Lady Dragons prevail on Senior Night

On Senior Night, the tri-captains Sheila Brady, Steph Sevilla, and Sarah Semenero put on a performance that will echo in the halls of Pfeiffer Gymnasium for years to come.
The trio scored 46 total points as the Lady Dragons upended the Windsor Jaguars in a physical contest, 60-49. Sonoma improves to 20-6 overall, and after going 11-1 in Sonoma County League play, including winning their final 10 games, Sonoma clinched their first league championship in 24 years.
Head coach Sil Coccia was very emotional after the game, as he and the rest of the team had looked at the banner that hung on the west side of the gym time and time again, old and worn from its time on the wall. Coccia said that he had been looking at that banner since he first started coaching for the Dragons eight years ago, and that his goal was to get a banner of his own up on the wall.
His team accomplished that goal after enduring physical play from a bigger Jaguar team that dominated the low post with their senior star, Charlene Popoff. Popoff had 13 points and 8 rebounds, but fouled out midway through the 4th quarter, paving the way for Sonoma to hold onto a lead that they finally captured after battling back and forth with Windsor the entire game, with the lead getting no bigger than 4 points either way for the first 29 minutes of the game.
Cynthia Arata had 17 points for the Jaguars, but none in the 4th quarter, as Semenero shut her down with some tenacious defense, not allowing the pull-up jumpers that had made Arata to be such a force for Windsor.
Semenero led Sonoma with 26 points, as Brady and Sevilla each added 10.
It was the perfect bookend on a fantastic league stretch for Sonoma. After losing to Petaluma in the second league game, the Dragons started on a roll that saw them take down many tough opponents, including a close call against Casa Grande on January 16 that saw a Kelly O’Brien 3-point shot just miss at the buzzer. In the end, Sonoma’s never-say-die attitude pushed them above and beyond the rest of the field.
Of course, the memorable double overtime victory over Petaluma on January 30 at home in front of a raucous crowd ended up being the turning point, a budding crescendo that crested at the right time for Sonoma. They brought down the Trojan reign with a 71-67 victory, cementing themselves as the top team in the SCL.
While the Dragons clinched the league title Wednesday, there’s still a chance that Petaluma can clinch a share of the title themselves. They will face Windsor on Friday night at Windsor High School for that opportunity, but with the way Windsor played tonight against Sonoma, it seems as if it won’t be any small feat for the Trojans. That game will be at 7:30 p.m.
The Dragons will now wait for the North Coast Section Selection Committee to seed the Division II playoffs this Sunday. With such a great record, and at least a share of the league championship, Sonoma should be guaranteed a home game at least to start the playoffs. If Petaluma wins Friday against Windsor, then it would be the Trojans who would receive the automatic berth for the playoffs, due to a preseason tiebreaker selection that saw the defending league champs draw the top position.