2019-20 sports season did produce its highlights for Red Hawks

Mountain Empire High School fields teams in 12 inter­scholastic sports: boys and girls basketball, wrestling, baseball, boys and girls volleyball, foot­ball, boys and girls soccer, track and field, softball and cross country.

The 2019-20 school term pro­vided its share of highlights.

Mat attack

Mountain Empire recorded two place-finishers at the Divi­sion IV boys wrestling champi­onship meet.

Abraham Penuelas captured first place at 222 pounds while teammate Larry Clark placed fourth in his 172-pound weight class.

Penuelas finished perfect on the mat with four pins in as ma­ny matches. He recorded three first-period pins, including pin times of 10 and 32 seconds.

Clark finished 2-2 on the mat with wins by a major decision and a pin.

The Red Hawks finished 12th among the 22 participat­ing teams.

Getting their kicks

The school’s girls soccer team was especially successful by fin­ishing 8-0 in Citrus League play as league champions. The Lady Red Hawks closed the season with a 19-5 record with a semifi­nal appearance in the San Diego Section Division IV playoffs.

Mountain Empire won the league title by outscoring oppo­nents 82-1.

The Lady Red Hawks re­ceived the No. 4 seed in the play­offs and defeated fifth-seeded Sweetwater, 5-2, in their opening quarterfinal-round elimination game.

The win advanced Mountain Empire to the semifinals against top-seeded Rancho Buena Vista but the team’s playoff run ended there with a 2-0 loss to the even­tual division champions.

Senior Veronica Rodriguez scored four goals to lead the Lady Re Hawks to their play­off win over Sweetwater while sophomore Jordan Hanssen was credited with seven goalkeeper saves.

Rodriguez capped a prolific season by racking up 46 goals and 15 assists for 107 scoring points in 21 games – an average of 5.1 points per game – to earn Second Team All-CIF recogni­tion.

Senior Alyssa Noland also proved she could bulge twine by collecting 24 goals and 24 as­sists for a total of 72 points.

Mountain Empire proved to be a goal-producing factory with 138 total scoring strikes on the season.

Junior Meghann Damery ranked third in team scoring with 18 goals and five assists for 41 points.

Senior Reese Schuler ranked fourth in team scoring with 12 goals and seven assists for 31 points.

Junior Marissa Lowry fin­ished fifth in team scoring with eight goals and 14 assists for 30 points while sophomore Caitlyn Noland finished sixth in team scoring with 10 goals and eight assists for 28 points.

Hanssen allowed 10 goals in 21 matches for a 0.623 goal-against average.

Mountain Empire’s boys soc­cer team, which finished 5-6-1 in Manzanita League play, failed to qualify for the section play­offs while posting a 5-9-1 overall record.

Senior Paulo Hernandez paced the team in scoring with nine goals and three assists in 10 game appearances.

Girls volleyball

The Lady Red Hawks vied for the Southern Citrus League championship with St. Joseph Academy last fall, with both teams earning bids in the Divi­sion IV playoff field.

St. Joseph Academy received the No. 15 seed while Mountain Empire met Liberty Charter in a play-in game.

Liberty Charter won a hotly contested match in four games to earn the No. 16 seed in the bracket and, in the process, end the Lady Red Hawks’ season.

Liberty Charter prevailed by scores of 25-19, 25-11, 22-25, 25-16.

Mountain Empire finished the season with an overall 12-14 record after posting 10 wins in league play.

It was an all-around team ef­fort.

Top performers included se­nior Hayden Likos, who record­ed 120 kills in 80 sets played, and freshman Sofia Cota, who col­lected 89 kills in 74 sets.

Other team leaders included sophomore Katelynn Quinonez with 85 kills in 86 sets and freshman Carolyn Johnson with 82 kills in 71 sets.

Quinonez led the team with 67 aces, followed by Likos with 53 aces, junior Desiree Mendez with 50 aces and Johnson with 48 aces.

Quinonez also led the team with 35 blocks while senior Me­gan McAllister topped the team with 273 digs. Costa followed on the scoresheet with 182 digs while junior Meghan Damery recorded 144 digs.

