HS: Winter state, region rankings, Jan. 23

by Sheldon Shealer

January 23, 2017

Usually league results help separate the ranked from unranked teams.

This year, however, the East Bay Athletic League girls race is bucking that trend.

Long regarded as one of the strongest top-to-bottom girls soccer leagues in the country -- regardless of season, the EBAL is in the midst of an unprecedented five-team race for first. The top four teams each have one loss this season, and in each case it has come at the hands of another one-loss EBAL team. The fifth-place EBAL squad, Monte Vista (Danville, Calif.), shut out St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), handing that perennial power its only defeat of the season. Carondelet (Concord, Calif.), which two weeks ago helped reinforce the EBAL's national standing by going 3-0 at the National Elite Prep Showcase in Texas, is one of the four one-loss teams in the league, joined by Livermore, Pleasanton Foothill and California. All five of those EBAL programs are ranked in the California Top 10 this week and will all be SIMA FAB 50 Top 25 members come Tuesday.

The current state No. 1s for boys are Campo Verde (Gilbert, Ariz.), Godinez (Anaheim, Calif.), Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.), Mililani (Hawaii), St. Paul's (Covington, La.), Northwest Rankin (Flowood, Miss.) and Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas). On the girls side, the state No. 1s are Chaparral (Scottsdale, Ariz.), [Liberty ca-m] (Brentwood, Calif.), St. Johns Country Day (Orange Park, Fla.), Iolani (Honolulu, Hawaii), St. Scholastica (Covington, La.), Oxford (Miss.) and Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas).