The Culver City High School boys’ varsity soccer team defeated the visiting powerhouse Santa Monica Vikings 3-0, last Friday, in front of its largest home crowd of the season.
Rene Collazos scored his first career hat trick, and the defense played its most complete game of the season anchored by senior goalkeeper Brian Gutierrez.
The Centaurs defended their goal for 80 minutes, concluding with a Viking chance that kissed the near post and deflected away in the remaining seconds of the game.
“Goal keeper Bryan Gutierrez was outstanding,” soccer specialist Ismael Saldana said. “Bryan saw every shot coming and was ready to pounce on the ball every time, at times leaping in the air to fist the ball of out danger.”
Charging into the goal crease, Collazos scored the game’s first goal off on a looping centering pass from captain Ryan Armstrong from the corner as both players were closely defended.
“Santa Monica fought hard,” said Saldana. “Most of the second half featured grueling physical play. The referees were average at best, and their handling of yellow cards was questionable, but that did not make difference in the outcome.”
With an assist from Nicholas Melendez, who was celebrating his 17th birthday, Collazos navigated through several defenders to chip in his second goal late in the first half while 100 younger on-lookers from the local AYSO were several yards away, preparing to play at halftime on the new turf at Jerry Chabola Stadium.
“All in all it was a great night for Culver City High School boys soccer. It’s been a long time since CCHS Varsity has beaten Santa Monica,” Centaur alumnus Eddie Melendez, father of the birthday boy, said.
The final goal came when Collazos handled a rebound off a blocked penalty shot and struck the ball into the net in the middle of the second half for his third goal of the night to seal the Centaur upset.
The Centaurs played at Inglewood, Wednesday of this week but scores were not available at press time. Culver City has a big match-up against a much-improved Hawthorne squad on Friday.
