Page 6 February 5, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE “If you’re looking for it, this year’s boys’ basketball Pioneer League certainly has it. Every week brings with it different results and in return, different standings. This week, it was the Torrance Tartars’ turn to ride the rivalry rollercoaster.” SENIOR DAYS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2015 $.99 cent games $.99 cent shoe rental $2.99 lunch specials MONDAY – FRIDAY 9:00 AM THROUGH 5:00 PM For more information please call Charlotte at charlotte@pvbowl.com; or 310.326.5120 See Pioneer League, page 9 Call toll-free: 1-800-409-2420 Are You Still Paying Too Much For Your Medications? You can save up to 93% when you fill your prescriptions at our Canadian and International Pharmacy Service. Bottle A Manufactured By CelebrexTM $761.35 Bottle B Celecoxib* $64.00 Get An Extra $10 O & Free Shipping On Your 1st Order! Use code 10FREE to receive this special oer. Prescription price comparison above is valid as of November 1, 2014. 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Since that Thursday night back on September 4th when the Green Bay Packers took on the Seattle Seahawks: this is what we had all been waiting for. Seattle played on the first day of the season (winning 36-13 over GB) and now, lo and behold, they have played on the last game of the season. Quite the year for Pete Carroll’s bunch who attempted to make it two Super Bowl victories in a row when they met the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. Unfortunately for Carroll, starting quarterback Russell Wilson and the rest of Seahawks nation, they ran up against the NFL leader in playoff victories (21) and postseason touchdown passes (53), as the 37-year-old Tom Brady joined Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks in history to win four career NFL titles. The strategy was clear from the start for both teams. The Seahawks needed to get the ball to Marshawn Lynch and have him be the centerpiece of their offense. If at the end of the game Lynch was in MVP talk consideration, then the Seahawks would be in contention to win the game. An effective run game, for Seattle, has served to open up the pass game this year and has allowed Wilson to use his legs, which always makes him and his offense that much more dangerous. For the Patriots, a mixture of Rob Gronkowski and an accurate Tom Brady was said to be the trick and strategy to winning the game. If Brady could avoid getting taken down by that vaunted Seattle defense and buy himself some much needed time in the pocket, then he and the Patriots would wind up doing just fine. Clearly two different approaches on offense. Did the best one win? Well now that the game is over and both game plans can be dissected, it will be easier for us to see who executed more efficiently. In the first quarter, it was all Tom Brady. The quarterback who will now enter his name into the “best ever” talk began the game completing nine of his first 10 passes as the Pats dominated the time of possession in the quarter and kept Wilson and Lynch off of the field. At one point, Wilson had yet to throw his first completion of the game when Brady had already completed 14. The Patriots allowed Wilson and the Seahawks defense on the field for only four of the first 20 minutes of the game as New England’s secondary completely eliminated any passing game that Seattle could have even thought about having. In walked Chris Matthews. The first year wide receiver out of Kentucky quickly made a name for himself, catching his first reception of the year for a 44-yard gain. Some start for the rookie. As he went, so did the Seahawks. Magically, Matthews’ presence on the field gave his team and his quarterback momentum. With just 29 seconds remaining in the first half, Seattle decided to be aggressive. A five play, 80-yard drive spanning just 29 seconds ended with a touchdown pass to Matthews on the left side of the end zone. Two passes - two catches; one for a touchdown. The Seahawks may have found their new number one wide receiver. More importantly, however, they were able to keep the game tied at the half and had all of the momentum they needed for the third quarter. Just as it felt, the third quarter was all Seattle’s. A field goal to start things off followed by a three-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin gave the Seahawks a 10 point lead going into the fourth quarter. With eight minutes remaining on the clock, Brady threw his second interception of the game. The Patriots and Brady looked Kearse-d. Jermaine Kearse of Seattle, as if from the heavens, came down with a remarkable 33-yard reception that seemingly fell in his lap and brought back memories of both David Tyree and Mario Manningham in the Super Bowl against the Patriots all at once. Just like that, Brady’s smile turned into a frown on the sidelines and everyone knew that the demons of the University of Phoenix Stadium were back to haunt him and the Patriots. He wouldn’t sleep for days, maybe even weeks. If you asked 1,000 people what team Malcolm Butler played for, maybe one would be able to tell you. Even that is a ‘maybe’. Ask that same question in a week or two and the same will hold true. Malcolm Butler, with one play, not only immortalized his name in football trivia games, but also won the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots. “I just had a vision that I was going to make a big play, and it came true,” Butler said. As the Seahawks held the ball on the 1-yard line with about 20 seconds left and ready to take the lead for good, Marshawn Lynch readied himself, breathing what looked to be steam out of his facemask in preparation for the game winning score. Wilson dropped back, faked toward Lynch and threw an off-target ball toward Ricardo Lockette. Butler jumped the pass. Confetti flew down from the rafters. The Patriots had won the Super Bowl again. “It