CIF CCS D1 Championship Preview

Santa Clara University is hosting two incredible sides tomorrow evening. Surprise, surprise the St Francis Lancers coached by Carlos Barboza are back in the CIF CCS D1 Championship this season going for another unprecedented treble. The Lancers are undefeated going into this game at 19-0-1 with their only blemish coming against Saint Ignatius in a 0-0 tie in January. They seemed to take that result personally as they just beat the Wildcats 6-0 in the Semi-Final on Tuesday. St. Francis is establishing themselves as one of the top high school programs in the country. They are ranked #2 in California and #11 Nationally according to MaxPreps. They will be taking on the Los Gatos Wildcats whom are 17-1-3 ranked #11 in California and #47 nationally with their only loss this season coming against.... you guessed it St. Francis in a 3-1 loss back in early December. Although both sides will look very different to that day come Friday. Both teams are loaded with talent and what an experience to be playing in a stadium with so much rich history. Here are few players to keep an eye on in this one.   For the St. Francis Lancers it starts at Goalkeeper. They have two excellent sophomore shot stoppers in [player_tooltip player_id='111094' first='Sophia' last='Malloy'] and Annaliese Braun. Caitlin Motil and [player_tooltip player_id='19465' first='Grier' last='Gowdy'] will be anchoring the back line. Motil is headed to Cal Baptist in the fall and Gowdy will be taking her talent to West Virginia. Their midfield line consists of two Division 1 commits in Junior [player_tooltip player_id='111184' first='Sophie' last='McCarthy'] and senior [player_tooltip player_id='20049' first='Penelope' last='Correa']. McCarthy is headed to LMU in 2027 and Correa is headed to the St. Marys Gaels in the summer she is also on the Chile Youth National Team. Freshmen standout [player_tooltip player_id='270093' first='Caroline' last='Mortimore'] is another player to keep an eye on, she is ranked #13 in the class of 2029 and on an incredible MVLA side. Mia Yang is another top performer usually playing in midfield, she is headed to Tufts for this upcoming fall season who made it all the way to the D3 Final Four in 2025.   On the other side of the field the Los Gatos Wildcats are lead by Junior Striker and Captain [player_tooltip player_id='82602' first='Abby' last='Nelson']. The Cal Commit has put together an incredible season thus far scoring 39 goals and adding 14 assists. She isn't the only one banging goals in for this team as sophomore forward Isabella Cain has pitched in 24 goals herself. Followed closely by Stanford commit Ale Munneke. She is an incredibly athletic winger who has one of the most powerful shots you will see, she has scored 17 goals and is second on the team with 16 assists. Junior midfielder [player_tooltip player_id='111090' first='Teagan' last='Kaefer'] leads this impressive roster with 21 assists and will be getting a taste of her future collegiate home in this game committing her future to the Santa Clara Broncos in 2027. Senior Goalkeeper and University of Hawaii commit [player_tooltip player_id='19290' first='Cora' last='Bryant'] will be tasked with keeping the Lancers at bay in this one.   In total this game will have 9 Division 1 committed players. A very rare occurrence in any High School game. As well as up and coming young talent who will have division 1 homes once they are able to verbally commit. This promises to be an excellent matchup. I have a feeling this may not be the last time these two teams meet this season with CIF Norcal Playoffs looming after the conclusion of this game with both teams automatically qualifying.

Santa Clara University is hosting two incredible sides tomorrow evening. Surprise, surprise the St Francis Lancers coached by Carlos Barboza are back in the CIF CCS D1 Championship this season going for another unprecedented treble. The Lancers are undefeated going into this game at 19-0-1 with their only blemish coming against Saint Ignatius in a 0-0 tie in January. They seemed to take that result personally as they just beat the Wildcats 6-0 in the Semi-Final on Tuesday. St. Francis is establishing themselves as one of the top high school programs in the country. They are ranked #2 in California and #11 Nationally according to MaxPreps. They will be taking on the Los Gatos Wildcats whom are 17-1-3 ranked #11 in California and #47 nationally with their only loss this season coming against.... you guessed it St. Francis in a 3-1 loss back in early December. Although both sides will look very different to that day come Friday. Both teams are loaded with talent and what an experience to be playing in a stadium with so much rich history. Here are few players to keep an eye on in this one.