Hayward soccer player Rudy Cruz is the Bay Area News Group’s boys high school athlete of the week for Jan. 2-7 after he had received 51.96% of the vote at the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday.
Dougherty Valley basketball player Blake Hudson (44.33%) finished second and Newark Memorial soccer player Ricardo Aceves took third.
Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.
Cruz scored a hat trick — three goals — as Hayward defeated crosstown rival Tennyson 7-1 to run its record to 7-2-2 overall and 5-0 in league play. The junior began this week with six goals and two assists for the season.
To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com by Monday, Jan. 16, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.
We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.
Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and, starting Sept. 30, in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.
Past winners
Dec. 12-17: Nicholas Ruiz, Benicia soccer
Dec. 5-10: Eli Roth, Acalanes soccer
Nov. 28-Dec. 3: Austin Shelton, San Ramon Valley football
Nov. 21-26: Jae’Von Reels, Bellarmine football
Nov. 14-19: Dashiell Weaver, Campolindo football
Nov. 7-12: Nate Bell, Liberty football
Oct. 31-Nov. 5: Angel Barraza, Dublin football
Oct. 24-29: Zachariah Norton, Hayward football
Oct. 17-22: Shane Timmons, Saratoga football
Oct 10-15: Owen Neitzel, Leigh water polo
Oct. 3-8: Salvador Espinoza, Lincoln-San Jose football
Sept. 26-Oct. 1: Antonio Arenas, El Camino football
Sept. 19-24: Nic Austen, College Park water polo
Sept. 12-17: John Ben Pau Mendoza, San Ramon Valley football
Sept. 5-10: Luke Baker, San Ramon Valley football
Aug. 28-Sept. 3: Luke Llabres, Willow Glen water polo
Aug. 22-27: Mikhail Popov, College Park water polo
Join the Conversation
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.