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One game.
That’s all it took for the East Bay Athletic League basketball and soccer leagues to show that anything can and probably will happen over the course of league play.
Except for girls’ basketball, the other three leagues are wide open, with several teams having solid chances to win the title.
Boys’ basketball
De La Salle is still the team to beat, starting the season 15-2 overall and opened the EBAL season with a 67-49 win over a traditionally strong San Ramon Valley team.
The surprise team at this point is Livermore. The Cowboys moved through the non-league campaign 13-2 but it was not the toughest schedule.
They started last week with a 56-51 loss to a questionable San Lorenzo team, then the Cowboys stunned the EBAL with a 74-63 win over a talented Amador Valley team. The question to be answered is which Livermore team will we see the rest of the season?
Games this week with San Ramon Valley and Dougherty Valley will give us a better idea.
Dougherty Valley is 13-5 overall and had a win over Bishop O’Dowd last week, then beat Foothill 67-30 in the EBAL opener. There’s not a bad loss in their five losses at this point, but it looks like the Wildcats are a bit down this year.
Dublin has been a head-scratcher thus far with its 12-5 mark. The Gaels have looked very strong, winning some tournament titles, but then have dropped a 70-65 EBAL opener to California.
Awaiting this week is a Friday night game against De La Salle that will give us a good idea.
The real enigma at this point is Amador Valley. The Dons got a flux of transfers and have as much talent as any team in the EBAL. But at 10-6 overall their play has been inconsistent at best.
Battling injuries this year, Amador has put some nice wins on the board, but they have also had some big-time losses like the 74-63 loss to Livermore to start EBAL play.
I have no doubt the Dons can and probably will win a lot of EBAL games this year but I worry about their consistency.
Granada came through non-league with a 12-3 mark, including some strong wins but then Monte Vista handed them a 51-44 defeat on opening night of EBAL play.
Life doesn’t get any easier for the Mats as they have games at Amador and then host California.
California plays a brutally tough non-league schedule, so the 9-7 non-league mark is easier to understand. There’s talent on the Grizzlies and the 70-65 win over Dublin to start league showcased it.
Monte Vista is interesting in that the Mustangs were playing around .500 ball during the run up to the start of EBAL play but the big 51-44 win over Granada to open league may have woken up the league.
The Tuesday night game at California will be a good one.
Girls’ basketball
San Ramon Valley and Carondelet are the top two teams in the league and once again met in the first scheduled EBAL game of the season.
Last Friday, the two battled at Carondelet, and for the eighth straight time, the Wolves came away with the 58-48 win. The Wolves are shooting for their seventh straight EBAL title, with only the COVID year getting in the way of eight straight titles.
Even this early in the season it seems highly unlikely the Wolves will lose another EBAL game. California and Dublin are probably the third and fourth best teams. In their EBAL openers Dublin came away with a 57-34 win over California. Back on December 11, the Wolves played the Gaels in an EBAL game moved up on the schedule and won 76-29.
The unknown at this point is 11-2 Dougherty Valley but in another EBAL game that was moved up on the calendar, Carondelet beat Dougherty 83-34.
Boys’ soccer
Right now, Amador Valley sits on top of the power rankings as the Dons have an 8-1 mark with the lone loss coming to Fremont of Oakland by a 2-1 final.
Fremont has lost to Monte Vista and California, tied San Ramon Valley and beaten Livermore and Granada. The loss was in the second game of the season, and the Dons have been on cruise control since.
San Ramon Valley has a 6-2-3 record, but the EBAL opener saw the Wolves put away De La Salle by a 2-1 final and that was good enough to put the Wolves into the second spot in the power rankings at this point.
De La Salle comes in at No. 3 right now, but the Spartans are coming off of a tough week where they tied Windsor 2-2 and suffered the loss to SRV.
The Spartans played a lot of teams from outside the area with only three of their eight games being against teams from Northern California. Smart money has the Spartans in the hunt for the title come the end of the season.
Monte Vista sits at 6-1-2, with the lone loss coming to Clayton Valley in their fourth game of the season. The Mustangs opened the season with a 4-0 win over a Granada team that came into the game at 6-1.
Granada had a loss to Richmond as the Mats lone blemish until they got hammered by Monte Vista. The question is which Granada team shows up in EBAL play. I am feeling Granada is a much better team than the 4-0 loss leads you to believe. We will find out Tuesday when the Mats face Amador Valley.
Foothill opened their season with a 2-2 tie with West of Tracy and since then the Falcons have run off five straight wins. They opened the season with a 1-0 win over Dougherty Valley.
Dougherty Valley has been a standard of excellence in the EBAL but the Wildcats lost their coach and were decimated by graduation and have struggled to a 2-6-1 mark.
Dublin is 7-2-2 and opened league with a 5-0 win over California, the Gaels third win in a row. The offense has been clicking as they have scored 12 goals in those three games.
Livermore had won five games in a row until the loss to Amador, but that was only 2-1 and the Cowboys look like they can play with anyone.
Girls’ soccer
This is the “go figure” league in the winter.
I had Carondelet as the top-ranked team, but they dropped a 3-1 game to Clayton Valley and dropped to No. 4.
California is the No. 1 at this point with their 6-0 overall record and a 2-0 win over Dublin to open the league season. The Grizzlies have been tough on defense, allowing three goals total in the six games. They also have a 2-0 win over Mitty as perhaps their best win.
Granada has a 7-0-1 mark overall and opened the EBAL season with a 2-1 win over Monte Vista. The Mats opened the season with a 2-2 draw with Piedmont, then went six games without allowing a goal before Monte Vista got one.
Amador Valley is a tough read at this point as the Dons play very few non-league games. In fact, they played one, tying Clayton Valley 0-0. They opened with a 2-0 win over Livermore and they stand 1-0-1 overall. The Dons are the defending EBAL champs and figure to be right there at the end of the season.
After the loss to Clayton Valley, Carondelet came back with a 1-0 win over San Ramon Valley. At this point the Cougars defense would be the big concern as they have allowed three goals in three of their nine games. The Cougars as usual have played a tough non-league schedule.
San Ramon Valley has the 1-0 loss to Carondelet as the lone blemish on their record, but it was the only goal allowed by the Wolves through their first five games.
At 4-1 overall, the Wolves are certainly a title contender.
Foothill, like Amador, avoids non-league games playing only two but one of those was a 0-0 tie with Clayton Valley, the team that handed Carondelet a loss. The lone EBAL game was a 4-0 win over Dougherty Valley.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. To sign up for free, visit here.
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