It has been a year – one very exciting year.
From the opening kick in the fall to the final pitch of the spring, local prep athletes provided their fans and this sportswriter with one heart-stopping moment after another.
Ripon High had the two most exciting finishes of the year – one in softball and the other in boys basketball.
Facing Linden in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V championship softball game last month, the Indians went into the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 6-5. The first two Ripon batters were dismissed and the third – Felicia Ceja – was down to her last strike.
The Lions and their fans were beginning to celebrate. There were plenty of long faces on the Indians side of the field. Ceja managed to get a piece of what would have been strike three, sending the green ball foul.
Then teetering on the brink, Ceja took a little wind out of the Linden sails with a screamer down the left-field line for a single. With Ceja moving on contact since there were two outs, when Shay Furtado deposited an offering to the left-center field wall, Ceja tied the game and Furtado ended up on second, causing the Lions sails to deflate a little more.
This brought Taylor Jaquez to the plate an Jaquez was anything but calm. But that did not matter as Jaquez singled to right, scoring Furtado and giving Ripon its first softball blue banner in school history.
“When I went up to bat I was so scared I was almost crying,” Jaquez said. “Because I hate being in that type of situation and then I realized this is what you play softball for and these are the moments that you live for and will remember the most.
“So I took a deep breath, talked to coach and went out there, hit the ball and had fun.”
The Ripon boys hosted Union Mine of El Dorado in an opening-round SJS Division V playoff basketball game in February. In even more dire straights than the Indians softball team was against Linden, the Diamondbacks were on their way to sending the Indians basketball team to a one-and-done post season, leading by 12 points with 1:59 left in the game.
But Aaron Paschini helped Ripon to a 13-2 run with three highlight-reel drives, and the Indians were within one with 3.8 seconds left and El Dorado at the free-throw line, shooting one-and-one.
Despite an injured knee, Cody Haines grabbed the rebound off the front-end miss and fired the ball to Cole Stevens on the deep wing. Stevens had enough time to dribble twice before launching a prayer from his back court as time ran down.
The buzzer sounded as the ball neared its target, and while it was not pretty, the shot bounced hard off the glass and back through the net for an improbable 68-66 win.
“We knew that once we got the ball we would have to kick it up,” Stevens said. “Coach wanted me in the corner but I could only get to half court and that was one of those practice shots you always mess around on. You just need to feel confident – it was all confidence.”
While Ripon may have cornered the market on thrilling finishes in the winter and the spring, the Sierra football team owned the fall.
Trailing Weston Ranch by 14 points at halftime of the regular-season finale, the Timberwolves needed a win to finish 5-5 to even have a chance to extend their season. A 21-0 second half gave Sierra a 34-27 win and a ticket to the playoffs.
The Timberwolves eked out a three-point home win over Union Mine to start the SJS Division IV playoffs before winning by two touchdowns on the road against Calaveras of San Andreas. Then Sierra demolished Liberty Ranch of Galt 42-0 for the first section title for the football program in school history and a ticket to the state playoffs.
Again taking to the road, the Timberwolves scored two first-quarter touchdowns against small-school powerhouse Sutter in Yuba City and held on for a 17-13 win. This set the stage for a showdown at Chowchilla with the Redskins for the CIF Division IV-A championship.
Sierra led until with 2:28 remaining in the game Chowchilla converted a two-point conversion for a one-point lead. Bedlam erupted with the lead change, and the home crowd turned it up several notches when Mark Paule Jr. stumbled upon receiving the ensuing kickoff, giving the Timberwolves the ball at the 18-yard line.
Three incomplete passes later, dejection was setting in on the blue side of the field while the home side was a sea of deafening red. I was thinking how to spin this heart-breaking loss into a positive when Paule Jr. pulled in a 26-yard, fourth-down pass from Mark Vicente.
Vicente was not finished. Following another 26-yard pass – this one to Jimmy Galindo – and a 21-yard scramble to the Redskins 9, Galindo found Paule Jr. for a touchdown pass and 20-15 lead with 58 seconds left.
But what a long 58 seconds. With a kickoff that consumed just four seconds and two plays that ticked off three seconds, the hometown clock keeper was doing all he could to keep Calaveras in the game.
But Scott Teicheira eventually tripped up the Redskins quarterback on fourth down, sealing the win and the first state championship in Manteca history.
“I knew that I had to stay composed and not get too panicky when the pressure came, staying in the pocket and making the right reads,” Vicente said. “On the touchdown, coach wanted all the receivers to go out and have Mark go up the middle and set up right at the goal line. It worked – it was wide open. We ran that play twice in a row.”
The Bulletin adopted a blue theme for the sports page commemorating the historic Sierra victory, leading to some good-natured ribbing from other schools in town about the “Sierra Bulletin.”
I simply responded that all that had to happen for the sports section to have their color on the sports page was to win a state championship. Three months later Manteca High did just that, bouncing back from a SJS section championship loss to Weston Ranch to win four in a row capped by a 60-51 win over Ayala of Chino Hills at Sleep Train Arena for the CIF State Division III State Championship.
I missed a good part of that Buffaloes run, as I did for the Manteca CIF Division III soccer championship with a penalty-kick win over Rio Americano-Sacramento. But I was there for the Buffaloes’ thrilling come-from-behind 9-6 won for the CIF Division III baseball banner over Christian Brothers of Sacramento and Weston Ranch’s 2-0 win over Oakdale for the CIF Division III soccer championship.
High School football is less than 10 weeks away, but now it is on to Little League with local teams hoping for a shot at Williamsport, Pa.
While that is a long shot, so were two state championships in one year.
Exciting finishes, state titles highlight remarkable year
