Page 6 January 8, 2015 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Eagles in Action Over The Break By Gregg McMullin The El Segundo Eagles were in action during the Christmas Break. The boys’ soccer team won the prestigious South Torrance Tournament, the boys’ basketball team played well in the Lakewood Winter Classic and the girls’ basketball team looked impressive in the Garden Grove Tournament. The girls’ soccer team played before the break and took the past two weeks off. The El Segundo high school boys’ soccer team made school history by winning the South Torrance Holiday Tournament. It was the first time the team had won. In the process the team has been recognized both nationally and at the state level. The Eagles have started the season 7-1-2; the best start in school history. To win even one game in the South Torrance Holiday Tournament in previous years had been a challenge. In the five previous years the Eagles had lost their opening match. So, to run the table against highly touted teams such as Los Alamitos, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Millikan might have been unthinkable to most but no to the Eagles. Forward Santi Cardenas was clear his team has something to prove this season. “For sure,” said Cardenas when asked if the result might be a surprise to others. “I don’t think people were expecting us to win but we did and we beat some pretty good teams.” The Eagles have played brilliantly on defense and won three games by one goal including a 2-1 win over Santa Barbara. The win over the Gauchos was significant because they have such a storied program dating back to decades; they won a National Championship five years ago and have been to the CIF playoffs 12 straight years. After defeating Channel Islands in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks the Eagles and Santa Barbara were locked in a 1-1 tie after 80 minutes. The Eagles came away with the win and won it 4-3 on penalty kicks. Facing Millikan in the finals would be another test that the Eagles would pass. The Rams are another highly ranked team and came into the match against the Eagles with a 7-0-3 record. In the past eight years the Rams have an impressive combined record of 153-23-30. In a defensive battle Cardenas took a pass from Tyler Rayman, tipped it to himself with his right foot and blasted it with his left foot. The ball soared to the back of the net for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal in the 31st minute. Millikan had one opportunity in stoppage time but the Rams’ corner kick was turned away and the Eagles came away with the tournament championship. Coach Andrew Kelly praised his team’s defensive performance throughout the tournament. “Taking advantage of our set pieces, long throw-ins and not letting the other teams score is important. Jake Grundman, played a big part in not letting the other team score throughout the tournament.” For his efforts Grundman was selected as the tournament MVP while Rayman, Grant Bemis and Shaun Manouchehry were each selected to the all-tournament team for El Segundo. The Eagles were back in action Tuesday against Mira Costa and open up their Ocean League schedule next Wednesday, January 14 at home against Beverly Hills at 3pm. The girls’ soccer team has been off the past two weeks. Before the break the Eagles fell 4-0 to Bay League power Palos Verdes. Goalkeeper Brenda Cervantes was out of action due to an injury so Taylor Igoe filled in. College Football Playoffs on Display Though the Eagles gave up four goals three were off mistakes and the Sea Kings’ other goal was set up nicely. The Eagles played host to Mira Costa this past Tuesday and open Ocean League play on the road at Beverly Hills next Wednesday at 3pm. The girls’ water polo team fell to two Bay League teams that expect to be atop of the Bay League. The Eagles lost close games just prior to the break to both Peninsula and Redondo to fall to 5-4 on the season. The team plays in the Western Tournament this Saturday before hosting Culver City next Tuesday, January 13 at 3pm and Santa Monica at 3pm on Thursday, January 15 to start Ocean League play The boys’ basketball team participated in the Lakewood Winter Classic. In the opener against Bellflower, in which the Eagles won handily, James Martin scored a season high 26 points to lead the Eagles to a 73-58 win. Martin led the El Segundo attack with 14 points in a losing effort 75-64 against the host team Lakewood. Chase Ali-Watkins led all scorers with 27 points to lead the Eagles to a thrilling 54-51 win over City Section power Fremont. The associations have dissolved. It is essential Douglass M O R T U A R Y “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M A T I O N - W O R L D W I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P R O D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Telephone (310) 640-9325 • Fax (310) 640-0778 • FD658 ES Mayor from front page our residents and businesses are prepared for natural and manmade disasters. As we know, it’s not a matter of if the big catastrophic earthquake hits, but when.” On a lighter note, Fuentes reported that she had discussions with School Board members and the Superintendent about reviving Student Government Day at City Hall this year. “This would offer El Segundo High School students an opportunity to study El Segundo government and to spend a day at City Hall shadowing our department directors. