For a photo gallery of the day’s games, click here.
Dead period? What dead period? You may have heard that July and early August are the doldrums of sports. On our site and in the pages of the PT, you don’t hear much about active competition—but the fact is, summer leagues and tournaments are pretty much everywhere. Millikan has been bustling with soccer, basketball, and water polo tournaments, and the Poly soccer field was filled with six teams on Thursday, with games starting before 8am. After the competition was whittled down a little, the three Moore League teams (Cabrillo, Lakewood, and the host Jackrabbits) all made it into the semifinals, where the Lancers eliminated the Jags, and the ‘Rabbits knocked out Kennedy, setting up a final match between the unbeaten Lakewood Lancers and Poly Jackrabbits—which Lakewood won 2-1, in dramatic fashion, to take the prized championship shirts away with them.
Of course, since the tournament was outside of CIF contention, there were plenty of other reasons for teams to attend. Poly, who finished 3-1 on the day, had a large crop of new players to try out. “One of the biggest purposes is to experiment with formations and lines,” said Poly coach Teri Collins. “I rotated through a bunch of kids. There’s so much ahead of us, today helped me learn who the hungry kids that want a spot on varsity are.” Collins also pointed out that for incoming freshman, the summer before they start high school is the last time she’ll have their undivided attention, before they start getting summer reading lists, and participating in other sports.
For Lakewood coach Scott Manson, summer tournaments are all about team building. “I’m a firm believer that a team, a true team where the girls like each other, can beat anybody,” he said. “And that’s part of what the Summer is about, just getting them together and getting them ready to win and compete.” After his team’s win, he talked a little more about how his team has progressed. “We were such a young team last year that it was more educational—learning formations, positions. Now we’re learning to win—that was our focus, and I think we’re gaining that confidence.”
Cabrillo coach Jorge Polanco said that for his young squad (he has 15 players coming back from last year, and only two of them are seniors), it’s a little bit of all of that. “I felt really good about how we did. We’ve made a lot of progress. It is everything—checking positions, molding younger players, becoming a team.”
And, for La Quinta (who also participated, along with Kennedy and La Mirada), they were just looking for a cooler atmosphere than their native Palm Springs. “It was nice to get out of the heat,” said their head coach as they left—his squad was likely the only one in attendance that was actually grateful to spend eight hours sitting in mere mid-80s heat.
The competition was at a high level throughout the day, with the three local teams rising to the top. In the semifinal round, Poly handled Kennedy pretty easily, with a 4-0 win. They had a few tries early, and then went up 1-0 on a cross from Megan Brock to Celeste Dominguez. Then in the second half, they widened the goal with a total team effort that had six touches before finally crossing the line; Ariel Fernandez made it 3-0 with an impressive bullish solo effort down the left line, and Brock notched another point with the fourth and final goal.
Lakewood and Cabrillo’s semi was significantly more competitive—though the Lancers got a number of good chances, they struggled to finish, and the game went into halftime at doughnuts. Lakewood seemed to lack an aggressive goal scorer, but hefty credit has to go to Cabrillo’s keeper, Leslie Navarro, who trains with Mexico’s National U20 team. It looked like it might have to go to PKs, before Lakewood’s Sarahvanni Bunma got it done, scoring the game-winner to set up a showdown of the unbeatens.
Lakewood had about a half-hour layoff before they had to go out and play another full game, and they did very minimal warm-ups. Nonetheless, they came out looking fresh-legged. Poly got the lion’s share of the first-half chances, but it was Bunma who did it again for the Lancers with a poke shot just two minutes before halftime.
Poly pressed very hard in the second, but Lakewood ‘keeper Leslie Perez was an absolute wall, making two great saves in the first minute of the second half. After that, the ‘Rabbits’ pressure abated a little, but they still got in behind the Lakewood line to even the score halfway through the second. The game seemed destined for extra time, but Priscilla Perez triumphed for Lakewood with the game-winner, proving that Manson’s Lancers have gained the winning instinct they’ve been looking for. With Bunma’s crafty shots, they may have found their goal-scorer, too, and while we’re a long ways from calling anyone the team to beat for next season, the Lakewood Lancers will definitely help make things interesting this year—they certainly did that at the seventh incarnation of Poly’s summer soccer tournament.
Complete Results
Poly 1, Cabrillo 0
Lakewood 2, Kennedy 1
Cabrillo 0, La Quinta 0
Lakewood 1, La Mirada 0
Poly 2, La Quinta 0
Kennedy 2, La Mirada 1
La Quinta 2, La Mirada 1
Poly 4, Kennedy 0
Lakewood 1, Cabrillo 0
Lakewood 2, Poly 1