TORRANCE TRIBUNE March 2, 2017 Page 3 Up and Adam Community Briefs SKECHERS Pier to Pier Friendship Walk and Check Presentation to Ed Foundation Saxons One Step Closer to History By Adam Serrao Last week on Tuesday night in a home game, the North High Saxons boys’ basketball team made history by doing something that it hasn’t done in 52 years. A 64-59 victory over the Mission Viejo Diablos in the CIF Southern Section Division 3AA quarterfinals marked the first time the Saxons have advanced to the CIF semifinal game since 1965. North went on to win the title that year. This year’s team, led by head coach Gary Duperron, is confident in their skills and ability to make history and bring home a CIF championship trophy for the first time in what has now become a very, very long while. Advancing deep into the playoffs is certainly no easy task, especially for a team that finished in third place in the divisional standings. Some teams may find it easy to look ahead and possibly even overlook an opponent when history is on the line. Duperron and the Saxons did nothing of the sort. Though the team remained focused on the task at hand, a win against Mission Viejo was no walk in the park. The Saxons trailed early and by as many as four points late in the second quarter. Thanks to a resilient defense that stymied the Diablos all night long, though, North was able to make plays when it mattered and take a three-point lead heading into the halftime break. “Our defense went in spurts,” Duperron explained of his team’s effort. “We took chances and got steals. We didn’t change anything--we just did a better job.” The Saxons’ job on the defensive end got better as the game wore on. The team had nine steals on the night, as North’s speed without the ball clearly frustrated Mission Viejo all night long. “They are one of the fastest team’s I’ve ever seen,” remarked opposing senior guard, Micah Bisharah. “I give them a lot of credit. They’re hard to keep up with.” The Diablos did their best to keep up with North down the stretch run of the fourth quarter. With just under two minutes remaining on the game clock, Mission Viejo stormed back from a large deficit to take a two-point lead. Instead of giving up when the going got tough, the Saxons buckled down. Two key turnovers with just over one minute remaining led to a six-point swing in scoring. Instead of being down by two, North was all of a sudden up by four with the help of a huge three-point shot by Gabe Nakano. In the end, North’s offense proved to be too much for the Diablos. Nakano sank two more free throws after Shea Eddington broke his opponent’s hopes with another shot from behind the arc, When the Saxons’ offensive surge was said and done, they found themselves up by six points as the final buzzer sounded, signaling a victory. The game’s final buzzer didn’t only signify a win, but also a shot at history. “We want to bring a championship to North,” Saxon senior small forward Alex Ezeani excitedly said. Ezeani was huge on offense all night long for North, finishing the game with 14 points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. The all-around player was aided by 10 points from both Eddington and Nakano as well as 14 from Stephen Nwaiwu. The Saxons moved on to play against the Brentwood Eagles in the semifinals of the Division 3AA playoffs where they took an unfortunate 69-60 loss, bringing their prolific season to an end. Despite the loss, the boys on the North High basketball team can rest easy knowing that they brought the Saxons farther than they’ve been in the last 52 years. West High With hundreds of people in attendance last Friday night at Rowland High School, the West High Warriors came back from an early deficit to accomplish something that has never been done in school history. With a 64-60 victory over the Rowland Raiders, the Warriors advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA championship game for the first time ever. Things looked a bit murky early on. West trailed for the entirety of the second quarter, though a tight defense and an offense sparked by guard Alex Mishaw helped keep things close. Down by only one point at the half, the Warriors turned to their big men to get things done. “We found out what to do to score and kept doing it,” West center Noah Carroll said. Carroll finished the night with a team-high 19 points and added 10 rebounds, but really came through in the clutch in the third quarter. His eight points in the quarter helped the Warriors go from down one at the half to up by seven to start the fourth quarter. The Raiders rallied in the fourth quarter on the heels of an 8-0 run to cut West’s lead to just two points at 62-60. A missed threepoint shot in the final seconds by Rowland’s leading scorer, Phillip Aguiniga (27 points), led to a Nick Snyder rebound. Snyder was fouled and made both free throws to put the game away for good. “We’ve never been this far--it’s huge.” West head coach Neal Perlmutter exclaimed. Nobody else believed in us. We believed in ourselves.” The Warriors (21-8, 8-2) will have to believe for just one more game as they take on the Blair Vikings (24-6, 7-3) in this year’s CIF championship game. Blair finished in second place in the Rio Hondo league standings and most recently beat Woodcrest Christian by a final score of 76-71 in overtime to advance to the championship game. The game will be played at a neutral site this Saturday, March 4. The Warriors are now in uncharted territory and have only one goal on their minds--bringing a championship back to the city of Torrance. – Asixlion@earthlink.net • The 2016 SKECHERS Pier to Pier Friendship Walk raised a record-breaking $1.6 million to benefit education and The Friendship Foundation – an organization devoted to making a dramatic difference in the lives of children with special needs and their families (www.gotfriends.com). In recognition of the accomplishment, the 8th Annual SKECHERS Pier to Pier Friendship Walk Evening of Celebration and Check Presentation will take place at Shade Hotel (655 N. Harbor Drive) in Redondo Beach on Thursday, March 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. The