By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
Sunday afternoon's announcement of the six bids for California's State Championship Bowl Games officially closed out the Central Coast Section's football season.
Oak Grove was the only team with a legitimate shot at earning a state bowl bid, but that chance evaporated with Saturday night's 37-0 victory by De La Salle in the North Coast Section's 4A title game.
Last year's only CCS entrant in the inaugural state bowl was Palo Alto. But even a repeat championship in the Large School Division this year wasn't enough to get Palo Alto a return ticket to the Division II state title game.
The CCS was one of six sections that failed to earn a state bowl bid, joining the Central, Los Angeles, Northern, Oakland and San Francisco sections on the outside looking in this year.
Soccer: Mitty Wins Tough WCAL Opener
Archbishop Mitty was not expected to be much of a challenge for Serra High in both teams' West Catholic Athletic League opener this week.
But Mitty (2-2 overall, 1-0 WCAL) wasn't about to turn down the chance to upend the Padres (2-2-1, 0-1), who came out very flat and fell 2-0 to Mitty Saturday.
Mitty held Serra to just three scoring opportunities throughout the entire game, including just one shot on goal in the second half.
Mitty's Kevin Atkins scored the eventual game-winner in the 43rd minute of the game and Matt Hougthon added an insurance goal just five minutes later.
Basketball
As football players begin joining their school's basketball teams, the tournament season begins to heat up in prep basketball.
Woodside Priory picked the wrong time to turn ice cold as a fourth-quarter collapse led to a 63-58 loss to International High in thechampionship game of the Gryphon Holiday Shootout.
Woodside had led by eight points going into the final eight minutes but the normally solid shooting squad would only hit 29 percent fromthe field in the final quarter. Woodside Priory compounded its slide with four turnovers in the quarter and found itself in early foul trouble.
International's Rue Critchfield drained three 3-pointers inthe first two minutes of the quarter to lead the Jaguars to the tournamentvictory.
The loss dropped Woodside Priory to 2-3 on the young season.
Vontoure Spartan Classic
Stephen Lumpkins poured in 29 points and collected 12 rebounds - the fourth straight double-double for the American University bound senior - to lead Serra to a 57-48 victory over Amador to capture the consolation championship of the Vontoure Spartan Classic.
Serra (4-1) posted a 21-point second quarter to take control of the game.
Notre Dame Holiday Classic
The Notre Dame High girls basketball team pressed its way to a 44-24 win over Pinewood in the championship game of the Notre Dame Holiday Classic on Saturday.
Notre Dame's press generated 26 turnovers by Pinewood (3-2)and the Tigers (5-1) rolled to a 17-point halftime lead.
Terra Nova Tournament
Terra Nova claimed the third-place title in its own tournament with a stingy defense that secured a 32-24 victory over Mills in theTerra Nova Tiger Invitational Saturday.
Valerie Broder led the Tigers (4-3) with 13 points,the only player for either team to reach double digits in scoring.
