As leagues across the North Coast Section shift their focus away from tournaments and non-league travel, local rivalries once again get set to blossom, providing packed gymnasiums and rabid fan bases. This Tuesday, the annual Battle of the Creek between Las Lomas and Northgate is sure to provide that exact atmosphere, as the Knights and Broncos bring a combined 25-1 record into the non-league matchup.
“We’re expecting absolute madness on Tuesday,” said Northgate senior center Graham Michiels. “People really want to see us keep improving.”
Improvement has been the theme at Northgate, where Tuesday’s game will take place. The Broncos are aiming to snap a six-game losing streak against Las Lomas, but this year has already started as a success for Northgate. After five straight years with a losing record, including a 6-20 overall mark last season, and a winless campaign in league play, the Broncos won their first 12 games this year, the best start in program history. A road loss to Vallejo last weekend dropped Northgate to 12-1, but the team still has designs on winning at least 20 games, which has not happened since 2010-2011.
“We are very lucky and blessed to be in this situation. This team has really put its best foot forward to get to this point,” said second-year Northgate Ron Pangilinan. “This is an amazing group of young men, and this has been a fun start. For both Las Lomas and us to be so successful early in the year says a lot about this community in Walnut Creek.”
The visiting Knights, meanwhile, are off to a 13-0 start, but still harbor some memories of the way last season, when a 22-win campaign came to an abrupt end in the quarterfinals of the NCS Division II playoffs and the first round of the NorCal bracket.
“We learned what it was like to lose last year, at the end,” said Las Lomas senior wing Devin Payne. “This year, we know everyone is bringing their best game at us.”
Despite everyone giving Las Lomas their best efforts, the Knights are also off to the best start in school history, something they fully expected to start the year.
“We’re really enjoying this season so far. This is something we expected to do,” said Las Lomas coach Brian Dietschy, speaking at Sunday’s media event with the two teams, hosted by the Ultimate Fieldhouse in Walnut Creek. “We have high expectations, and enter every game believing we should win. By the same token, we have to continue to take things one game at a time. The Battle of the Creek is always a fun game, and it’s great for the city of Walnut Creek.”
Despite starting the year with signature victories over teams such as St. Ignatius, Berkeley, Menlo-Atherton, Acalanes, Cardinal Newman, and Mt. Eden, the Knights believe they have a lot of room of improvement, especially as play in the rugged DAL-Foothill Division starts this coming Friday.
“I don’t think we have hit on all cylinders yet. We’re playing well, but we can play even better,” Dietschy added. “We can especially rebound better and make defense our backbone.”
Las Lomas expects to not only get Northgate’s best effort in the local rivalry game, but also to feel the electricity from the Broncos’ fan base.
“Northgate is a great atmosphere,” said Las Lomas senior guard Jason Holman. “We know they are going to play their best possible game against us.”
What that means for the Broncos is taking on their biggest challenge, despite early wins over teams such as Pittsburg, Livermore, and South Whidbey-WA.
“We gained a lot of confidence through our early wins. We know we can play against the top teams on our schedule,” said Northgate senior guard Adam Schaufler, who enters the contest averaging 15 points per game and figures to be a key element in producing points for the Broncos. “I know that if I give the ball up and trust my teammates, I’ll get it back in a good position. I have to let (scoring) happen in the flow of the game.”
The teams meet at 7 pm this Tuesday, before both programs split off to their respective divisions of the Diablo Athletic League. Northgate figures to be one of the favorites in the Valley Division, playing against Berean Christian, Alhambra, Concord, Ygnacio Valley, and Mt. Diablo.
Las Lomas has its hands full playing in the Foothill Division, which also features Clayton Valley, Campolindo, Acalanes, College Park, and Miramonte. Five of those six teams are ranked in the top 20 of our Prep2Prep NCS rankings, with Clayton Valley and Las Lomas both in the top five.
Around the horn – the week ahead
Top games this Tuesday, in games that could give one school a leg up in early league races, involve marquee match-ups in the BCL-West and the SCL.
In the BCL, University is off to a hot non-league start at 14-1, but faces an Urban team which has played plenty of top-notch competition during its 11-6 start. The host Blues have tight losses to Jefferson and Alameda, with a nice win over Miramonte. University’s lone loss came to Serra-San Mateo in the Marin Catholic Bambauer Classic.
Stuart Hall also meets Lick-Wilmerding in the BCL, a game which always promises to be entertaining and have a hand in deciding in the league title.
Out in Sonoma County, Petaluma and Piner meet in a battle of teams both eager to grab what appears to be a wide open race, especially with Analy’s early struggles. Despite a 10-4 overall record, Piner did fall to Healdsburg in its league opener, making this match-up with Petaluma critical to any title hopes. The Trojans have won their first two games in league play.
In other top action this week, Piedmont puts its perfect 12-0 mark to the test, facing Bishop O’Dowd in the WACC-Foothill opener for both schools on Wednesday. Las Lomas and College Park clash in the DAL-Foothill opener on Friday night, along with an emotionally-fueled rivalry game between Acalanes and Campolindo. Heritage opens defense of its BVAL title on Friday, playing at Pittsburg.
