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Monday Field Hockey — River Valley at Corning, 3:30 p.m. NFL— Saints at 49ers, 5:30 p.m., ESPN MLB— Braves at Phillies, 4 p.m., MLBN MLB — White Sox at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNC Sports 1B Monday September 20, 2010 Great run falls short Correction The goal scored by the Red Bluff Spartans soccer team on Friday was scored off of a corner kick cross by Martin Hlinka. The Daily News regrets the error. Bulldogs bite back FOOTBALL University Prep 0 Los Molinos 14 By RICHGREENE DN Sports Editor A 14-0 win over University Prep, Friday, gave Los Moli- nos the school’s first back-to-back wins in three years. More importantly for this season, it evened up the Bull- dogs record at 2-2 as they head into league play. What’s changed since the 0-2 start? Nothing, according to coach Irvin Maxwell. “You gotta’ look at who we lost to,” he said. Fair enough. The opening loss came against a Williams team that was 1-9 in 2009, but so far is 4-0 on the new season. The Yel- lowjackets are also a class up in Division III. The Bulldogs’ second loss came to defending Division- Daily News photo by Rich Greene Los Molinos outside hitter Kiersten Seaman sends the ball past the Portola wall, Saturday. Lady Bulldogs lose in finals, Mercy ousted in pool play VOLLEYBALL Beth Pilger Invitational By RICHGREENE DN Sports Editor LOS MOLINOS — The Lady Bulldogs won their first 15 games at the Beth Pilger Invitational, but the last one they needed proved to be just out of reach. The Portola Tigers came from behind 21-25, 25-17, 15-13 to end the Bulldogs’ dream finish, Saturday, in the championship match at the annual Los Molinos tournament. The Bulldogs had reached the final in an impressive form, sweeping every game of their six pool play matches and taking down Chester in the semifinal 25-19, 25-19. The streak included a two-game sweep of Portola on Friday, the team that has knocked Los Molinos out of the playoffs two years running. With that revenge in the back of their minds and an opportunity to raise their own tournament trophy, the Lady Bulldogs came out on fire in Game 1 of the championship. The emotion was felt through the gym on every point and Los Molinos raced out to a 5-1 lead forcing Portola coach Mike Compton to burn an early time out. The Tigers closed the gap back to two points, but once again the Bull- dogs’ energy won out and Compton used another time out with Los Moli- nos up 14-8. Twice Portola closed the gap to two points, but each time Ashley Havel stepped up for the Bulldogs to deliver one of her six kills in the match. The Bulldogs then held on to take Game 1 25-21. It was their 15th straight game win, but unfortunately their last of the tournament. Havel was one of several Bulldogs, who stepped up their play at the tour- nament. She made the all-tournament team along with Bulldogs Kiersten Sea- man, Callie Carruth, Jessey Quirke Gradkowski leads Raiders past Rams OAKLAND (AP) — Bruce Gradkowski held his helmet and the football to the sky as he walked off the field to the chants of ‘‘Bruu- uuce!’’ that echoed through- out the Coliseum for most of the second half. Gradkowski gave Oak- land a spark early this sea- son, leading the Raiders to their first win and creating questions about who the starter will be. Gradkowski replaced an See RAIDERS, page 2B and Nikki Quirke. They weren’t the only ones, who played well. Breanna Gratreaks gave up her body to crash into the stands to save a point and Briselda Castillo had eight digs in the finals. The Bulldogs might have burnt too much adrenaline in Game 1, because they came out flat in the second game. Errors helped Portola build up an early lead, which extended out to 19- 9 before Los Molinos could react. The Bulldogs made one last run at closing the game, reeling off five straight points to make it 22-16, but it would be as close as they would get and Portola forced a decisive third game with a 25-17 win. The third game went back-and- forth with the widest gap being an early 4-1 Portola lead. The Bulldogs then rode their superb hitter Seaman the rest of the way, who was being set up by Callie Carruth, who had 20 assists. At 12-12, Seaman delivered one of her 11 kills to give Los