wasn’t the way we drew it up,” Brady said. He’ll take what he can get. The Patriots have now won four Super Bowls in the last 14 years. Brady’s 37 for 50 for 328 yards, four touchdown and two interception performance has allowed him to attain his third Super Bowl MVP award, tying him with Joe Montana for the most ever. There is rarely a year of football where the New England Patriots are not in the AFC championship or the Super Bowl. Pete Carroll may have handed the game away by not handing the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, but you surely won’t hear Lynch complain to the media about it. Super Bowl XLIX was a nail-biter and kept us all at the edges of our collective seats throughout. At the end of the day, it was Tom Brady who came up big, stood in the pocket and was able to hit his receivers all night long. Marshawn Lynch, on the other hand, rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown and could have been the MVP for the Seahawks if they chose to use him as the centerpiece of their offense. Instead, Lynch was left standing on the goal line, watching the ball sail into the opposing team’s arms. Truly, defense does win championships, only this time it wasn’t the defense that we all expected who did it. Love or hate the Patriots all you want, but one thing is for sure. You have to respect a team that, no matter what is put in their way, gets the job done and has been arguably the best team in the National Football League over the last decade and a half. • 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 Boys’ Pioneer League Standings Fluctuating Weekly By Adam Serrao There’s nothing more exciting than intense rivalry basketball. If you’re looking for it, this year’s boys’ basketball Pioneer League certainly has it. Every week brings with it different results and in return, different standings. This week, it was the Torrance Tartars’ turn to ride the rivalry rollercoaster. The Tartars’ season was looking up two weeks ago after wins at both North and Centennial, but with a loss at home to the fifth place West High Warriors last Wednesday night, anyone trying to make sense of the Pioneer League was left scratching their heads. Last Friday night, however, Torrance rebounded nicely on the road at South, knocking off the league’s second place team with a 57-52 win. If there is one constant in the Pioneer League this year, it unfortunately does not involve any Torrance-based team. The constant is that the Leuzinger Olympians just keep winning games, but even they lost last Wednesday to the last place Centennial Apaches. While Leuzinger remains in first place, the Tartars are slowly making their bid for second place come the end of the season. One major hiccup in that bid for Torrance was their loss last Wednesday to West. A team that they should have beaten, the Tartars fell victim to a 19-point third quarter by the Warriors and strong performances by both Noah Carroll and Christian Jackson to suffer the loss. The sign of any good team, however, is rebounding quickly and picking things up right after a loss. That’s exactly what the Tartars did against South. Coming off of their loss against West, Torrance knew that they needed a win and played like it in a hotly contested game throughout vs. South. The Tartars kept up with the Spartans throughout the first half, weathering South’s 23 first-half points to keep the game close. Torrance was able to maintain a tiny lead in the third quarter thanks to Giovanni Jackson’s 16 points on the night. “He does so much for us on both ends,” head coach Paul Nitake said of Jackson. “Rebounding, offense, defense. He’s a huge piece to our team.” Without him, Torrance may not have been able to hold off South who was able to battle back and tie the game late in the third and keep things close throughout the fourth. Behind big man Michael Yost’s 24 points and 13 rebounds on the night, the Spartans were able to deflect every attempt the Tartars made to run away with the game. Torrance had five different players score in the fourth quarter to help the team hold on to the lead while South, in turn, missed shots from the field, including what would have been a game-tying three-pointer with just over 15 seconds remaining in the contest. Torrance used its speed to their advantage against a much larger South High team that relies on its size inside the post to out-muscle teams. “Everybody tries to downgrade us because of our size,” Jackson said of his team. “We had to come out and show we could beat big teams, too.” Jackson and the Tartars showed exactly that by fending off Yost and a bigger South High team with the eventual five-point victory. Though it was close, the Tartars will take the win any way that they can get it, especially against a team that they had already lost to in the league play opener this season. “The first game against South, that was our first game back with everybody healthy,” Nitake explained. We’re starting to get better chemistry with all of our pieces now.” That Tartars (10-12, 3-3) will need that chemistry as they come up upon their toughest stretch of the schedule so far. Torrance will take on Leuzinger and North High this week, with a chance to vault themselves into second place in the Pioneer League standings. The Spartans (12-9, 4-2) will look to keep the pesky Tartars at bay with matchups against Centennial and Leuizinger before entering the final week of the regular season. West High The West High Warriors week last week was highlighted with a win over city and division rival the Torrance Tartars. After having dropped four of their last five games going into the matchup, the Warriors used a huge 19 point third quarter to topple Torrance by a final score of 49-42. Christian Jackson had 12 points and four rebounds for the team while Noah Carroll added 12 points and Josh Staffieri notched six assists.
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