Ceres High’s and Central Valley’s girls flag football teams didn’t lose any ground in the Western Athletic Conference standings last week.

The Bulldogs improved to 11-8 overall and remained in third place in WAC play with an 8-4 mark after winning a pair of games.

The Hawks improved to 8-11 on the season and stayed in fourth place at 7-5 after beating one of two opponents.

Ceres High and Central Valley are both vying for Sac-Joaquin Section playoff berths.

“We’re playing as a team and it shows on the field,” Ceres High head coach Curtis Hulstine said.

“To see where we’re at right now, we’re pretty excited,” Central Valley leader Tony Cordova said. “Our expectations weren’t this high at first. We’re a good team. We’ve worked hard all season.”

The Bulldogs bested the Pacheco Panthers 38-12 on Oct. 14 at CUSD Stadium.

Maddie Schultz threw for 344 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 29 pass attempts.

Lilly Staggs caught a career-high eight passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

Sovannary Carter caught seven passes for 72 yards and one touchdown.

Alyssa Santillanes caught four passes for 20 yards and one touchdown.

Alexa Rocha caught one pass for 10 yards and one touchdown.

Mariah Renteria caught five passes for 47 yards.

Savannah Leifried led Ceres High’s defense with three tackles and three interceptions.

Joselin Ruiz had four tackles.

The Bulldogs routed the Grace Davis Spartans 42-6 on Oct. 16 in Modesto.

Central Valley pulled away for a 42-21 win over Johansen on Oct. 16 in Ceres.

Addisyn Prudhel completed 17 of 24 passes for 322 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions against the seventh-place Vikings (1-11, 1-11).

Ayleen Apreza caught five passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 42 yards and one score on two carries.

Airieana Martinez caught four passes for 77 yards and one touchdown.

Ruby Medina caught five passes for 89 yards and one touchdown.

Brianna Espinoza caught two passes for 34 yards.

Martinez and Sophia Alvarez led the Hawks’ defense with nine tackles apiece.

Destiny Herrera had five tackles and one pass deflection.

Damaris Cisneros had four tackles and one pass deflection.

Lucero Maciel had one interception.

The Hawks defeated the Vikings 36-0 earlier this season.

Undefeated Livingston snapped Central Valley’s three-game winning streak with a 47-16 home victory on Oct. 14.

Prudhel completed 18 of 36 passes for 218 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions against the Wolves (23-0, 12-0).

Jocelyn Rivera caught three passes for 69 yards and one touchdown.

Kelly Robles caught two passes for 30 yards and one touchdown.

Medina caught six passes for 50 yards.

Martinez caught three passes for 27 yards.

Apreza caught three passes for 24 yards.

Alvarez had two interceptions and one tackle.

Cisneros had four tackles and one interception.

Giana Breashears had three tackles and one interception.

Martinez had three tackles and one pass deflection.

Ceres High is closing in on its second straight playoff berth.

Central Valley has an outside shot at making it to the postseason.

The Bulldogs amassed an 18-3 overall record, finished first in the WAC with a perfect 7-0 mark and advanced to the finals of the Division-I playoff tournament in 2023.

The Hawks struggled to a 3-20 overall record and placed seventh in the Central California Conference (2-12) a year ago.

“Just because you’re successful the year before doesn’t guarantee you to be successful the next year,” Hulstine said. “We’ve been able to work through some issues and become a winning team. We’ve played all year with a target on our back. Everybody wants to beat Ceres.”

“The potential our team has is great,” Cordova stated. “We’re excited for the future.”

WATER POLO

The 2024 prep water polo season is winding down.

Ceres High’s girls and boys teams competed against Grace Davis and Pacheco.

CV’s programs faced Johansen and Livingston.

Central Valley’s boys team dropped to 1-11 overall and 1-10 in the Western Athletic Conference after losing 18-7 to visiting Johansen on Oct. 16 and 12-5 to host Livingston on Oct. 14.

“Our focus is improvement and there were a lot of things to be happy about,” Hawks’ head coach Tyler Bolton said. “The team is slowly but surely understanding the game better and getting more comfortable in the water. We’ve been playing good polo early on in our games.”

Central Valley’s Nick DeLeon scored a team-high three goals against Johansen.

Phillip Esparza tallied a team-high four goals versus Livingston.

The Hawks led 3-0 at the end of the opening period.

Central Valley’s girls team dropped to 0-12 overall and 0-11 in the WAC standings after losing 15-6 to Johansen and 11-7 to Livingston.

The Hawks battled the Vikings and Wolves in the opening halves.

Lilyanna Madrigal accounted for all six cV’sgoals against Johansen.

Madrigal scored seven goals against Livingston.

Ceres High’s boys team dropped to 3-10 overall and 3-9 in the WAC after losing 21-8 at Grace Davis on Oct. 16 and 16-6 at Pacheco Oct. 14.

Zalan Arvai tallied a team-high seven goals against Grace Davis.

Rowan Ramirez added one goal.

Elijah Rodriguez totaled six saves at goalkeeper.

Arvai, Abel Samaniego and Jesus Sanchez all scored twice against Pacheco.

Mateo Gonzalez made six saves.

Ceres High’s girls team dropped to 1-9 overall and 1-8 in league after losing 14-3 to Grace Davis and 14-7 to Pacheco.

Layla Abraham scored a team-high two goals against Grace Davis.

Jessie Blevins had one goal.

Eva Onsurez scored a team-high three goals against Pacheco.

Marie Cadriel had two goals.

Jennifer Sasser and Rhylie Houtchen both added one goal.

Ceres High and Central Valley will close out the WAC season this week.

The Bulldogs will play host to the Hawks today.

The girls and boys matches will get underway at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.

TRAVEL SOFTBALL

The Ceres Sizzle 16-and-under travel softball team finished in second place in the Gold Bracket of the St. Jude Classic, Oct. 12-13, at Louis Park in Stockton.

Ceres won four of its five games en route to a runner-up finish. The Sizzle outscored their opponents 33-7 at the NSA event.

“They played great all weekend,” said head coach Nikole Ferrel.

Top-seeded Ceres lost 1-0 to the second-seeded Quakes-Steele 16U in the championship game on Oct. 13.