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Rene Collazos's header goes over the goal. He would later score Culver's first goal. Photo, George Laase.
I wish Dave Sanchez had been there last night at Jerry Chabola Field to see the Culver City High School boys soccer ream win narrowly, 2-1 in sudden death double overtime over Saugus in a wild card CIF playoff match. Now they advance to the first round of the playoffs with the Centaurs playing at Sierra Vista on Thursday afternoon at 3.
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Today is the first anniversary of Coach Sanchez’s death.
I will always remember his words.
“When I first came here in 2006-07,” he used to say, “our mentality was ‘This is the year we are going to win the CIF.’
“You have got to believe. We had good teams. But we never were as focused as we are this year.”
It is a shame Dave died so soon. This is part of his legacy, what the soccer team is doing now.
“I think this a year in which the team can push into the second or third round of the playoffs,” he would say.
“The future looks bright for the program. The first year I took over, I made sure that we kept all the players academically eligible. I established a strict rule: If a player didn’t come to practice, he was not going to play. It doesn’t matter if you are super star. You have to be at practice.
“As we are getting the program reorganized, we want to move up to the next level. We want to be able to study game film so we can correct our mistakes. We are looking for someone to volunteer to come out and film our games.
“I see this as a three- to five-year process. If we do it, starting with the Middle School as a feeder, as the players come up to the high school program, they will already know what to expect because the program will be the same at the lower levels. Then we can go deep into the playoffs every year.”
Again, all this started with Dave Sanchez.
“In previous years,” he would say, “we had better teams. But what sets this group of players apart from the rest is that they are better disciplined. We have a motto: If you practice, you play. If you don’t, you won’t.
“We now are setting higher expectations for our players. If players don’t want to dedicate themselves to reaching those goals, we will find players who will.
“Brian Sullivan, a Spanish teacher, and Victor Oche are both assistant coaches on Varsity. Edgar Castillo is the new head coach of the freshman team. He has done a fantastic job coaching the younger players. Again, at each grade level, we must make sure our players are student/athletes, first and foremost.”
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Yesterday afternoon’s match against Saugus was not easy.
Culver City dominated the midfield play and controlled the game, so much so that they cut the field in half. But they paid for it when Saugus struck first, at the eight-minute mark, on a through-ball breakaway.
Culver had numerous scoring chances. When they did put the ball in the back of the goal, the referees disallowed it. They ruled the ball had gone over the end-line before the shot. The first half ended, 1-0.
The Centaurs came back out and dominated the game again. This time, four minutes into the second half, Rene Collazos put the ball in on a corner kick and the game was tied.
Until the end of regulation, they played evenly.
After a short break, they started overtime under a sudden death “golden goal” scenario, first team to score winning.
The first overtime was intense. Both defenses beat back each other’s attacks. Fans were enjoying the match immensely, screaming their support from the bleachers.
One could sense midway through the second overtime that something was going to happen. Saugus was beginning to make fouls. They seemed tired. Was it a matter of time before the still strong Centaurs would score?
With four minutes to go in the final overtime period. Ryan Armstrong took a pass from Carlos Rincon, faked the goalie left, out of position, and put it in goal for the winner.
Armstrong was quick to give credit. “Carlos gave me a beautiful ball,” he said. “When I saw their keeper come out, I cut to my left and placed where I needed to put it. “
“An ugly, ugly game,” said Coach Louie Espeleta. “We dominated, but we could not convert. That has been a problem with this team all year. We play down to our opponent’s level. We have made some silly mistakes, and it has cost us games.
“If we can clean that up in the playoffs we can go a long way.”
Espeleta said that Iker Moreno, who played sweeper, defensive midfielder and forward, “helped us out the most. He gave it his all. This was his game.”
Espeleta was proud of his team’s endurance. “We train to play 120 minutes,” he said. Noting how Saugus tired in the second overtime, he said many schools only practice 80 minutes.
Goalkeeper Bryan Gutierrez said the Centaurs could have played much better. “We dropped down to Saugus’s level of play. I don’t think we were mentally prepared.”
“We should have scored a lot sooner and much more than we did,” said assistant coach Eric Garcia. “It could have easily been a 3-0 or 4-0 game.”
For tomorrow’s match, Culver City will bring an 11-9-2 record. In away matches, they are 3-4-1. Sierra Vista is undefeated, 20-0-2, and the champions of the Montview League are 11-0 at home.
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Even as long as it has been between soccer playoff wins, the team’s exuberance was tempered after the game. They so wished that Coach Sanchez could have been there to see them win.
For future students who never will have the opportunity to know Dave Sanchez as a teacher/coach/mentor; he will be seen as an honored name on a plaque on the wall of the snack bar.
For those of us who knew Dave, “we gotta believe” that as long as there is someone dribbling a ball on the pitch, bending a shot into the box, Dave still will be around overseeing it all with a big, satisfied grin as his legacy continues to come to expand.
For more photos, see http://georgel.smugmug.com/
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
