By Ryan Menzie
Signal Sports Writer
In the second week of Foothill League play, the West Ranch Wildcats found themselves on top once again, but this time only by a three-stroke margin ahead of the Valencia Vikings. The Vikings were 12 strokes behind in week one.
The Foothill League teams competed in their second league match on Sept. 21 at Hansen Dam, but the results remained much the same across the board.
“For the most part as a team, other than Kate Yi and Eunice Yi, it was a struggle,” said Wildcats head coach Jeff Holen. “We could not get the ball in the proper location on the course to get it to the proper location on the green. However, I learned my team is pretty equal from top to bottom as I said earlier this season. We can rely on any players across the board to step in and provide us a score for the match to help us win.”
The Vikings were ahead by a couple of strokes, according to Holen, but with the help of their sixth option with Kate Yi, who shot a 38, which was 2-over par, it provided the score to propel them to be three strokes ahead of the Vikings. Eunice Yi was the No. 1 and shot a 37.
Vikings head coach Robert Waters is not discouraged by the performance. In fact, he is extremely proud of their improvement after having improved their score by 17 strokes from playing at Hansen Dam a couple weeks before.
“They keep getting better and it’s all credit to the girls,” said Waters. “Currently (Jillian Leh) is No. 1 in league and is under par right now. She is a special player on and off the golf course. Next week we move on to Vista again, which gives us a chance to see the course one more time. Our scores have kept improving since the beginning of the year. The goal now is to knock off West Ranch and pull away from Hart.”
Vikings star Jillian Leh, who shot 3-under in their previous matchup, finished the day going par, which was good enough for the best score of the day. Leh remains humbled, as it feels new for her to be at the top since she has been accustomed to finishing behind the Wildcats star, Eunice Yi.
“Practicing putting coming into the matchup was the difference for myself and the team,” said Leh. “Last time we were at Hansen Dam we didn’t do so well, but this time we did much better. (Waters) always tells us to stay positive and have fun. That’s how it’s been and that was the message from last season. If we concentrate and stay focused, we can also have fun”
The Hart Indians finished 11 strokes behind the Vikings with 218 strokes, good enough for third place and were led by Peyton Grider, Brooke Almond and Madison Zinni, who all shot 43. The Golden Valley Grizzlies, who finished in fifth during their first matchup, finished in fourth place with 245 strokes and were led by Riya Patel and Chloe Switzer, who each shot 59.
The Saugus Centurions fell to fifth place with 293 strokes and were led by Brooke Maxwell with 49 strokes. Rounding out the Foothill League is the Canyon Cowboys, who like last week were not able to finish with a qualifying score due to not having five players. Vivan Lee led the Cowboys with 47 strokes and the team added an extra player to their roster. The Cowboys need just one more player in order to be able to qualify scores moving forward.
