YOUR AD HERE »

Eagle Valley JV bests Saints’ top squad

Chris Freud - Vail Daily, Vail Colorado CO
VC Caleb Pearson JB 1-16-07
ALL |

EDWARDS -Eagle Valley’s Cesar Castillo’s probably best known as a soccer player.After all, the sophomore set the school’s single-season goal-scoring record last fall. As it turns out, he’s a pretty good basketball player, too. Castillo put up 27 points as the Devils boys’ JV defeated 1A Vail Christian’s varsity, 66-56, Tuesday night at St. Clare in Edwards.

“His basketball talents are equal to his soccer skills,” Devils coach Tom Padilla said. “He’s a good basketball player. Cesar looks to his teammates, and they took to him. We try to express team in our program. That’s where we’re at.”For Vail Christian, the game followed a familiar script. Caleb Pearson had a game-high 31 points, followed by Jaryd Francis with 15. The Saints led at the half, 27-20, and had a miserable third quarter from which they could not recover.Eagle Valley outscored Vail Christian, 21-6, in that period, a scenario eerily similar to Saturday’s game against Ouray, when the Trojans outpaced the Saints, 18-5, in the third.

“We tried to go more up-tempo not let what happened on Saturday happen,” Saints coach Sheldon Kuhns said. “We had opportunities in the first half to put the game away. We didn’t do it. That’s just part of the process of being a young team.”Vail Christian fell to 4-6 with the loss. The Saints’ conference game with Crested Butte Saturday has been postponed because of the death of Asher Crank Sunday after a skiing accident at Copper Mountain. Crank sied for Crested Butte Academy.Meanwhile, Eagle-Valley’s JV continues to gain an experience with an eye toward varsity next season.



“There is still a lot of learning they’ve got to do,” Padilla said. “This will probably be the varsity team next year because Eagle Valley will graduate the seniors. Eagle Valley’s got good things to look forward to.”Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.


Support Local Journalism