community sports

• Super stop saves Trojans

  By JOHN JACKSON ARGUS-COURIER SPORTS EDITOR

  Friday November 20, 2009 3:00 am

  Rancho Cotate came within 12 inches and 4.2 seconds of ending Petaluma’s perfect season Friday night.

• Gauchos halt Maria Carrillo upset try on final conversion attempt

  By GEORGE HAIRE FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER

  Friday November 20, 2009 3:00 am

  

  Sumner Fowler

  Casa Grande's Sam Martinez makes a shirt-tail tackles. The Gauchos' defense came up with several big plays in a 18-17 win over Maria Carrillo.

  A gritty performance by the underdog Maria Carrillo Pumas fell just short in the final seconds, when an attempted two-point pass fluttered to the turf, and host Casa Grande escaped into the second round of the North Coast Section Division II playoffs with a narrow 18-17 win Friday night.

• Is this the year for a NCS champion from Petaluma?

  By ERIC BRANCH THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Friday November 20, 2009 11:37 am

  

  Sumner Fowler

  Casa Grande and Petaluma clashed in the Egg Bowl earlier this season. Is this the year they meet again in the NCS finals?

  In the past 31 years, the Casa Grande and Petaluma football programs have combined to win 378 games and make 23 playoff appearances.

• Alumni games kick off Casa court season

  Friday November 20, 2009 11:53 am

  Casa Grande High School will host a tripleheader boys basketball show to start the court season.

• Petaluma volleyball team rallies to reach NCS championship match

  ERIC BRANCH The Press Democrat

  Thursday November 19, 2009 11:00 am

  

  Crista Jeremiason/The Press Democrat

  Petaluma's Kaitlyn Dunaway pushes the ball over the net in the Lady Trojans' four-game NCS win over Maria Carrillo.

  After winning a game so fantastic the participants said they’d never experienced anything quite like it before, the Petaluma girls’ volleyball team remains on track to claim what its program never has before.

• Petaluma and Casa Grande primed for big efforts in NCS cross country run

  Thursday November 19, 2009 2:11 pm

  

  Crista Jeremiason/The Press Democrat

  Casa Grande's Jacque Taylor attempts to defend her NCS cross country title.

  After dominating Sonoma County League cross country all season, Petaluma’s Trojans and Casa Grande’s Gauchos go for even greater glory in the North Coast Section championships Saturday in Hayward.

• JJ Says: Playoff losses do nothing to detract from season’s success

  Wednesday November 18, 2009 4:25 pm

  

  Clay Begrin North Bay Sports Photogrpahy

  Casa Grande's loss to Montgomery in the NCS playoffs doesn't detract from the Lady Gauchos' championship season.

  The North Coast Section playoffs are truly a new season.

• PHS No. 1 seed; Casa No. 2

  By JOHN JACKSON ARGUS-COURIER SPORTS EDITOR

  Wednesday November 18, 2009 2:56 pm

  

  Sumner Fowler

  Kahlil Keys (1), Kevin Brown (77) and the Casa Grande Gauchos will face Maria Carrillo for the second time this season in the first round of the North Coast Section playoffs.

  Petaluma and Casa Grande are the top two seeds in the North Coast Section Division II football playoffs, but neither gets a real opponent bargain. Both the Trojans and Gauchos open at home with 7 p.m. games Friday night.

• REG girls use home-gym advantage to win Zone 4 title

  Wednesday November 18, 2009 12:41 pm

  The Level 4 and Level 6 girls teams from Redwood Empire Gymnastics maximized their home-gym advantage to take first place in the Zone 4 Championships held in Petaluma.

• North Coast Section football playoffs

  Wednesday November 18, 2009 11:12 am

  North Coast Section football first-round pairings.

• Another tough finals loss for St. Vincent

  By ERIC BRANCH THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Monday November 16, 2009 3:21 pm

  

  Clay Begrin North Bay Sports Photogrpahy

  St. Vincent's Natalia Sumodjo (9) battles for the ball against Sonoma Academy. Sonoma Academy won in overtime, 1-0.

  With two minutes left in the first overtime Saturday night, Sonoma Academy teammates Kate Bayes and Ashley Cliver figured out how to finally score a goal and win another section title.

• Viking goal in closing minutes beats Casa

  ERIC BRANCH PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

  Monday November 16, 2009 1:54 pm

  

  Clay Begrin North Bay Sports Photogrpahy

  Casa Grande's Becca Yim (25) battles for the ball. Yim scored for Casa, but it wasn't enough in a 2-1 loss to Montgomery.

  Corner kicks are golden.

• Petaluma to face familiar foe

  By ERIC BRANCH PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Monday November 16, 2009 10:53 am

  For his 65th birthday, Petaluma coach Steve Ellison got an unexpected gift Sunday: A reprieve from watching game film until his eyes bled.

• Petaluma volleyball team cruises to win over Ukiah

  By PHIL BARBER PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Monday November 16, 2009 10:41 am

  When Kaitlyn Dunaway and Hayley Ross joined the Petaluma varsity volleyball team three years ago as freshmen, it wasn’t like they had gained initiation into one of the region’s great sports programs.

• Casa girls fall in NCS soccer finals

  By BOB PADECKY, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Sunday November 15, 2009 1:17 pm

  

  So why not? After everything else, after taking the measure of Casa Grande Saturday night, after enacting a little revenge, after retaking what once had been theirs, Pat McDonald might as well have said it to his Montgomery girls.

• Petaluma perfect!

  By JOHN JACKSON ARGUS-COURIER SPORTS EDITOR

  Friday November 13, 2009 3:00 am

  

  Terry Hankins / Argus-Courier Staff

  Petaluma's Sean Sullivan struggles for extra yards. Sullivan rushed for a touchdown, returned a kickoff for a touchdown and passed for a touchdown in Petaluma's 62-15 win over Healdsburg.

  Petaluma High’s Trojans put an exclamation point on a perfect football season by whipping Healdsburg’s Greyhounds into submission, 62-15, Friday night at Durst Field.

• Cloverdale disappoints St. Vincent

  By GEORGE HAIRE FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER

  Friday November 13, 2009 3:00 am

  

  St. Vincent’s hopes for a North Central League I South football championship were dashed convincingly Friday night in Cloverdale, where the Mustangs fell to the host Eagles, 38-7.

• Casa Grande thumps El Molino, 41-6

  Friday November 13, 2009 3:00 am

  It was a victorious, but disappointing Friday the 13th for the Casa Grande High School football team.

• Petaluma builds undefeated season on defense

  By ERIC BRANCH THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

  Friday November 13, 2009 12:04 pm

  

  Petaluma's defense dominates.

  Trojans defensive coordinator Manny Lopes was discussing some of the stars on his accomplished unit..

• JJ Says: True measure of Ellison’s success is not the number of wins

  Friday November 13, 2009 11:55 am

  

  Joni Krist

  Happy Petaluma Trojans carry coach Steve Ellison off the field after their win over Sonoma Valley gave the coach his 200th career coaching victory at Petaluma. If the Trojans can give their coach his 202nd win with a victory over Healdsburg Friday night, they will claim the Sonoma County League championship.

  Games won is a tangible way to measure the success of a high school coach.