Bay Area High School Sports thumbnail.(Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Editor’s note: We prohibit the use of bots and any other artificial methods of voting. Suspicious activity could lead to the disqualification of candidates and a permanent suspension of the Athlete of the Week poll. No voting by email: Votes by email and after 5 p.m. Wednesday are not counted.
Welcome to the Bay Area News Group (Mercury News & East Bay Times) boys Athlete of the Week poll.
For the entire academic year, we will provide a list of candidates who stood out over the previous week and allow you, the reader, to vote for the winner.
This week, we consider performances from Nov. 27-Dec. 2.
Polls close at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Vote as many times as you’d like until then without using bots or any other artificial methods of voting.
Votes by email and after 5 p.m. Wednesday are not counted.
Scroll to the bottom for the poll.
Winners are announced each Friday online and in the print edition of the Mercury News and East Bay Times sports sections.
Candidates for future Athlete of the Week polls can be nominated at highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com.
We accept nominations until 11 a.m. each Monday.
We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps by coaches/team statisticians.
On to the nominees:
Caleb Asante, Leigh basketball: The 6-foot-6 senior scored 33 points in a 54-49 loss to Aptos and 15 in a 63-49 victory over Gunn as the San Jose school opened the season 1-1.
Sully Bailey, Acalanes football: The senior quarterback led the Dons to a 49-14 victory over Escalon for the CIF NorCal Division 3-AA regional championship, passing for one touchdown and rushing for three. He threw for 204 yards and rushed for 33.
Derrick Blanche, De La Salle football: The junior ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns in 19 carries and caught one pass for 13 yards as the Spartans rolled over Clovis North 41-0 to win the CIF NorCal Division 1-AA regional championship.
Jordan Bucko, American basketball: The senior scored 28 points in an 84-80 overtime victory over Lincoln-San Jose, nine in a 56-24 rout of Independence and 18 in a 67-66 victory over Evergreen Valley as the Eagles won the James Lick tournament.
JP Kerrigan, Sacred Heart Prep basketball: The senior averaged 18.3 points per game as the Gators went 2-1 at the Archbishop Riordan tournament, beating Granada and Terra Nova and losing by a point to University. The guard shot 51% in the three games.
Matthew Lorje, Tennyson basketball: The junior scored 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting to help lead the Lancers to a 73-62 victory over Castlemont. Earlier, he had 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting in a 53-48 victory over Concord.
Soham Nighojkar, Cupertino basketball: The senior averaged 19.8 points, four rebounds and 2.2 assists per game as Cupertino captured the Westmont tournament title while improving to 4-0. Nighojkar shot a sizzling 51.8% from 3-point range (14 of 27) and 58.3% overall (28 of 48).
Brian Pham, Piedmont Hills basketball: The senior finished with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting to lead the Pirates to a 66-54 victory over Silver Creek. He also had 19 points in a victory over Gilroy and eight in a rout of Overfelt.
Angel Ramirez, South San Francisco soccer: The senior scored four goals and assisted on one as South City cruised past Archbishop Riordan 8-1. He also scored two goals and had one assist in a 5-0 victory over Lowell. South City improved its record to 3-0.
Mathew Tahir, Foothill soccer: The senior had a hattrick — three goals — as the Falcons opened the season with a 4-1 victory over James Logan. He then scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Campolindo. Foothill ended the week 2-1.
Originally published at Darren Sabedra