Coyotes’ wrestlers place 9th at Sierra-Nevada Classic
The Madera Tribune File Photo
Madera’s Alexandria Campbell looks to drive to the hoop against Bakersfield during a 2014 victory. She led the Coyotes with seven points.
2012
In one of largest wrestling tournaments this side of the California state championships, the Sierra-Nevada Classic hosted 97 teams and over 1,000 wrestlers from four states including Central section powers Clovis West, Buchanan-Clovis, as well as the deep and talented Madera Coyotes.
The venue was the Reno Livestock Events Center, a huge facility where 15 matches went on at the same time. But the Coyotes were far from intimidated by the magnitude of the tournament as they finished ninth as a team with three wrestlers placing.
Henley High from Klamath Falls (Or.) easily won the tournament with 154.5 points while the fight for the rest of the ten top teams was so close that only seven points separated the Coyotes from No. 5 Paso Robles, 131 to 138.
“This was a huge tournament, and an important one for us in terms of exposing our kids to the type of venue they will experience at the state meet,” said Madera head coach Joe Romine. “This is why we come to these type of tournaments. We want our wrestlers to experience what the state tournament is like and expose them to a very high level of competition.
Showing their depth, the Coyotes finished the first day in first place with every wrestler winning at least one match and six advancing to the second day.
2013
Stallions settle for tie
After a weekend of competing with and beating Div. I teams from Northern California, the Madera South Stallions boys soccer team returned sick and bruised for its non-league tilt with the McLane-Fresno Highlanders.
The Highlanders struck in the ninth minute of the match and held the lead until Jose Herrera tied the game with a shot in the 14th minute of the second half.
The Stallions had their chances in the final minutes of the match and in overtime, but couldn’t score the game-winner.
“We had one sub today,” head coach Cristino Armiento said. “Everybody else was sick or injured out of a roster of 20.”
Coyotes place fourth at Coast Classic
The Madera Coyote wrestling team made the most out of its visit to the coast over the weekend with a fourth place finish out of 71 teams at the Coast Classic Invitational in Aptos.
“It was a good tournament for us,” head coach Joe Romine said. “I was hoping to be in the top five and that would be a good showing.”
Daniel and Miguel Ruiz each went to the finals, but lost. Alec Gamboa, at 182 pounds, lost his first match of the tournament and finished out with victories to win the consolation championship.
2014
Coyotes begin the year with win
CLOVIS — Despite just one practice in the last two weeks, the Madera Coyote girls basketball team had just enough to defeat Bakersfield in the first game of the Old Town Clovis Kiwanis New Year’s Classic at Buchanan High School.
The Coyotes scored the first 10 points of the game and matched Bakersfield the rest of the way for a 36-28 victory to improve to 9-1 on the season after going 4-0 last week at the Harold Oliviera Holiday Classic in Santa Maria.
Even though the Coyotes picked up the win, head coach Jason Smith expected more out of his players.
“We didn’t play with a whole lot of energy and enthusiasm today,” Smith said. “We were just going through the motions and played down to their level. The excitement to play just wasn’t there.”
Leading scorer Bria Fernandes only made one field goal and scored just three points. However, eight Coyotes scored between three and seven points for the victory, led by Alexandria Campbell’s seven.
Cougars cruise by Lady Hawks
The Liberty Hawks girls soccer team conceded goals twice in the second half en route to a 3-0 non-conference loss to the Clovis High Cougars at Lamonica Stadium.
Liberty freshman goalkeeper Carly Tynan finished the match with 15 saves in a good showing against a strong attacking team. The Cougars jumped on the Hawks early before adding two more in what was a hard-fought match.
Tynan gave her all throughout the 80 minutes but couldn’t keep a clean sheet against one of the stronger teams in the TRAC conference. Coming into the matchup, the Cougars had won two of three at home with a goal differential of 10 after the contest.
Although the Hawks had their chances through Brooke Wristen, Holly Strong and others, the Cougars had the game in their grasp early.
2019
Hawks rout Stallion girls in rivalry match
The Liberty Hawks girls soccer team came away with a 4-1 victory behind two goals by Sevin Moreno against in-town rivals Madera South at Liberty.
“Coming into tonight’s game, there is a lot of pride at stake here because we are all from Madera, so there are some bragging rights there,” Liberty head coach Eric Walker said. “It was a good win for us tonight, but we have Clovis East coming up next week and then we get into league.”
The Hawks were led the trio of Holly Strong, Brooke Wristen and Moreno who combined for four goals and three assists in the victory. The three Hawks’ dictated the game after goals in the 21st and 25th minutes gave Liberty the momentum they needed to control the game.
Sara Garibay also contributed an assist as the sophomore forward continues to develop into one of the Hawks’ playmakers.
While the Hawks earned the victory, another important aspect of their 4-1 win was everyone got a chance to see the pitch.
The Stallions, on the other hand, couldn’t get their game plan going throughout the match. Whether it was passing from the back to the midfield or the midfield to the attacking front, the Stallions were out of sync.
However, despite the adversity the Stallions fought till the very end. Kayla Gutierrez was the beneficiary as she knocked in a goal at the end.
Stallions hit seven in rout of Hawks
It was one of those days for the Madera South Stallions boys soccer team.
Seven goals and enough chances to satisfy a few games, the Stallions put in a complete performance against the Liberty Hawks at Liberty.
“It was one of those nights,” Madera South head coach Enrique Garcia said. “We haven’t played Liberty in a while, so it was nice to them out on the pitch. They gave us a fight and congratulations to them. I think they are going to have a great year.
But the boys were hungry and ready for the second half. We’re used to playing this late, we train this late, our boys were ready to compete.”
A hat trick from Angel Avila and three assists from Carlos Cardenas powered the Stallions to two goals in the first half and five in the second.
Christian Garcia, Christian Meza and Cardenas also contributed to the goal scoring effort, combining for four goals. Although the Stallions were clicking, a talk from coach Fernando Delgadillo set the team straight for a dominant second half.
The Stallions’ four different goal scorers epitomized a night where Madera South flowed as a team. From the simple passes, the communication and the overall effort, Madera South were determined for a victory, regardless of who had the misfortune of sharing the pitch that night.
Second half surge downs Coyotes
Before the Madera Coyote girls basketball team could settle down from the opening tip, they found themselves trailing the Sunnyside-Fresno Wildcats early in a non-conference game in Joe Flores Gym.
However, the Coyotes chipped away at the lead and tied the game at 27 in the third quarter. Sunnyside then used a 21-4 run to put away the Coyotes in a 60-47 loss.
The Coyotes had their problems from the field. They shot just 23 percent (15-of-66) from the floor, including 3-of-17 (18 percent) from 3-point range. Madera’s trouble shooting the ball affected them at the foul line. The Coyotes shot just 44 percent (12-of-27) from the charity stripe. However, Sunnyside couldn’t take advantage and shot 14-of-29 (48 percent) themselves.
Cathy Figueroa led the Coyotes with 13 points and BriAnn Houghton added 11 points, but it was not getting the close shots that frustrated head coach Jason Smith.
The Coyotes pulled down 22 offensive rebounds, but only recorded two putbacks, missing many close shots. Madeleine McNeil pulled down 15 rebounds, nine on the offensive glass, but scored just six points. Houghton grabbed 11 rebounds and seven on the offensive glass and didn’t record a setback.
The Coyotes had their chances late in the game, but missed 19 of 23 shots in the fourth quarter despite outscoring the Wildcats.
