ROHNERT PARK, Calif- Junior Taylor Colacion headed a pass from freshman Lauren Fryer  into the upper right corner of the net with just 26 seconds remaining in regulation to give Sonoma State a narrow 2-1 victory over visiting Western Oregon on Thursday afternoon. It was the season-opener for both squads. The Seawolves are now 16-6-3 on opening day and have won the last five openers.

Sonoma State controlled the field from the get-go, dominating the offensive end by peppering Western Oregon goalkeeper Brittney Rigtrup with shots, including 10 in the opening 25 minutes of the match. The Seawolves outshot the Wolves 15-2 in the first half.

It wasn't until the 15th shot of the game that SSU found the net. Jaci Davey took a pass from Bree Robles, spun to her right, shook the defender and beat Rigtrup one-on-one, just 29 seconds before halftime.

"We came out and played really, really well in the first half, creating numerous opportunities," head coach Luke Oberkirch said. "We got a nice late goal by Davey, who came off the bench and played great for us."

However, it seemed as if the momentum shifted as the second half began. Western Oregon took control offensively and scored an equalizer in the 66th minute on a goal by Marina Austin.

"It was a tale of two halves, really," Oberkirch added. "Our goal was to start the second half faster. We didn't do that and to Western Oregon's credit, they really came out and kind of took it to us there for a while. They got a nice goal and then we had to fight and scrap for everything."

Despite the lopsided number of shots in SSU's advantage, the Seawolves were unable to convert any of the first seven shots of the second half. The eighth and final shot counted, though, as Colacion headed in the cross from Fryer at 89:34, giving Sonoma State the win.

"It was a credit to our mentally," said Oberkirch. "We have been working on ending games, ending halves and that was just a fantastic goal by (Colacion) and a great cross by (Fryer)."

The Seawolves led the match in shots, 23-7. Rigtrup made eight tough saves for the Wolves while her counterpart, SSU's Courtney Grixti made four saves.

Sonoma State will begin California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) play on Sept. 10 when it hosts Cal Poly Pomona at the Seawolf Soccer Field, kicking off at 4 p.m.

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Tyler Lobe

Let the season begin.   Two North Bay League-Sonoma County League contests and the annual Cardinal Newman-Central Catholic highlight Week 1 and not such good news coming out of Humboldt County.

The High School Football season gets going this weekend with games on Friday and Saturday.   Each week we will have notes on each game.   Fifteen teams are the main focus,  the North Bay League, the Sonoma County League and the two teams from the NCL I South from Sonoma County, Cloverdale and St. Vincent.

There will be notes about each game and some history (what can be found).   Also each game will have a spread courtesy to Cal Preps and be ready for some ugly number on some games. 

For opening week six Sonoma County League teams and four North Bay League opens play.   The rest, including the two NCL I South teams, begins next week.  The only Sonoma County League team not opening this weekend is Casa Grande.  Elsie Allen, Maria Carrillo, Rancho Cotate and Ukiah also wait to next week.

Eight games featuring the other ten teams will start the season, eight games on Friday, two on Saturday.   Teams have to make trips to as far north as Eureka, far East as Del Oro to the southeast to Orinda.  Four of the ten teams get to play on the home field while the other six have to travel.

Two of the eight games are NBL-SCL games, one deep in tradition, the other not much tradition at all.    The Sonoma County League dominated the Pre-League part of the schedule last season, winning all fourteen games.   Playoff time the Sonoma County League went 3-2.

Hard Times In Humboldt Country...Before getting to the previews a story from in the Humboldt area.  The North Coast Section took a hit and it effects defending North Coast Section Division III champion Eureka.  Because of not enough players, Arcata and South Fork will not field a varsity football team.  Arcata is in the Humboldt Big-4, the league Eureka won last season on its way to a North Coast Section Championship.   Both schools will field JV teams and hope to field varsity teams next season.   This is still a developing story and the full effects of this is unknown.   There is a NCS rule that a league to be sanctioned has to have four teams, which the Humboldt Big-4, who will now be called the Humboldt Big-3, is hoping that the rule will be waved. One effect for sure is scheduling.  The Big 4 League plays each other twice to determine a league champion.   So at the moment the teams have two less games on the schedule.   The other are the seniors who wanted to play.   They can't play of the JV team.   There is a rule that if a student/athlete transfers they have to sit out a year.   There is a push to get that rule waved for the seniors who want to transfer.

FRIDAY GAMES

Analy vs. Miramonte at Orinda 7 pm....Analy returns six players on an offense that averaged 27 points a game including Junior quarterback Jake Zanutto who three for nearly 2,000 yards and 26 touchdown passes, leading rusher Cooper Maloney and add to that on the defensive side the top three tacklers of the 2009 team.  Analy ended the season on a positive note, winning two of the last three games including their first NCS playoff game since 2003.   Even after the playoff loss they had the heads up high, losing to Marin Catholic 37-35.  Marin Catholic went on to win the NCS Crown and represent Northern California in the Division III State Championship Game.  Miramonte, who along with Analy is in the North Coast Section Division III. is from the Diablo Foothill League and went 6-7 last season which included two playoffs win.   Also like Analy they return a Quarterback who is a junior named Ross Anderson.  Back in the days when the East Bay and North Bay playoffs were split Miramonte won five of seven NCS Championships starting the streak in 1997.   This is year number three for head coach Dan Bourdon.  The first two seasons the Tigers got off to big starts going 5-0 in 2008 and 4-0 in 2009.
Calpreps projection:  Miramonte by 4

