Oct. 12 Around the Horn

Soccer kicks it into gear

Oct. 12 Around the Horn
The Diablo Valley College women's soccer team made its move last week. 
The Vikings, known for their stout defense, vaulted into fourth place in the Big 8 Conference with wins over Sacramento City 3-0 and American River 2-1. 
"We had a couple of good matches," DVC coach Cailin Mullins said in an email. 
It's all set the stage for a big week in the Big 8. 
Diablo Valley (5-2-4, 2-1-2, eight points) will play at third-place Modesto (9-3, 3-2, nine points) on Tuesday. Then the Vikings will host powerful Delta (11-0-1, 4-0-1, 13 points), which entered the week in first place, on Friday. 
Against Sacramento City, the Vikings got goals from Ashley Scannell, assisted by Andrea Weinstein; Hannah Mazelowski, assisted by Gabbi Silva; and Hailey Sigur unassisted.
In an exciting victory over American River, Mazelowski scored the dramatic winner in the 90th minute. 
Daissy Lozano gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead off a Yazmin Jaime assist in the 44th minute, capping a dazzling sequence of passes by the Vikings. 
After ARC tied it in the 70th minute, the Vikings kept pressuring the ARC net with shots on frame. 
Finally, the dam broke. 
In the 90th minute, after Sigur earned a corner kick, Julia Curran provided great service into the box. An attempted clearance by the goalkeeper dropped to the feet of Mazelowski, who buried the ball in the back of the net.
 
Football
Fresh off a bye week, the Vikings (2-3) will look to snap a three-game losing streak at home against De Anza (2-3) to open the Bay 6 Conference season. 
The Vikings have been outscored just 117-106 combined over the past three weeks, so they know they are good enough to win. It's just about putting four solid quarters together. Eddie Contreras will return this week to bolster the offensive line. 
Kory Lamberts, who had been out for a year after suffering a serious knee injury, had a huge return in last week's 34-30 loss at Sierra, with a team-leading eight total tackles. Brandon Brown was 3 for 3 on field goals, topped by a 47-yarder, and also had four touchbacks on kickoffs.
Drew Anderson passed for 466 yards and three touchdowns, and leads the state by nearly 60 yards in average passing yards per game, at 383.2. State-leading receiver CJ Cornwell had 11 more catches and a touchdown. Marcus Armstrong-Brown had 11 receptions and a team-high two touchdown catches.
De Anza is coming off a 24-14 win over Laney. Rodney McKenzkie rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns, and Ron Johnson passed for 254 yards and four TDs. Both DVC and De Anza have beaten Feather River.
 
Cross country
The young DVC men's and women's teams both finished sixth at the Toro Invitational/NorCal Preview meet on Friday at Hartnell in Salinas.
Freshmen Benjamin Bennett led the Vikings men with a 12th place individual finish in a time of 21 minutes, 32.5 seconds in the 4-mile race. 
DVC's Keith Lowry was 21st, Kin Wong 36th, Jules Korman 72nd,  Warsame Mohamed 85th, and Logan Portillo rounded out the team's top sixth in 91st. Team champion American River had three individuals in the four and five in the top seven.
In the 3-mile women's race, the Vikings were led by freshmen Alex Embody (11th, 21:11.8) and Ariana Corwin (20th, 20:54.3). Sophomore Katie Embody was 29th in 21:18.3. Cristina Fierro was 44th, and Itzel Martinez was 89th. Hartnell won the women's team title.
 
Men's water polo
DVC (12-11, 3-0 Big 8) moved into sole possession of first place with a 15-8 win over visiting Delta on Oct. 7 in conference play, but the Vikings dropped two of three in the Riverside tournament. 
They beat L.A. Valley 14-12 and lost to Golden West 11-6 and Cerritos 16-11. The Vikings will host Santa Rosa on Wednesday.
 
Women's water polo
The Vikings (14-1, 3-1 Big 8) will look to rebound from their first loss of the season against visiting Santa Rosa at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. DVC fell 14-11 to visiting Delta last week.
Women's volleyball
The Vikings (5-6, 1-3 Big 8) notched their first conference win 3-0 over Cosumnes River. The scores were 25-14, 25-22, 25-12. Jade Lee led the Vikings with 12 kills and Jamie Chow had 22 assists. Krisha Carpio had 15 assists. Noelle Vleisides and Kaitlyn Rudolph combined for 17 kills.