesa Monday through New Years Eve Day for the 2010 Dobson Mustang Soccer Classic at Red Mountain Park and Dobson High School.
Arizona schools rallied some the final two days of the annual Nike Tournament of Champions I girls basketball showcase in Chandler and Tempe with St. Marys and Mesa Mountain View posting the best showings among the 18 local teams teams competing.
Hard to lose when the other team does not score. The Central High boys soccer team came within two minuites of keeping the opposition scoreless in a pair of games Tuesday.
With plenty of offense to go with that defense, Central won the 12th annual Jackrabbit Invitational, downing host Mesa High, 3-1, in the title game at Jackrabbit Stadium.
Hamilton girls basketball coach Jeff Kain was not lulled to sleep when seeing his Monday, opponent -- Kennedale, Texas -- with just seven players in uniform.
Kain had watched them over the weekend and knew his unbeaten Huskies were in for a battle.
Kain was right as Kennedale use a late third-quarter surge to pave the way to a 62-48 win over the Huskies in the Nike Tournament of Champions at Chandler High.
The defense that normally drives Xavier was not fully in force until the third quarter Monday of the Gators quarterfinal winner\'s bracket game with Edison High (Huntington Beach, Calif) at the Nike Tournament of Champions I at Perry High School.
Add in the fact that Edison features Stanford-bound guard Bonnie Samuelson and a solid supporting cast offensively and the sum was a 60-42 win for the Chargers over the Gators in the John Anderson Division of the tournament.
Mesa Mountain View knew it had a size advantage as it warmed up to play Harvard Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.) on Sautrday afternoon. The Toros took their time often enough to seize that edge and it proved decisive in a 45-31 victory over the visiting Wolverines in the first round of the Nike Tournament of Champions I girls basketball tournament at Court One in Tempe.
Regis Jesuit coach Carl Mattei was pleased as his team prevailed shorthanded.
Chandler coach Zon Thompson felt sort of the same as his Wolves never gave up.
But better shooting and perhaps a little more poiseSaturday afternoon was the difference as Regis Jesuit (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) handed Chandler its first loss of the season with a wire-to-wire 45-38 victory in the first round of the Nike Tournament of Champions , John Anderson Division at Willis Junior High.
What happens when two of the best teams in 4A-II get together in a pre-Christmas showdown?
For the first 26 minutes, a blowout. But Thursday night a 4A-II girls basketball game between Seton Catholic and Flagstaff still had another six minutes to play. And fortunately for Seton, the game didn\'t last another minute.
Defending 4A-II champ Seton saw a 20-point lead with 6:10 remaining get sliced to three in the final 50 seconds, but the host Sentinels managed to hang on for a 60-57 win over the Eagles.
That was fast.
A month after being fired after nine seasons as football coach at Mesa Mountain View, Tom Joseph has another head coaching gig.
3336 articles by Les Willsey