For the first time in over 10 years the Culver City boys’ varsity soccer team advanced to one of the final games in the South Torrance Soccer Tournament last week. The 4-4-1 Centaurs made it to the fifth place constellation game and they won that game against Lawndale 1-0.
“I think we are working hard as a team,” said assistant coach Victor Ake last week. “We have a really good group of players this year and most of the players are committed and that’s why we took fifth place in this tournament. We have confident players and when some of our injured players return we should be ready for the tough Ocean league.”
In the South Torrance Tournament the Centaurs tied their early morning match on Monday against Corona 1-1 in regulation but won the game 8-7 in penalty kicks. In their next game they played Animo Leadership that afternoon and beat the Eagles 3-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Last Tuesday Culver City lost to Palos Verdes 2-1 when the Sea Kings scored their two goals in the final three minutes. That heart breaking loss to the eventual tournament champion put the Centaurs into the fifth place bracket. In that bracket they beat Los Alamitos in penalty kicks 4-3 after a scoreless game.
The win over Los Alamitos set up the fifth place game against Lawndale. The game was scoreless in the first half. In the second half Culver City’s All-Tournament player Lucas Lezcano took a cross pass and headed the ball inside the left goal post for the game winning goal and the Centaurs controlled the rest of the game with great defense.
The senior dominated team will play two more pre-season games before they start Ocean league play. They travel to Lynwood on January 4, at 3 p.m. and then they host Hamilton of Anza, California on January 11, at 3 p.m. They open Ocean League play against Lawndale on January 13, at 3 p.m. on the Culver City high school campus.
This year the Centaurs will rely on the play of Esteban Alcala, Jose Berganza, Nick Bowen, James Castillo, Rai Castro, Johnny Corona, Jack Dermello, Oscar Flores, Sho Gibbs, Mike Godoy, Marteen Hessling, Anthony Jaramillo, Anthony Lopez, Oscar Lopez, Angel Novo, Anthony Overton, Omar Reyes, Nicholas Rippy, Joshua Rodriguez, Bryan Sanchez, Ruben Sonia, Bryan Thiha and Roberto Valverde.
