EL SEGUNDO HERALD July 9, 2015 Page 5 Eagles Had a Historical Year F R EE Shred Event / Identity Theft Prevention Campaign To help prevent identity theft, The City of El Segundo in conjunction with Consolidated Disposal Service will be holding a Community Shred Day. The event will take place on Saturday, July 11th, 2015 from 10am until 1pm in the City Hall parking lot on Standard Street and is open to all El Segundo residents. So bring your confidential documents for safe, secure, on-site destruction. You can watch as your sensitive material is professionally shredded right in front of you! For questions please call (310) 524-2357 An All-American Weekend By Adam Serrao For the first time since 1999, the U.S Women’s National Team can call themselves World Cup champions. There were plenty of fireworks over the weekend, but not as many as there were on the field at BC Place Stadium in Canada when the clock finally wound down and the United States women were able to raise their hands in victory. There was no more fitting end to an American weekend than the Women’s National Team taking down Japan by three goals to officially take the trophy. A white-hot start to the game and a hat-trick by Carli Lloyd made the United States the first country ever to win three Women’s World Cup titles. With a 5-2 win over Japan last Sunday afternoon, the women of the USA soccer team won their first World Cup in 16 years. Ask any one of them and they’ll tell you that it was worth the wait. “Pure elation,” coach Jill Ellis said of her emotions immediately following the game. “I’m just so, so proud of this team and these players. I’m so, so proud of them. I’m happy for every little girl that ever dreams of this.” Ellis was one of those little girls at one point. Carli Lloyd and the rest of the Women’s national team were, too. Now, at last, they have victory. It was Lloyd who basically carried her team on her back from the get-go. Sinking a goal in just the third minute of play not only symbolized that she came out ready to play, but also that the U.S. was hungry and ready to take what they believed belonged to them. Lloyd wasn’t done after just one. Less than two minutes later, she scored her second goal of the game to put the U.S. up 2-0. 15 minutes in, she caught Japan’s goalie off guard and landed her third goal of the game to give her team what turned out to be an insurmountable lead. Lloyd’s first goal not only put Japan behind in the match, but also marked the first time that they had trailed a team throughout the entire World Cup. At the time of her second goal, Lloyd had either scored or assisted on the team’s last seven goals. Her third goal marked the first time any player had ever recorded a hat trick in Women’s World Cup final history. She did it all in less than 13 minutes. “Speechless,” Lloyd said. “Honestly I’m so proud of this team. This doesn’t feel real. It hasn’t sunk in. We just made history and we’re a part of it.” Not only did the U.S. team become the first team to win three Women’s World Cup titles, but they also became the first team to score more than two goals in a Women’s World Cup final. In addition to her record-breaking hat trick, Lloyd became the first American to score in four straight Women’s World Cup matches. She has now scored a goal in three of the last four major finals for the United States and took home the Golden Ball as the tournament’s most outstanding player. “I was just on a mission,” she explained of her performance. “I was on a mission to help my team win this game. Personally I’ve worked my butt off and everything, all the repetitions in practice, paid off.” More than simply holding a trophy, the women of the National Team and their World Cup victory showed all who looked on something more. It not only showed us that one simple sports game can bring a nation together, but also that the women who played it can inspire all those who watched. These women who played the game served as role models to young girls and boys alike and showed that accomplishing a dream is never something that is impossible to do. These women showed strength in the face of adversity, tore down stereotypes, looked all of the naysayers in the eyes and went out and took what was theirs. This U.S. Women’s National Team gave us all a team of people to look up to and strive to be like. These women are some of the best athletes and role models in the world. Perhaps now their sport will have our attention. The World Cup Final last Sunday afternoon was won in the first 15 minutes of the game. Sure, Japan could have staged a comeback, like they attempted to do, but as Lloyd said after the game: “There was something different in the air with our team the last few days.” The United States wasted no time at all in proving that. They dominated Japan from the moment the ball was dropped into the field of play and as if they were a savage beast on a mission, just kept coming. This team knew what was at stake. This team knew the whole world was watching. This team knew it had been 16 years since their last win. Now, they can call themselves champions and they will remain so for the rest of their lives. Last Sunday afternoon, history was made. With the U.S. Women’s National Team’s 5-2 win over Japan, we were all made witnesses to it. • By Gregg McMullin Photo by Gregg McMullin The 2014-15 high school year in sports will certainly be one that people will debate as one of the strongest years in sports for our high school in recent memory. It was the first year in a four-year cycle that the Eagles were taken from the Pioneer League and thrust into the Ocean League, which features schools with twice or three times the enrollment of El Segundo’s. That didn’t deter our teams from winning league championships and advancing to the post season and for one sport, winning a CIF Southern Section championship. Teams getting ready for their respective sports start well before their season’s starts. For instance head football coach Steve Shevlin, it starts in the prior school year’s spring and continues throughout the following summer. Whatever he’s done over the past twenty years it’s working. His Eagles had a historical year in 2013 when they reached the CIF Northwest Division finals. They followed that up with an undefeated regular season run this past season. They won their first eleven games and were ranked as high as second in the CIF-SS Western Division. The Eagles opened their season with a 51-0 rout of Leuzinger. The Eagles had been a team that relied on their passing game but against the Olympians they discovered a running game. It was the start of a big season for quarterback Lars Nootbaar but the offense was buoyed by the resurgence of a running game that featured Taz Tauaese, Miguel Wagner-Bagues and Ryan Kelly. Against Cantwell the ground game racked up 251 yards and four TDs and the Eagles easily won 38-7. In the third game against Bishop Montgomery an added element of the Eagles arsenal was showing its strength; the defense. The Eagles handed the Knights a 37-6 pasting. And for the third consecutive game of the season the defense hadn’t allowed an offensive touchdown. Against Torrance the offense dominated the time of possession and went on to win 49-7 and for the first time the defense surrendered “For the first time since 1999, the U.S Women’s National Team can call themselves World Cup champions.” Ryan Kelly was a threat each time he rushed the ball. He gained over 500 yards and eight TDs on the year. See Eagles, page 6
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