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and this is an important way to help guide them along that path.” While pleased with the Council’s accomplishments during her first eight-plus months as Mayor, Fuentes noted that the hard work is just getting started. “We have a diverse group of individuals on the dais, but each and every one of us cares deeply about El Segundo and doing what’s best for the community. We will continue to work together with that common goal. It has been a wonderful experience working with them and I am honored to serve as Mayor and represent the City.” • By Adam Serrao College football has officially taken on a new look for the first time in over 15 years. Now instead of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), college football has enlisted the usage of a playoff format. The best four teams in the nation will battle it out every year in two semi-final games and one championship game played in a different city every year. As with anything new, this playoff system had its skeptics. Even when the final four teams were chosen by the selection committee, there was a small backlash that the wrong teams had been chosen. That, of course, will happen every year as it used to happen in the BCS as well. But what the two games between Florida St. and Oregon, and Ohio St. and Alabama showed us on New Year’s Day is that this new playoff system is not only better for ratings, but much more exciting than any other selection system that has ever been in place. College football may be the hardest sport in the world to predict. With players constantly changing, coaches constantly coming and going and recruits seemingly choosing different areas of the U.S. to flock to every year, it is our own perception of the game that shapes what we think we know. This year, the members of the selection committee of the new college football playoff system lucked out. At first it seemed as if they may have chosen Ohio State over TCU as the fourth and final team in the playoffs simply because they were the more well-known name. In a Big Ten conference whose reputation has suffered over the past few years, the Buckeyes were fighting uphill from the start. With a 42-35 victory over the much-heralded Alabama Crimson Tide of the SEC conference, however, Ohio State showed that they indeed belonged. Last Thursday’s semifinals on New Year’s Day not only lived up to expectations, but created an incredible amount of anticipation for the championship game that is to come. A championship game that is going to feature the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes, two teams that would undoubtedly participated in the Rose Bowl last season under the old BCS rules. Neither team would have had the opportunity at a championship game and now both are going head to head for the trophy. Maybe Oregon is the best team in the league. Maybe Urban Meyer and his Buckeyes just can’t be beaten no matter who’s at starting quarterback for the team. The benefit of this new playoff system is that while last year we wouldn’t have been able to, this year, we can find that out. If you follow college football closely, then you most unquestionably know of how the SEC has dominated the landscape of the game in recent years. Because of that, Alabama would have almost certainly taken on Florida St. in the championship game if last year’s rules still applied to this year. That game, in itself, would have been an interesting one, but what’s even more interesting is that now both of those teams have been eliminated from competition. In other words, the championship game would have matched the lone unbeaten FBS team (Florida St.) against the champion of the reputed premier conference (Alabama). Both Ohio State and Oregon would have been afterthoughts, even if they had beaten their opponents by five touchdowns or more. What the playoff system did, essentially, was take those afterthoughts and make them center stage. As with the most successful playoff teams in any sport in the world, both the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Oregon Ducks are playing their best ball of the season and have the most momentum on their side. They may have had a few hiccups during the regular season; Ohio State lost two starting quarterbacks. But what really matters is that right now, at this very moment, they both have the most momentum on their respective sides and will meet up with what will be a major clash of talent in this year’s championship game. What’s even better for college football is that now both the Pac-12 and the Big Ten have all eyes on them. Traditionally, it’s been the SEC getting all of the love in college football. This new playoff system, however, has found a way to immediately accommodate all conference in contention for greatness and draw that greatness right out of them. As with anything in this world, the playoff system is obviously not perfect. All you’d have to do is ask Gary Patterson and his TCU Horned Frogs, who absolutely pummeled No. 9 Ole Miss in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl last Wednesday by a final score of 42-3. TCU might be, themselves, the best team in the nation. Unfortunately for Patterson, his team, and all of the TCU fans out there, we will never know. In the future, however, the playoff system might expand from four teams to eight. All of that is simply conjecture, however, and until that time comes we should all appreciate what we have. This four-team playoff system is certainly better than the two-team BCS style that we had just one year ago. College football has now even further inserted itself onto the map of major sporting events in the country. Not only will the debate for which team is best be settled on the field from now on instead of on a computer screen, but our New Year’s Day has now gotten quite an interesting boost in entertainment for what will certainly be many years to come. • The Eagles celebrate winning the 32 team South Torrance Tournament championship. Photo by Gregg McMullin. See Eagles, page 7 “Bloomberg News reports the Legatum Institute now ranks the U.S. 22nd in world prosperity. We have higher unemployment, lower savings, and lower tech exports than 21 other countries.”
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