El Molino vs. Fortuna...7:30 pm...Hope is high as it has been in quite a while at El Molino.  The main reason is the return of SCL All-League senior combination of Quarterback Mike Pierson and Reciever Joe Douglass, part of an offense that is returning eight starters.  Another of the returners is last season's leading rusher Tom Krausmann.   El Molino hasn't had a .500 season since 2002 and has only one Sonoma County League win since 2004, but what success they have had has been in the pre-league part of the schedule starting the last four seasons 2-2.   Fortuna is in what is now Humboldt Big-3  and are effected by recent developments in that area (see above).  Fortuna went 8-4 last season with two of the losses to Eureka and won one game in the North Coast Section Division III playoffs.  The two teams have met the last two seasons with Fortuna winning both games.
Calpreps projection:  Fortuna by 7

Montgomery at Windsor...7:30 pm...One of the two North Bay League-Sonoma County League games to start the season.  The coaching match up is as one sided, at least experience wise, as you will ever see at this level.  Montgomery's Jason Franci starts year No. 31 and has a Sonoma County record 222 career wins.  Windsor's Dustin Davis is coaching his first game.  He does have experience with his team, coaching the JV's the last three season to a 29-0-1 record.    Montgomery has a normal pre-season outlook.   Last season they came off their first losing season in a decade and a half by winning the North Bay League and going to the North Coast Section Division II Championship game.   This has the look of a normal Jason Franci team with an Offensive Line that averages 280 and last season's leading rusher Alex Ciudad-Real.  Windsor is the pick to give Casa Grande the biggest run for the SCL championship.  Junior quarterback Christian McAlvain will start his first varsity game.  He does have some experience around him.   They are returning seven players on both offense and defense, including three on the offensive line.  This is the first time that the teams have met in a regular season game.   They did meet in the 2006 NCS Playoffs with Montgomery taking a 36-12 win. Montgomery plays the first five games on the road.
Calpreps projection: Montgomery by 24

Petaluma at Santa Rosa...7:30 pm...The other North Bay League-Sonoma County league game that is about as far away from the set up as the other one.     These teams first met in 1921, a game won by Santa Rosa 33-0.  Last year Petaluma won the opener for both teams 27-0 which was the first game between the two since 2000. Petaluma has won eleven of the last twelve meetings cutting Santa Rosa's series lead to 40-34.  There has been seven ties.   That's not the only difference.  Both coaches...Rick Krist of Petaluma and Les Richardson of Santa Rosa are coaching their first game at the schools.  Petaluma had the better season last year by a wide margin, but only has one starter returning from that team.  Santa Rosa has nine starters returning including quarterback Kalen Rosselli who missed last years Petaluma game because he was a week to young.  The winner earns the right to drill a hole in a War Club with their school colors.
Cal Preps projection:  Petaluma by 24

Piner at Eureka...7:30 pm...Welcome to 2010 Piner.  The long trip to Eureka to meet the defending North Coast Section Championship that left little doubt they were the best team. They lost some players from that team, including 2,000 yard rusher Soma Vainuku, but have a lot coming back and will be worth keeping an eye on as the season goes on.  As you will see in the Cal Preps Projection...not much expected from Piner here.  Piner is coming of a 2-8 record for the fourth straight season.  Second year Coach Mike Tomlin plans to have a wide open offense from a new quarterback after All-NBL QB Logan Stiles graduated.   Piner has eleven starters returning from last season, including four All-NBL selections.
Cal Preps projection: Eureka by 50

San Rafael vs. Sonoma Valley...7:30 pm...Season number twenty seven for Sonoma Valley coach Mike O' Meara who are coming off their first losing season in three seasons.  Among returning is Junior running back Yahya Muslim, who in his debut season rushed for over 1,000 yards.  San Rafeal, from the Marin County League, is coming off a 2-8 season, ending the season with a seven game losing streak.  The two teams met to start 2009 with Sonoma Valley taking a 17-7 win.
Cal Preps Projection:  San Rafael by 4

SATURDAY
Cardinal Newman vs. Central Catholic at Del Oro  2pm...Two Division III Nor Cal powers kickoff begin the season against each other for the sixth straight season.   The series has been as close as it can be with each team winning two and the other ending in a tie.  The game is part of a six game event taking place at Del Oro High School called the Battle of the Capital.   Two games are being played on Friday, four more on Saturday.  Central Catholic is coming off an 11-2 season, Cardinal Newman 7-5 which by standards for these two programs are off years.   The winner of this game takes the early lead in the battle for the Division III State Championship game.  Cardinal Newman has fifteen starters returning from last year, including eight from a defense that had two shutouts and kept two more under ten points.   This is the first of a three game pre-league schedule which Cardinal Newman plays against teams out of the area. The three teams had a combined record of 27-8-1 in 2009. 
CalPreps Projection:  Central Catholic by 10

Piedmont at Healdsburg 7:30...Another year, expect another competitive one.  Healdsburg Coach in two different stints has a 17 year resume of every team of .500 and a career record of 151-49-1 a winning percent of 75.5.  They were hit hard by graduation, but should get help from a JV team that went 7-3.   Junior Max Opperman will be the starting quarterback and one of his receivers is George Brush who caught seven touchdown passes last season.  They meet a Piedmont team who went 6-5 and a fourth place finish in the Bay Shore League.  Piedmont has a different called of offense called the A-11 which has two quarterbacks, three linemen and six wide receivers.  Piedmont returns one one offensive starter from last season.  
CalPreps Projection:  Healdsburg by 7