Page 4 December 25, 2014 Leuzinger Tops Lawndale in South Soccer Classic By Joe Snyder Photos by Joe Snyder Leuzinger High’s boys’ soccer team won two of three games, with its latest win being 1-0 over cross town rival Lawndale in the South Torrance Christmas Boys’ Soccer Classic last Saturday. The Olympians began the tournament with a 1-0 win over Malibu on Thursday before losing to former Bay League foe Palos Verdes 2-0 on Saturday morning. The Olympians continued in the ninth place semifinals against host South last Monday, seeking to close out the classic with a 4-1 record. Leuzinger, led by junior Jose Ortiz, expects to be in a good battle with the four Torrance schools, North, South, Torrance and West, for the Pioneer League title. On Friday, Lawndale blanked San Pedro 2-0 on Friday. Keying the Cardinals (5-3) was Jose Giron who scored both of their goals in an 18-minute span. He scored the first in the ninth minute and scored, despite being under pressure by the Pirates’ defense and goalkeeper Kevin Renderos. Giron scored his second goal off an assist from Kevin Valencia in the 18th minute. Lawndale goalkeeper Juan Huerta recorded two saves. The Cardinals fell in the second round to powerhouse Santa Barbara 2-1 in the second round before their elimination loss to the Olympians. Last season, Lawndale captured the Pioneer League title and advanced to the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division IV playoffs. The Cardinals are in a very balanced Ocean League that also includes usual power Santa Monica, Centinela Valley High School District Hawthorne, Culver City, Beverly Hills and El Segundo. Leuzinger also defeated Lawndale 2-1 in a non-league match on December 15 at Lawndale. Ortiz and Francisco Rubio each scored for the Olympians. Francisco Sanchez had a goal for the Cardinals. The Eagles, meanwhile, are a tournament surprise, advancing to the championship semifinals that included wins over three other top programs, Los Alamitos, Santa Monica and Oxnard Channel Islands. Small schools power Animo Leadership from Inglewood started the tournament with a 1-0 win over Cerritos Valley Christian on Thursday, but lost to Torrance 2-1 and Corona 2-0 on Saturday. Hawthorne was swept out of the tournament with losses of 1-0 to Channel Islands on Thursday and 2-1 to Peninsula Saturday. Against the Panthers, who are expected to be strong contenders in the Bay League, junior midfielder Luis Espinoza scored the Cougars’ goal. Goalkeeper Fernando Portillo had six saves. Hawthorne’s Portillo had eight saves in its loss to the Raiders, ranked third in the CIFSouthern Section Division III, but, in the 67th minute, the Cougars were called for handball and Channel Islands’ Alan Zaragoze kicked the ball past the left side of Portillo for the goal for the successful penalty kick. Hawthorne head coach Yury Najarro attempted to dispute the call but it stood. The Cougars began the Don Lugo Classic against Baldwin Park Sierra Vista and Monrovia last Tuesday. The classic lasts through Saturday in Chino Hills. Inglewood, Morningside Boys Win Tournaments Inglewood High’s boys’ basketball team began the season with a slow start but got things together by winning the Clovis West Tournament by topping the host team 66-62 last Saturday in the Fresno area. Keying the Sentinels, who are 4-5, was Terrell Gomez with 19 points. Chancellor Hunter and Chris Perkins each added 16 points. A day earlier, Inglewood downed Fresno Edison 79-63 as Gomez and Hunter shared the team’s high scoring honors with 17 points apiece. In the opener on December 17, the Sentinels defeated Clovis East 81-66. Gomez sparked Inglewood with 25 points and six assists. Josh Tonley chipped in 12 points and Cardell Robertson contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Morningside is off to a good start at 7-2 after winning the Pioneer Tournament championship with a 63-59 victory over Villa Park last Saturday in Whittier. Leading the Monarchs was Patrick Jeune with 21 points. Charles Wright had 10 points. Morningside began the classic with a pair of wins over CIF-Los Angeles City Section schools Bravo 83-28 on December 15 and Huntington Park 54-41 on December 17. In the championship semifinals on Friday, the Monarchs topped Compton Dominguez 65-57. Against Bravo, Juene led Morningside with 25 points and seven steals. The Monarchs Hawthorne’s Luis Coronado controls the ball past a Channel Islands player in last Thursday’s South Torrance Christmas Boys’ Soccer Classic action, The Cougars resume play in the Don Lugo Tournament in Chino Hills Friday. Hawthorne High’s Miguel Ontiveros takes control of the ball in last Thursday’s South Torrance Christmas Boys’ Soccer Classic play. The Cougars were eliminated by Channel Islands (1-0) and Peninsula (2-1) host L.A. City school Middle College on January 6 at 7 p.m. Hawthorne Girls Split at Orangewood Hawthorne High’s girls’ basketball team split four games in finishing fifth at the Orangewood Academy Classic. The Cougars began with a 40-38 loss to Santa Ana Godinez on December 16 before coming back to defeat Irvine Crean Lutheran 42-27 a day later. Last Thursday, Hawthorne was routed by host Orangewood 62-20 before finishing with a 55-51 win over Costa Mesa on Saturday. Against Costa Mesa, Deonshanae Sadler led the Cougars with 24 points, followed by Kiera Wilder with 16. The Cougars began the Gahr Tournament in Cerritos last Monday against Long Beach Jordan. The classic lasts through Saturday. • Looking Up Curiosity Finds Active Organic Chemistry on Mars Based on a press release from NASA , provided by Bob Eklund NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill. “This temporary increase in methane—sharply up and then back down—tells us there must be some relatively localized source,” said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a member of the Curiosity rover science team. “There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.” Researchers used Curiosity’s onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion. Before and after that, readings averaged only one-tenth that level. Curiosity also detected different Martian organic chemicals in powder drilled from a rock dubbed Cumberland, the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These Martian organics could either have formed on Mars or been delivered to Mars by meteorites. Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity’s findings from analyzing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on ancient Mars. “This first confirmation of organic carbon in a rock on Mars holds much promise,” said Curiosity Participating Scientist Roger Summons of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “Organics are important because they can tell us about the chemical pathways by which they were formed and preserved. In turn, this is informative about Earth-Mars differences and whether or not particular environments represented by Gale Crater sedimentary rocks were more or less favorable for accumulation of organic materials. The challenge now is to find other rocks on Mount Sharp that might have different and more extensive inventories of organic compounds.” Researchers also reported that Curiosity’s taste of Martian water, bound into lakebed minerals in the Cumberland rock more than three billion years ago, indicates the planet lost much of its water before that lakebed formed and continued to lose large amounts after. SAM analyzed hydrogen isotopes from water molecules that had been locked inside a rock sample for billions of years and were freed when SAM heated it, yielding information about the history of Martian water. The ratio of a heavier hydrogen isotope, deuterium, to the most common hydrogen isotope can provide a signature for comparison across different stages of a planet’s history. The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen has changed because the lighter hydrogen escapes from the upper atmosphere of Mars much more readily than heavier deuterium. In order to go back in time and see how the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in Martian water changed over time, researchers can look at the ratio in water in the current atmosphere and water trapped in rocks at different times in the planet’s history. Martian meteorites found on Earth also provide some information, but this record has gaps. No known Martian meteorites are even close to the same age as the rock studied on Mars, which formed about 3.9 billion to 4.6 billion years ago, according to Curiosity’s measurements. • This graphic (photo, upper half) shows the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, one of the tools within the Sample Analysis at Mars [SAM] laboratory on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. The TLS measures concentrations of methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor in Mars’ atmosphere. On the lower half of the photo, the TLS is shown before it is attached to the SAM suite. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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