Molinos their last lead. Portola fired back and then their captain Ellie Kibble put them on championship point at 14-13. The Tigers last kill shot, was blocked out of bounds and Portola escaped 15-13. Either way the Bulldogs were going to have a revenge match in the championship. Portola ousted Fall River in the other semifinal. A week earlier, Fall River had handed Los Molinos the Bulldogs’ only other loss of the season in the championship match of the Fall River tournament. Even with the two championship match losses Los Molinos has started the season 16-2-1. The Mercy Warriors tied two of their six pool play matches and did not reach the knockout stage. IV champions Portola. It might have been in the second half of that game the signs were shown the Bulldogs had some bark left in them. Los Molinos held Portola to just one touchdown in the second half. The performance might have built some confidence, but an incident in the Bulldogs’ third game, their 21-14 win over Weed, pulled the team together. A mid-game altercation between Los Molinos and Weed players resulted in two Bulldogs being suspended for the U- Prep game, but Maxwell said it brought his team together as one. The Bulldogs went on to win the game behind a pair of rushing touchdowns by Sean Conrad, who rejoined the team and moved to running back after initially leaving the team as its starting quarterback. With the relationship patched up and Conrad moved to the backfield, Eric Blanchard has taken over at quarterback. Maxwell’s philosophy of smash-mouth football has remained in place. It’s starting to pay off. Bruising fullback Luis Camacho had both scores against University Prep. One of them was set up by a Gilbert Zamora interception. “The defense, they’re doing pretty darn good,” Maxwell said. They are. The Bulldogs are playing solid on both sides of the ball as they head into traditional week off for the fair and then begin league play by hosting Maxwell. This year’s league schedule at first glance seems to be an easier road than the Bulldogs have faced in recent seasons. That’s leaving open the possibility of meaningful games played in Los Molinos during the second half of the season. It may be talk right now, but it’s been awhile since there could be. Maxwell said this week the Bulldogs will take it light and enjoy the time off. It won’t last long however. “We’ll come back next Monday and hit it hard,” he said. Lady Cardinals’ defense has strong tournament FIELD HOCKEY Longhorn Round Up 2010 The only goals Corning gave up at Leigh’s Long- horn Round Up over the weekend came to the tourna- ment’s eventual champions. Corning posted a 0-1-2 record during pool play at the 18-team tournament. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Mercy’s Camille Crowley fights for a point at the net, Saturday, at the Beth Pilger Invitational in Los Molinos. The Lady Cardinals opened up Friday with a pair of scoreless 0-0 ties against Prospect and Homestead. Against Prospect, Katlyn Huntley made five saves in net for Corning. “Huntley communicated and had some amazing clears this weekend,” coach Teresa Lamb said. In the Prospect game, Nicole Mason led the team with two shots. “We moved the ball well and played as a team,” Lamb said. Huntley made four saves against Homestead and Jasmine Gravitt led the Lady Cardinals with four shots in the tie. On Saturday, eventual tournament champions Gilroy defeated Corning 5-0. “Gilroy is an amazing team. They are a futures team that plays year round together,” Lamb said. Huntley made five saves during the game and Corn- ing did find opportunities to score, but couldn’t capital- ize. “The more contacts we have the more we improve,” Lamb said. “Our dodges and flow is coming together.” Throughout the tournament, Anna Nelson did a nice job of dribbling the ball up the field and was named to the All-Tournament team. Lamb said Shae Mesker continues to become more MCT photo Raiders linebacker Rolando McClain (55) takes down Rams wide receiver Danny Amendola (16) in the fourth quarter Sunday. aggressive and her dodges are improving. Angelica Ramos, Karlie Jennings and Claudio Lopez worked well in defense. Corning returns to league play today when they host River Valley. Junior varsity starts at 3:30 p.m.