Chabot sports roundup: Women's basketball team has talent, depth

With 12 freshmen and a bunch of talent, the Chabot women’s basketball team has opened the season with a hop on its step under sixth-year head coach Mark Anger.
The Gladiators, ranked 10th in the CCCWBCA North Region Preseason Poll, began their journey with a 94-49 rout of De Anza on Nov. 7. Olivia Vezeladenos led the way with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting (4 of 9 on 3-pointers), five rebounds, five steals, four assists and three blocks.
Mia Finnie added 15 points and nine boards, Kim Masulit had 12 points and Jessika Davis had 10 points.
Moreover, the Gladiators (3-0) were gifted two forfeit wins over Menlo, which means Friday’s scheduled game between the two teams was scrapped along with a Nov. 21 matchup in Santa Clara.
Anger, who has guided the Gladiators to the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, describes his team as “pretty talented and pretty deep, but very inexperienced.”
The impressive Chabot bench provided 43 points against De Anza, but the bar will be much higher on Friday when Chabot travels to powerful Sequoias (No. 4 in North) after they visit Cosumnes River on Tuesday.

Men’s basketball
Chabot (0-2) will host the six-team Chabot Classic in the small gymnasium Friday through Sunday.
The Gladiators will open pool play against West Valley at noon Friday and then will face Folsom at noon Saturday and De Anza at 4 p.m. Sunday.
In other action Friday, De Anza will face Alameda at 2 p.m. and Feather River play Folsom at 4 p.m. Feather River is ranked 13th in Northern California in the CCCMBCA Preseason Poll.
For tournament information, visit http://cccmbca.org/…/2017-18_Tourname…/Chabot_Tournament.pdf.

Wrestling
The Gladiators, enjoying a successful season with a 7-3 record, 3-1 in conference, will host the Coast Conference Tournament on Saturday. The doors of the main gym open at 9 a.m., and the competition begins at 10 a.m.
Chabot finished the regular season with a 44-10 win over Skyline as Ryan Petersen (157), AJ Cress (184) and Lazaro Carrasco (197) won by fall. Rafael Vega (165) won by technical fall and Marc Chamberlain (174) won by a 5-2 decision.
Cress is ranked second in the state and is the favorite in his division. Logan Atchinson is ranked fifth at 184 pounds. Chumkuar Dhaliwal is sixth in the state at 284.
Fresno City will enter the Coast tourney ranked No. 1 in the state, Chabot is No. 6, Santa Rosa seventh, Skyline 11th and Modesto 22nd.

Football
The Chabot football team fell to rival Laney 34-8 in its conference finale Saturday night at Gladiator Stadium.
Coming off a 45-37 win at College of Sequoias last week, the Gladiators offense struggled to move the ball against a stingy Eagles defense. Chabot’s defense did its best to keep the team in the game.
"We had to do the best we can to keep the game close and give our offense a chance," Lakevion Thomas Jr. said. "We played close all year and a play here or there were right in it."
Starting quarterback Johnny O'Brien, who led the Gladiators to the win last week, did not play because of a shoulder injury that hampered him all season long. O'Brien was fifth in the state at 249 yards per game coming in.
The Gladiators finally broke through on their last drive of the season when quarterback Vondell Pilcher hit DaJuan Johnson down the left sideline for a 31-yard gain to the Eagles 15. Two plays later, Pilcher connected with Malik Henderson for Henderson's first touchdown of the season with 3:39 left. Pilcher hit Samuel Adams for the 2-point conversion.
The Gladiators’ Raheem Patterson recovered an Eagles fumble on the first play of the game.
Chabot finishes the season 2-8, 1-4 Valley Conference while Laney (9-1, 5-0) clinched the conference title.

Soccer
The Gladiators men’s team finished a tough season with a late flourish, routing rival Ohlone 4-1 and Gavilan 5-2. Joshua Rojas scored twice against the Renegades. Also scoring were Brandon Sosa, Cristian Guzman and Jesus Radillo.
Against Gavilan, Chabot erupted for five goals in the first half. Sosa led the charges with two goals and two assists. Also scoring were Ramon Briceno, Joseph Guzman and Cristian Guzman.
The Chabot women’s team completed the season with losses to Las Positas and West Valley. Tyna Moorer and Adriana Mariscal scored against West Valley, and Breanna Aranda and Sydney Hollingsworth had assists.