February 20, 2014 Page 5 Hawthorne Blanks Samo for Ocean Soccer Crown By Joe Snyder Hawthorne High’s boys’ soccer team captured its first outright Ocean League championship since 2006 after shutting out Santa Monica 2-0 in their league finale last Thursday at Hawthorne. The win also avenged the Cougars’ earlier 2-1 overtime defeat to the Vikings from January 29 at Santa Monica. Hawthorne took a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute when Jason Santana scored on a header off a corner kick from Edgar Navarro. The Cougars, who ended their league at 8-1-1 and are 17-2-3 overall, got some insurance when Francisco Alvarez scored off a free kick from Bryan Larios. It was Alvarez’s league-leading 25th goal of the season. Defensively, Hawthorne was able to shut down the Vikings behind Miguel Hernandez, Luis Baez, Mauricio Hernandez and Larios. Goalkeeper Fernando Portillo made six saves--one of those a diving save off a free kick from 19 yards out to prevent Santa Monica from tying the match. At Culver City on February 11, the Cougars and Centaurs battled throughout the contest but Hawthorne finally broke through in the 76th minute when Edwin Ortiz scored on a short push off a pass from Alvarez and Hawthorne made it stand for a 1-0 victory. Despite the Cougars’ big win, which occurred after both squads tied 3-3 on January 24 at Hawthorne, head coach Yuri Najarro was not pleased. “We want to finish early,” Najarro said. Earlier, Hawthorne was able to finish off Santa Monica, which tied with Culver City for second place in Ocean play at 7-2-1 and one game in back of the Cougars. Portillo made 17 saves, including one on a penalty kick attempt by the Centaurs’ Carlos Rincon. Hawthorne entered last week ranked eighth in the CIF-Southern Section Division IV and Santa Monica was fifth, but the Cougars will be expected to move up and the Vikings move down after Hawthorne’s win over Santa Monica. The Cougars will also begin the playoffs at home on Thursday or Friday with the playoff pairings that were expected to be released last Monday. Lawndale Boys Win Pioneer Basketball, Soccer Lawndale High’s boys are enjoying a successful 2013-14 winter after winning the Pioneer League in basketball and soccer last week The Cardinals’ boys’ basketball squad won its second consecutive league crown by downing Torrance 81-59 last Thursday at Lawndale. The Cardinals, who are 18-8 overall and ended league at 9-1, were led by sixfoot nine junior center/forward Chimezie Metu with 15 points. Chris White added 11 points. R’Lando Beckels chipped in 10 points, and Broderick Jones and Quincy Pinkard each finished with eight. At South Torrance on February 11, Lawndale rolled over the Spartans 80-52. Lawndale entered last week rated sixth in the CIF-Southern Section IA, but if it moves up it could find itself in one of the top four seeds as top-ranked Riverside J.W. North moves up to the prestigious Open Division. The Cardinals begin the IA playoffs at home against Ventura, an at-large team from the Channel League, Friday at 7 p.m. If Lawndale tops the Cougars, it will face either Alhambra Mark Keppel or Fontana A.B. Miller at a site to be determined next Tuesday at the same time. Cardinal Kickers Win First Title Lawndale High’s boys’ soccer team got in on the championship party after capturing its first ever Pioneer League championship with a 3-2 win over traditional power South Torrance on February 11 at South and outright last Thursday with a 4-3 home win over Torrance. Against the Spartans, who won the Pioneer the past two seasons and advanced to the CIF-Southern Section Division IV championship game before losing to Fontana Carter and into the Southern California Regional Division III playoffs last year, the Cardinals got things going fast as Joel Martin scored off a pass from Salazar. Lawndale made it 2-0 in the 36th minute when Kevin Valencia scored from eight yards out off a pass from Salazar. South cut the Cardinals’ lead to 2-1 in the 40th minute when Abe Younis scored, but Lawndale, which is 18-7-1 overall and ended league at 9-1, scored on a penalty kick by Salazar after Andrew Renteria was dragged down in the South penalty box. Taylor King scored for the second place Spartans (10-7-3, 7-3) to cut the Cardinals’ lead to one goal, but Lawndale was able to hold on as goalkeeper Erick Hernandez was able to make a key save on a shot by South’s Richie Lee. Martin was big, scoring all of the Cardinals’ four goals as Lawndale was able to edge the Tartars in overtime. Marcos Ambriz had two goals and Bryan Maderos had one for Torrance, which ended Pioneer play in third place at 6-4 and is 12-10 overall. The Cardinals begin the Southern Section Division IV playoffs at home this week. Their opponent and time of the game was announced last Monday. Leuzinger Plays Redondo Tough in Loss Leuzinger High’s boys’ basketball team played highly regarded Redondo tough, but lost 49-37 in its Bay League finale last Thursday at home. The Olympians, who finished league at 3-7, had a game-high 18 points from Davon Abner, including three first quarter three-point baskets. Leading the league champion Sea Hawks (22-4, 10-0), who are top-ranked in the Southern Section Division IIAA but will compete in the Open Division, was Terrell Carter with 15 points. Leuzinger, which placed fifth in league, made the Southern Section Division IIIAA playoffs, but must visit second-seeded Atascadero (23-2) in the first round Friday at 7 p.m. Morningside Tops Inglewood Morningside High’s boys’ basketball team finished fourth in the Ocean League after a big 51-44 win over cross-town rival Inglewood last Thursday at Morningside. The Monarchs, who are 9-16 overall and 4-6 in league, were