Dania Shabat (5) controls the ball for Catalina Foothills while Marlee Raniere provides the pressure & Hannah Draper (14) looks on. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

The Catalina Foothills girls went 4-0-1 to capture the championship of the Walden Grove Winter Invitational this past week in Sahuarita. The Falcons beat Sahuaro 2-0 in the final match played Saturday, Jan. 6 to improve to 14-1-2 on the year.

Katelyn Kelch took a pass from Ellie Robinson in the 37th minute and nailed it from outside the box to give Catalina Foothills a 1-0 lead and Hannah Draper put the match out of reach on a penalty in the 65th minute.

Draper was named the Most Valuable Player in the girl’s flight for her control of midfield throughout the tournament. Only a sophomore, Draper also earned a coveted team captain spot in the powerhouse program.

“We are having a lot of fun playing with the freshmen on our team,” Draper said. “In a way, they are pushing me and making me play better because they are very talented.”

The Falcons sport 12 freshmen with almost all of them contributing some valuable playing time. Robinson leads the team with 13 goals and Caitlyn Maher has six. Soli Moton has three goals on the year while Maya Fosdick, Kelch and Veronica Bush have combined for five more. In all, the freshman class has 27 of the teams’ 45 goals and 24 of the 37 assists. In addition, freshman keeper Flavia Burrell has played in 14 games.

Games in tournament play do not count towards power points but the Falcons will start region play ranked fifth in 4A action while Salpointe is the top-ranked 4A team with a power-point record of 6-0. Catalina Foothills is 4-1-1 in games that count with a loss to 5A Cienega and a tie to 5A Ironwood Ridge. The Falcons beat Salpointe 3-0 during the preseason Brandon Bean tournament.

Sahuaro is 6-0 in games that count, and the Cougars are ranked No. 4 in the 5A Conference with Ironwood Ridge (3-1-1) ranked No. 2, Cienega (5-0-1) in third and Marana (5-1) is sixth.

The Cougars will travel to Salpointe next Tuesday night and Catalina Foothills will host Mountain View Marana (2-3) on the same night.

Carlos Arias (9) is one of several sophomores makign a difference for Sunnyside. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

On the boy’s side, Sunnyside beat Sahuarita 5-0 to win the Walden Grove championship for the third year in a row. The Blue Devils improved to 12-2 on the year with five of those wins coming at the Walden Grove Invitational this past week.

Jonathan Chumacera put the Blue Devils up early with a header in the 2nd minute and Juan Correa cashed in on corner kick from Manuel Quiroz in the 39th to give Sunnyside a 2-0 lead at the half. Edson Vazquez made it 3-0 in the 48th and Stephen Gonzales scored in the 60th and the 68th for the 5-0 final.

Vazquez was named the Most Valuable Player in boy’s play.

“We have a lot of sophomores on our team and we were concerned how they would respond when the season started,” The senior said. “We thought they might be shaky but we’re a pretty good team and I’d like to help get us to state.”

Quiroz, a junior, leads the team with 14 goals and Vazquez has eight but sophomore Adrian Burruel-Valenzuela is right behind with seven. Seven sophomores have contributed 14 goals out of 48 scored and sophomore Jonathan de la Paz has been in the goal during 14 games.

The Blue Devils compete in the 6A Conference with a 4-1 record and a No. 9 ranking. Sunnyside will travel back down to Sahuarita to play Walden Grove (4-1-1) on Jan. 9. Sahuarita has a 1-3-1 record in power-point games and the 3A squad will host San Miguel (0-6) on Tuesday night in a region match.