This Week In Natomas Prep Sports

BY TREVOR HORN
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz

This week wrapped up many fall sports for Inderkum and Natomas High School. Here are the highlights:

Athletes–of–the–Week: This week’s award goes to the No. 1 doubles team for Natomas High School girl’s tennis Nehaa Khadka and Alexandria Tinoco. The duo finished up the regular season with an 8-2 record, helping the Nighthawks to a second place finish in the Tri-County Conference this season. On Thursday, the seniors made it to the finals of the TCC doubles tournament, earning a silver medal.

Inderkum

Football: Despite being without starting running back Eric Walters due to a foot injury, the Tigers rolled over TCC foe River Valley last Friday, Oct. 19. Tonight, Inderkum, led by a staunch defense that has allowed just seven points in the past two games, play 7 p.m. on the road at Pioneer. The Tigers (6-2 overall, 2-1 TCC) have their sights set on the playoffs now with a No. 7 Sac Joaquin Section Division III ranking going into the final two weeks of the season.

In a playoff projection from Calpreps.com and The Sacramento Bee, the Tigers rank as the eighth seed in the DIII. The projection also has Yuba City as the No. 2 seed and River Valley as the No. 16 seed as an at-large qualifier, giving the TCC three possible playoff teams.

The Tigers freshman team beat Pioneer Thursday night 26-24. The win gave the TCC championship to Inderkum a week after the JV squad beat River Valley on a last second touchdown pass as the clock expired.

Girl’s Golf: The Tigers finished fourth at the section Division III tournament at Yolo Fliers with a team score of 553. Only the top two teams (Whitney and Placer) advanced to the Masters.

Boy’s Soccer: In the midst of a tumultuous season for the Tigers, after their head coach resigned midway thru the season, the end was somewhat bittersweet. Under the leadership of John Torres as head coach the second half of the season, the Tigers (2-15-2, 0-9-1) finished the season with a 1-1 tie with neighborhood rival Natomas on senior night.

Girl’s Volleyball: The Tigers finished a rough season this week with a win over Center (2-0) at the Stockton Classic Tournament in Stockton on Saturday, Oct. 20. The final two regular season games were this Tuesday at Pioneer and at Natomas Thursday evening.

Natomas

Football: The Nighthawks, still looking for the first win of the season under new head coach Jeff Remington, host top ranked team in TCC Yuba City tonight. Not the easiest way to end the season with rival Inderkum coming in next week—Remington believes in his young team, hoping the Nighthawks (0-8, 0-3) will continue to fight and maybe become a trap game for either the Honkers or the Tigers in those teams quest for section playoff seedings.

Girl’s Tennis: Three Natomas girl’s tennis players on Tuesday qualified for the Tri-County Conference tournament quarterfinals and another three played in the semifinals held this week at Yuba City High School.

Natomas High School’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles Ashleen Rai and Carmen Fernandez, along with No.6 singles Lidia Hernandez advanced to the quarterfinals. No. 3 Tejaswi Adhikari, and No. 5 Ojaswi Adhikari and No. 4 Marissa Rosales also advanced to the semifinals for the Nighthawks.

On Thursday in the doubles tournament, the Nighthawks were strong medal contenders. No. 1 doubles of Khadka and Tinoco earned a silver medal after losing in the finals. No. 2 doubles of Lupe Romo and Maria Cuevas made it to the quarterfinals. No. 3 singles duo of Brianna Curiel and Isis Cuevas won the gold medal with a 4-6. 6-4, 10-7 victory in the finals.

“The big stars of the day were Brianna Curiel and Isis Cuevas,” head coach Rick Ratliff said. “These girls were amazing.”

Boy’s Soccer: The Nighthawks (5-12-2, 2-6-2) finished off the 2012 season on a high note with a 2-1 victory over Yuba City last week and a 1-1 tie at Inderkum in the season finale.

Girl’s Volleyball: The Nighthawks lost to Yuba City 3-0 on Tuesday and played host to rival Inderkum on senior night Thursday in the season finale.