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With seven minutes and 31 seconds left in the Foothill vs. Livermore girls’ basketball game, history was made in the Falcons’ gym.
It wasn’t a close game — Foothill was up handily at the time — but when Falcons’ senior Riley Young put back a short follow, she surpassed 1,000 career points.
Young started all four years for the Falcons, and by going over the lofty 1,000-point level, she joined what is believed to be a very exclusive list of two or three others that have accomplished the feat at Foothill.
Overshadowed by the enormity of the scoring of the 1,000th point in a high school career was a pretty cool moment that took place before the game.
Just before the two teams were to be announced, there was a glitch in the recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and it would not play.
Undaunted, a pair of Foothill students jumped out of the stands, crossed the court, took the microphone and performed the national anthem.
Rylan Silversmith — whose sister Peyton is a senior for the Falcons — and Ryan Mayer were the two students. It might not go down as a Whitney Houston-type performance, but I will remember it as one the coolest — and gutsiest — performances I have ever seen. Many people in the crowd at the game joined in singing as well.
Well done young men!
Amador girls’ soccer
The Dons played all of one non-league game this year, but it didn’t stop the team from being ready for the opening week of East Bay Athletic League play as they rolled to a pair of wins.
The league opener came when they hosted California, and the Dons walked away with a 2-1 win.
Amador took an early lead when Keira Barker knocked in a goal off an assist from Angel Akanyirige. The play started with a strong cross from Aldan Hostede to Akanyirige.
Cal drew even midway through the second half, and Amador goalie Sydney Head made a huge save a short time later to keep Cal from taking the lead.
Finally, in the game’s final moments, Maylen Montoya knocked one in to give the Dons the lead and the win.
Two days later the Dons made the trip to Carondelet and pulled out a 1-0 win.
Amador got the lone goal of the game midway through the second half. Sydney Stimson launched a corner kick that the Carondelet goalie was forced to punch out. The ball hit a Cougars defender in the back of the head and the ball deflected back into the Carondelet goal.
Midfielder Karson Knuth played fast and strong to win balls and tackles all over the field.
Amador boys’ basketball
The Dons opened league play with a 51-47 loss at California. Jaylen Smith had 17 points and Cade Krueger added 14 in the loss.
Later in the week the Dons fell again, this time by a 70-39 final to De La Salle. Cade Krueger had 10 points for the Dons, with Kasen Kruger and Nate Jetter scoring nine each.
‘Let’s Play Ball’ a success at Amador!
The “Let’s Play Ball!” free community basketball clinic, sponsored by CityServe of the Tri-Valley and hosted by the Amador Valley High School basketball teams, took place at Amador on Jan. 14
Amador coaches Isaiah Moore and Pete Oriarte guided 15 members of the boys’ varsity, junior varsity and freshman team, and one player from the girls’ varsity team, as the high school players led 30 participants in two hours of fun, skill-building drills.
Tri-Valley participants between the ages of 8-12 went through warm-ups, shooting, passing, dribbling and defensive skills.
The players managed to instruct the participants in how to complete each skill before they broke into four teams, led by the Amador players.
CityServe’s mission is to care for people in crisis, coordinate resources and between the faith-based community, nonprofits, schools, businesses and government agencies and connect volunteers to nonprofits in the Tri-Valley.
It was another great case of local high school athletes helping the youth of the community. Well done Dons!
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