led by Gabe Saloche with 22 points and Dakaria King with 16 points, four rebounds and three blocked shots. The Sentinels, who were 7-3 in league and 15-11 overall, tied Santa Monica for second place, one game behind champion Beverly Hills (8-2). Inglewood is in the IAA Division as it visits Sea View League champion Dana Hills in the first round Friday at 7 p.m. Morningside made the IVAA playoffs and will visit Riverside Prep at the same time. • Da Vinci Communications Seeks New Charter By Dylan Little During the Wiseburn School Board’s February 13 meeting, Kim Merritt from Da Vinci Communications Academy addressed the group with a plan to write up a new charter for the campus. This would allow the school to offer a five-year program that could have students graduating with an Associate’s Degree. Merritt said the charter school is just starting the process and is looking to the Wiseburn School District for guidance and approval of the plan. For the most part the charter should stay similar to the other two Da Vinci campuses, but the likely fifth year program will be a major change. “I think it’s safe to say we will be proposing a five-year model,” said Merritt. “That will be the change that will be significant from the design and innovation schools.” How it would work is that any student who decides to stay at Da Vinci Communications “I think it’s safe to say we will be proposing a five-year model... That will be the change that will be significant from the design and innovation schools.” to pursue an AA degree will stay enrolled and the requirements of their graduation would be expanded to include the college requirements. “We would essentially be offering college classes to students in their 13th year,” said Merritt. However, Merritt believes that in the final product at no point would students be locked into staying. If a student is accepted into a prestigious college, she believes the plan could accommodate that. “We’re still looking at the legal aspects,” said Merritt. “Any students who want to leave after the fourth year will be able to leave our school.” For students who stay on for a fifth year, they will in one manner have graduated, while on the books still be enrolled at Da Vinci Communications without a diploma. Merritt says it’s important for the students not to feel like they are missing out by staying on campus for the start of their college careers. “I imagine they will go through the graduation ceremony. It will feel very much to them like they’ve graduated high school,” said Merritt. “We don’t want them to feel like they are still in high school. We wouldn’t want it to be a stigma to them.” Because of how the program would look, there may be room in the fifth year to add students (because of those leaving after four years). However, Merritt said for legal and other reasons the fifth year at Da Vinci Communications would likely only be open to students in the Da Vinci family of schools. “As of right now, our goal is to keep it in the Da Vinci family,” said Merritt. “We need to see how it will play out. It is likely they would’ve already had to be in our schools to attend that 13th year.” To make this program work, Merritt said Da Vinci would partner with a college to be able to offer on-campus college courses. She said the school has already seen interest from El Camino, Foothill, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal Poly Pomona, but more time is needed to see which will be the best fit for what Da Vinci Communications would like to offer. “We have a few different schools who are very interested,” said Merritt. “It’s just a matter of now picking which ones are right. We just nailed down which types of support systems we’d like to offer and we’re working on now setting up what our priorities are and mapping out which school is most likely to meet those priorities. Any way we do this it will be in partnership with a college. As to which college we will partner with, that’a still being played out.” One concern mentioned by the Board is that students will graduate with useless credits. However, Merritt said that making sure credits transfer easily is a major issue. “That’s one of our non-negotiables,” said Merritt. “When we started this process, we wanted to make sure that all the courses would be transferable. We don’t want any of our students walking away feeling that they did something that wasn’t worth it.” Merritt said she hopes to have a draft of the charter submitted to the Board in March, with a final draft completed in May. Budget and Accounting Director David Wilson questioned if that was enough time to see the project to completion. “This is a very optimistic time frame,” said Wilson. “Is this enough time to work with the District?” Superintendent Tom Johnstone said reviewing the charter shouldn’t be as time-consuming as the initial round of approvals were, as most of the text would be pretty close to the other Da Vinci schools. Overall, the Board expressed excitement over the opportunity for one of the charter high schools to forge a path to an AA degree while remaining on campus and with the high school support system still in place. “This sounds really wonderful,” said Curtis. Board President Roger Banuelos summed up the thoughts of the Board as excited, but cautious. “As you’ve heard, there’s a lot of interest and a lot of questions,” he said. • Enjoy a good read with your morning coffee... Subscribe to one of Herald Publications weekly newspapers. El Segundo Herald, Torrance Tribune, Hawthorne Press Tribune, Lawndale Tribune or Inglewood News Only $50.00 for a yearly subscription. Call 310-322-1830
Lawndale 02_20_14
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