Both the varsity Bruins boys and the Lady Bruins lost their opening round games in the Sac-Joaquin Section soccer playoffs.

For the girls, they were on the road at Dixon in the Division 5 competition, playing the first round game on Friday, Feb. 13.

The Lady Bruins went in to the match as the number 12 seed and had a 7-3 Mother Lode League record, taking third overall in league. They faced off with the number five seed Dixon team, which went 11-2 in their league action. Dixon handled Riverbank, shutting them down and taking a 7-0 decision in the opening round.

The varsity soccer girls finished their season at 10-12-1 overall.

For the varsity boys, it was a Saturday afternoon game, Feb. 14, in the D5 opening round. They traveled to face off with number four seed Hilmar, after getting the number 13 seed.

Head coach Juan Harvey said the team was disappointed with the seeding decision.

“The spot was shocking as a team we were ahead of in league standings, as well as the MaxPreps rankings, was seeded above us,” Harvey said.

But, the Bruins had to suit up and they traveled to Hilmar for the 3 p.m. game on Saturday.

“The first half was a back-and-forth battle until Hilmar found the breakthrough goal with three minutes left in the first half with a great combination play from within our goal box,” Harvey explained. “The second half started with great energy from both teams feeling the playoff atmosphere, but Hilmar found their second goal only five minutes into the second half with a goal that came off a cross from the right hand side and a finish at the back post.”

The Bruins continued to battle and played Hilmar even for much of the second half but could not find a way to get one in the net.

“In the last 10 minutes of the game we pushed forward to try and find a goal and we were outnumbered defensively where we caused two free kicks that led to two goals for Hilmar in the last seven minutes,” Harvey said.

The final was a 4-0 shutout of the Bruins by Hilmar, ending Riverbank’s season.

The boys were third in the Mother Lode League with a 5-4-1 record and finished with an 11-13-5 mark overall.

“Twenty-five of our 29 total games came against playoff teams,” Harvey noted.

BASKETBALL

A split of the final two games left Riverbank’s varsity girls basketball team with a 7-3 record in the Mother Lode League, third place overall. They took a hard fought 46-44 loss in their regular season home finale on Feb. 10 against Bret Harte. They did get a win, 54-16, as they closed out league at Big Valley Christian on Feb. 12.

Riverbank got the number seven seed in the Division 4 basketball playoffs and were slated to host number 10 seed Amador (16-10 overall) in a first-round contest on Tuesday night, Feb. 17, past press time. The Lady Bruins entered the game at 18-10 overall.

Two losses ended the season for the varsity basketball boys, as they fell to Bret Harte, 67-31, on Feb. 10 and lost by a 47-35 decision to Big Valley Christian on Feb. 12. The Bruin boys had the halftime lead, 20-18, over the Lions but Big Valley outscored them, 29-15, over the final two quarters to secure the win.

Riverbank was 4-6 for fourth place in the Mother Lode League and the varsity squad finished at 12-13 overall.

WRESTLING

Two Bruins are moving on in wrestling, ending Riverbank High School’s 11-year absence for the boys from the CIF Masters Meet. Team captain Gabe Sandoval secured his spot by pinning his opponent for third place honors in recent action. Also advancing was Lady Bruin Peyton Shrider, the second female wrestler to ever go to Masters in RHS history. They will be competing this weekend at Stockton Arena. Sandoval wrestles in the heavyweight division and Shrider takes the mats at 155 pounds for the Riverbank team.