High School Sports

Watsonville, the defending Monterey Bay League boys basketball champion, reached 2-0 in league action Friday by handing the host Christopher High Cougars a 65-53 setback. The Cougars, 0-1 in MBL play and 4-9 overall, visit Seaside Tuesday before hosting Pajaro Valley on Thursday.

Hyram Miskin had 20 points, Jacob Tonascia added 15 more, and the San Benito boys basketball team defeated host Gilroy High 51-37 in Tri-County Athletic League action Friday night.

Though early in the league season, the Christopher High varsity girls basketball team has asserted itself as a contender for the league title come mid-February.

After a one point fourth-quarter lead turned into a 15-point loss to North Salinas on Tuesday, one of the last things the San Benito girls basketball team wanted to do was blow another fourth quarter lead.

Revolving door. Fountain of youth. Tradition. Good genes. Conveyor belt. Somehow, year in and year out, the Gilroy High wrestling team is rejuvenated. This season is no different. And as January creeps along – with Mid-Cals and the Tri-County Athletic League and Central Coast Section meets on the horizon, it’s about to get serious inside the Mustangs practice room at South Valley Middle School.

First-year Christopher High boys soccer head coach Ricardo Espinosa demands unwavering commitment from his players. He has preached the importance since Day 1. So when certain members of the team showed little interest in attending practice on a consistent basis during the two-week winter break, Espinosa re-iterated his stance, benching the offenders for much of the first half in the Cougars' Monterey Bay League opener Wednesday in Gilroy.

Head coach Matt Tait described the Gilroy High boys basketball team's Tri-County Athletic League opener at Everett Alvarez as “not pretty.” The Mustangs (5-8 overall 1-0 TCAL) dropped a 63-33 decision to the Eagles (8-4 overall, 1-0 TCAL) in Salinas on Wednesday night.

The one-two punch of sisters Hanna and Olivia Tabron has been a beneficial combination for the Christopher High girls varsity basketball team during the first half of the season.

On an unassuming summer day, roughly four months before the start of the season, Christopher High wrestling head coach Alecxis Lara jotted down a prospective 14-wrestler lineup for the approaching 2011-12 campaign. The forecast appeared bright and he immediately liked what he saw.

Most of the area’s soccer, basketball and wrestling teams either begin, or jump back into league contests this week. Here is what’s on tap: