The pressure was on the Scotts Valley Falcons after losing five straight games heading into the Central Coast Section playoffs. The school had only seen post season action two other times and both resulted in blowout losses.
In 2007 the Falcons lost in the opening round of the playoffs to Oceana 58-41 and last year, in 2011, they fell to Marina High 61-53.
But this week, the Falcon’s (11-14 overall) found the winning recipe and defeated the Greenfield Bruins (9-15 overall) 56-46 on Feb. 21 in Scotts Valley to give the team its first-ever victory in the Central Coast Section playoffs. The Faclons played again after press-time. They faced No. 5 Menlo High School (17-7 overall) on Thursday, Feb. 23.
Though the Bruins shot well from outside the three-point line, the Falcons dominated the paint and fended off the feisty attack of the shorter Greenfield squad.
At the end of the first quarter the Falcons had a narrow 14-10 lead. But reserve Cameron Percy surprised everyone with his play off the bench in the second quarter. Percy, a senior, blocked three shots in the second quarter and scored six points in the opening minutes of the period to help push the Falcons lead to 25-10 lead with 3:34 left in the first half.
“This is Cameron’s first year playing,” said Falcon Head Coach Charles Burks. “He has been relatively silent all season but last game (against St. Francis in the league tournament) he started to come alive.”
The Falcons led 31-21 at the half.
Scotts Valley’s Garrett Johnson hit a three pointer to open the second-half and teammate Ari Wargon made a quick steal for a break away lay-up and Scotts Valley soon found a comfortable 40-21 lead early in the third period. Greenfield then mounted a surge that closed out the quarter 43-33 after some fancy three point shooting. The Bruins finished the night with nine three pointers.
The Bruins got within seven points of the Falcons, but Scotts Valley pulled away for their first CCS victory.
Johnson led the Falcons with 16 points followed by teammate Jack Pasquini who netted 14.
“That was such a huge game for us,” Johnson said. “We’ve made school history but it is still just one game at a time at this point.”
Pasquini, a 6-foot, 4-inch senior captain who played feeling a little sick, was less enthusiastic but tried to look as jubilant as his ailment would allow.
“I felt pretty bad all day so I don’t think I gave it my all,” Pasquini said. “But hey, this is a big win and we now have to focus on Menlo.”