Damery paced the Lady Red Hawks with 278 assists.

Basketball

Mountain Empire finished 7-3 in Manzanita League play in both boys and girls basketball, placing runner-up in the stand­ings to Vincent Memorial (10-0) in both gender fields.

The Lady Red Hawks earned the No. 16 seed in the Division IV playoffs and ended their sea­son with an overall 12-10 record after coming up short to top-seeded San Diego, 61-19, in the opening round of the playoffs.

Caitlyn Noland led Mountain Empire in season scoring with a 13.1 points per game average, fol­lowed by junior Daniella Macha­do with a 12.7 scoring average.

The boys team did not qualify for the Division V playoffs with an 11-9 regular season record.

Junior Marcus Smith topped Mountain Empire with an 11.2 scoring average in 19 games. He also led the team with a 6.6 re­bounding average, three-point field goals (11) and free-throws made (15).

Junior Dakota Daniels ranked second on the team with a 9.5 scoring average while senior Patrick Bowman ranked third with a 6.5 scoring average.

Junior Niels Hansen ranked second in team rebounding with a 5.9 average.

Football

While the Red Hawks fell short of winning the Manzanita League championship, they did qualify for the Division V play­offs.

The ending of the season may not have been overly kind, however, following a 33-0 loss to eighth-seeded El Cajon Valley.

Senior Khaliel Whitehead passed for 1,277 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven intercep­tions as the team’s quarterback. He also rushed for 322 yards on 54 carries and scored four touch­downs.

Senior Jericho Brennan topped Mountain Empire with 615 rushing yards, scoring three touchdowns.

Junior Marcus Smith led the team’s receivers with 30 catches for 448 yards and four touchdowns while junior Da­kota Daniels made 18 catches for 383 yards with three touch­downs. Senior Nick Rose had 11 catches for 151 yards and three touchdowns.

Smith led the Red Hawks on the season with 801 all-purpose yards – 448 receiving, 273 on kick returns, 28 on punt returns and 52 on interception returns.

Brennan ranked second in that department with 753 all-purpose yards – 615 rushing and 138 receiving.

Whitehead paced the team with 1,549 total yards – 1,277 passing and 322 rushing. He augmented his scoring statis­tics by kicking two field goals.

Smith led the team with five touchdowns – four receiving and one on a defensive pick six.

Defensive leaders included Brennan (58 tackles) and Smith (52 tackles). Junior Larry Clark ranked third with 32 tackles.

Cross country

Mountain Empire finished third in the girls team stand­ings at the Frontier Conference finals. The Lady Red Hawks scored two runners among the top seven finishers in the 5K race and three runners among the top 11 finishers.

Alyssa Noland crossed the finish line in sixth place in 21:32.5, followed by sophomore Jessica Noble in seventh place in 21:45.4. Senior Brenna Rowley finished 11th in 22:24.0.

The boys team finished ninth at the conference finals, led by top place-finisher Jose Arredon­do, who timed 16:36.3 in fifth place.

Mountain Empire’s girls team placed 12th out of 15 scoring teams at the ensuing San Diego Section Division V champion­ship meet while the boys team placed 20th among the 23 scor­ing teams.

The CIF finals featured a 2.96-mile course. Noble finished 42nd out of 123 runners in the girls field in 23:03.5 while No­land finished 45th in 23:07 and Rowley finished 52nd in 23:24.1.

Arredondo finished 14th in 16:49.1 among 167 runners in the boys field.

Baseball

The Red Hawks compiled a 3-1 record before the spring season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sophomore Angel Jimenez topped the team with a .556 hit­ting average while collecting one double, one triple and four RBI.

Freshman Dakota Hatmaker and sophomore Michael Thing ranked second on the team with a .500 hitting averages. Thing collected four RBI while Hat­maker knocked in three runs.

Hatmaker had five stolen bases while Jimenez made four thefts.

Sophomore Cristian Corona had compiled a 1.31 earned-run average with six strikeouts in five innings pitched. Junior Jac­obe Noland had fanned 14 bat­ters in eight innings.