Sports

Halloween came early for Watsonville High, which had no tricks and certainly got no treats Friday night in Gilroy. The Wildcatz were thumped by the Christopher High Cougars 42-14 in a Monterey Bay League Pacific division game.

Senior Kourosh Safari repeated as the SCCAL singles champ with a grueling 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win over Santa Cruz High’s Jack Tierney, while the Mariners’ duo of Carter Bond and Jake Kluger breezed through Soquel High’s pair of Lincoln Cooley and Casey Valcarcel, 6-1, 6-3, for the doubles title at the Seascape Sports Club.

Robert Bishop hit a clutch pull-up jumper with 4.1 seconds left to help Santa Cruz hold off a valiant Aptos upset bid, 59-57, in the first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League action of the 2019 season on Friday night.

Elise Coash, a four-year varsity starter and the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s Most Valuable Player the last two seasons, is no longer with the Mariners; she’s 380 miles away in Southern California playing NCAA Division I volleyball for the UC Irvine Anteaters.

The Mariners are not out of it yet but they are definitely in a hole for the rest of the league season after the 25-20, 25-18, 18-25, 25-19 loss to the loaded Knights. The loss not only dropped the four-time defending SCCAL champs into second place in the league standings but also dashed an impressive 30-match win streak against league opponents in the regular season, which dated back to 2015.

Cabaug stunned No. 2-seeded Nathan Aguilar, of Gilroy High, in the semis with a 6-5 decision and knocked off top-seeded Joe Delgado, of San Benito High, via 7-4 decision in the championship match.

The visiting Saints (12-9, 5-0) outlasted the Seahawks (13-4, 4-1) in a neck-and-neck battle between the top two teams of the Coast Conference South division on Wednesday night.