Playoffs getting underway as winter sports reach final stage
Story update, Feb. 16, 2020:
NCS Winter Championships
This week begins the championship competition for winter sports with the north Coast Section announcing seedings for basketball and soccer on Sunday. The wrestling seedings will be announced later this week.
BASKETBALL
Click here for Basketball seedings.
NCS playoffs of basketball begin Tuesday with soccer starting on Wednesday. The championships for all soccer and basketball divisions will be determined Feb. 28-29.
The NCS boys wrestling tournament is Feb. 21-22 at James Logan High School in Union City. The girls section tournament is on the same two days at Albany High.
De La Salle is the top seed and Clayton Valley Charter No. 3 in the boys basketball Division I playoffs. This year, NCS instituted 6-team Open Division brackets for boys and girls. No local teams were placed in either bracket.
On the girls side, Carondelet is in the very unusual spot of No. 6 girls seed in Division I with CVCHS No. 7 in the same flight. Carondelet has played in the championship game of the past 12 NCS tournaments.
Also receiving berths in the playoffs are the Northgate boys in DII while the Ygnacio Valley Warriors boys and girls are both in DIV.
SOCCER
Click here for Soccer seedings.
Carondelet begins defense of its NCS Division I soccer championship as the top seed this year beginning Wednesday. CVCHS girls are 9th seed in DI.
Northgate and Concord are seeded in Division II girls.
In boys soccer, De La Salle is second seed and Clayton Valley Charter No. 5 in Division I.
Concord and Northgate are in the Division II bracket and Ygnacio Valley is fourth seed in Division IV after their runner-up finish a year ago.
WRESTLING
De La Salle seeks its sixth straight NCS boys wrestling team championship and 11th in 12 years this weekend. Earlier this month, the Spartans won the NCS team dual title in Division I and Northgate took the DII team dual crown.
Published Feb. 14, 2020:
League play concludes this week for Diablo and East Bay athletic league soccer and basketball teams with North Coast Section playoff berths determined Sunday. Both Northgate and De La Salle already grabbed Section championships last Saturday in the team dual meet wrestling tournament.
Ygnacio Valley girls crowned league basketball champs
Ygnacio Valley girls basketball are queens of the Diablo Athletic League Valley Division even before the final league games are played this week. The 8-0 Warriors will be looking for a nice seed in the NCS Division IV tournament as they’ve won 11 of their past 13 games and are 15-8 overall.
Clayton Valley Charter has a 16-8 season mark and hosts Campolindo Tuesday in the game to determine second place in the DAL Foothill Division. The Ugly Eagles are 6-2 and Campo 6-3 entering this week, both trailing undefeated Acalanes.
Carondelet has an 11-11 season record and last week lost its first game to an East Bay Athletic League opponent since 2013 when San Ramon Valley beat the Cougars 54-48.
Extending two more streaks appears to be tough reaches for the young Carondelet team this year as well. The four-time reigning NCS titlists have been in 12 straight NCS basketball championship games and the school has a near two decades long streak of 20+ win seasons.
North Coast Section playoffs begin next week, running Feb. 18-29.
Clayton Valley Charter, De La Salle top boys basketball records
Clayton Valley Charter (18-8) and De La Salle (17-7) have the top boys basketball records entering mid-January among local schools.
The Spartans are locked in a three-way tie for third place in the EBAL at 7-4 with the final league games this week. They are ranked 8th currently in Northern California prep rankings.
CVCHS at 7-3 is second and trails undefeated Campolindo in the DAL Foothill Division and plays their final two league games this week against the first- and last-place schools.
Mt. Diablo at 5-3 in the DAL Valley Division is still holding on to hope for a Division III playoff berth with their strong second half to the season.
Carondelet moves towards top NCS soccer seeding
Defending NCS Division I soccer champion Carondelet is 10-1 in the EBAL, battling rival Monte Vista (8-1-1) for the league title that will likely garner NCS top seed as well. The Cougars only league loss was 2-1 in Danville to the Mustangs last month. That decision was reversed last Thursday when Carondelet (16-4-1 overall) got an incredible 4-3 victory with the winning goal in the final minute.
Clayton Valley Charter is 12-3-5 and second in the DAL to Campolindo at 6-1-4 with Northgate hot on their heels at 8-3 (10-4-1 overall). Concord is 3-5-3 (8-6-5 for the season).
The NCS playoffs begin next week and conclude Feb. 28-29.
CVCHS, DLS post one-loss soccer marks
De La Salle has won seven of the past 11 Division I Section championships and figures to head the list as top seed this winter with a 17-1-1 record, the only blemish a 2-0 loss to San Ramon Valley in EBAL play. SRV at 10-0-1 is ahead of the Spartans (10-1) ahead of their showdown Tuesday in Concord.
The DAL boys race has been wild with four teams having only one loss each entering the final week of the season. Las Lomas is first at 9-1-1 with Clayton Valley Charter and Acalanes tied at 8-1-2 and Ygnacio Valley right behind at 7-1-3. The Ugly Eagles host Acalanes Wednesday in a key matchup. Las Lomas also plays Acalanes in this final week.
Northgate, De La Salle win NCS team titles
Northgate won the Division II team dual meet wrestling championship last Saturday beating Benicia 57-24 in the finals. All three of the Broncos matches were against DAL schools.
Their semi-final match was against crosstown rival Las Lomas. The Knights had won four of the past five NCS titles, the only blemish was Northgate’s 2017 championship. Las Lomas was seeded fourth this year and met top seed Northgate in the semi-finals, losing 45-36. Northgate had opened the day-long event with a 60-14 win over Campolindo.
De La Salle won its sixth straight Division I team dual championship—and 13th in the past 14 years—when they beat second seed Granada of Livermore 45-15 in the finals. Earlier, DLS easily handled Mission San Jose and Freedom.
The EBAL and DAL league tournaments are this weekend.
The NCS team title and individual berths in the State Meet are up for grabs Feb. 21—22 at James Logan in Union City. The Spartans have won five years in a row and 10 of 11 Section team championships.