SKECHERS Foundation will present checks to The Friendship Foundation and the following education foundations: El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Redondo Beach and Torrance. In addition, the SKECHERS Foundation will announce the expansion of its Scholarship Program. Celebrity guests will include Brooke Burke-Charvet, Sugar Ray Leonard, Courtney Sixx, Denise Austin and more. For additional information, www. skechersfriendshipwalk.com. Rams Launch “Guess Our Games” Schedule Contest for Chance to Win $1 Million The Los Angeles Rams are launching the Guess Our Games contest, giving fans a chance to win $1 million for correctly guessing the Rams 2017 schedule. Fans may visit www.therams.com/guessourgames to enter the contest through Friday, March 31. In order to be eligible to win, a participant must properly identify each of the 16 Rams 2017 regular season games by picking the correct week of the NFL season and the day of week for each of the eight home and away contests. In addition, the Bye Week must be correctly selected. Participants must be at least 18 years old to enter and only California residents are eligible to win. The contest is limited to one entry per person and email address. Los Angeles Rams 2017 Regular Season Opponents: Home: Arizona Cardinals (game to be played in London); Houston Texans; Indianapolis Colts; New Orleans Saints; Philadelphia Eagles: San Francisco 49ers; Seattle Seahawks; Washington Redskins. Away: Arizona Cardinals; Dallas Cowboys; Jacksonville Jaguars; Minnesota Vikings; New York Giants; San Francisco 49ers; Seattle Seahawks; Tennessee Titans. Grammy-Nominated Tenor Rodell Aure Rosel to Perform at El Camino College Grammy-nominated tenor Rodell Aure Rosel will take center stage 8 p.m. March 3 in El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium. Rosel will perform a recital of arias, art songs and Broadway compositions accompanied by pianist Jeremy Frank. In recent seasons, Rosel has appeared with Los Angeles Opera as Spoletta, Monostatos, and Bardolph, and with Houston Grand Opera as Mime in “Das Rheingold” and “Siegfried.” The current season sees him back in Chicago as Mime and Monastatos, in addition to appearances in Los Angeles in “Salome” and “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Rosel was a Grand Prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and was nominated for a Grammy in 2010 for Best Opera Recording for his work on “Volpone.” The Manila native studied at UCLA, where he sang the title role in Britten’s “Albert Herring” and leading roles in Mozart, Rossini and Ravel works, among others. Jeremy Frank has worked with major U.S. opera houses on productions from Monteverdi to Wagner, as well as on world premieres of operas from composers Mark Adamo, Daniel Catan and Michael John LaChiusa. Frank is an assistant conductor and associate chorus master at Los Angeles Opera. He also performed with Joyce DiDonato at the 54th Grammy Awards, the first time the ceremony featured a performance by a classical singer. Tickets for the recital may be purchased online at centerforthearts.org using the online ticketing system, or by phone at 800-832- ARTS. The Ticket Office is open weekdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m. • Every Visit our Website www.heraldpublications.com issue always available online! New Issues/Old Issues • Out-of-town? Read the Herald newspapers online • Interested in an article from a prior date? See it online • Excited about an ad, photo, or article? Refer your friends, family and associates to the website, so they can see it too • Want to read the Torrance Tribune or other Herald newspapers not in your area? All available on our website! Check it out! www.heraldpublications.com City Council from front page Adding to the discussion was PBF Energy President Western Region Jeff Dill, who also spoke during the workshop that took place in October. In his opening statements Dill reiterated that the refinery has had a number of operational issues since last standing before the community, but gave an overview of the work being carried out to ensure that similar incidents do not occur. PBF Energy has sought out experts to work with its employees on high-priority projects such as MHF and electrical reliability, among others. PBF Energy has also implemented high-level, cross-functional project reviews of all safety critical jobs; reviewed and enhanced its preventative maintenance programs; safely completed several large maintenance projects; acquired critical spare pumps; safely and successfully completed three steam boilers for inspections, repairs and re-permitting by the State; completed an overhaul and repair of its gas turbine generator; safely replaced the caustic scrubbing tower at the Alkylation Unit Acid Evacuation System; overhauled a large crude unit compressor correcting an original manufacturing defect; and empowered its workforce to review each task so that if the personnel feel something is unsafe, they can stop the job immediately and reassess. “Each of the operational issues experienced over the past few months were localized and contained,” Dill said. “We are committed to providing any outside expertise or resources the refinery needs to ensure safe and reliable operations of the refinery. We have very dedicated members of the steel workers, along with our technical teams, committed to improving our performance--and we will add resources when that becomes necessary.” Part of the effort to improve operations has included working closely with Southern California Edison (SCE) to ensure that the electrical infrastructure is updated and maintained to a level of efficiency where power outages will become a thing of the past. This year PBF Energy plans to invest $100 million in the refinery as part of its upgrading effort, which will include shutting down four units in succession to be cleaned, inspected and repaired. That effort will include 84 vessels, drums and towers; two furnaces; 57 exchangers; 18 heaters; 279 piping-related work; 388 valves; 15 machinery jobs; 149 instrumentation-connected work; and 56 pieces of electrical equipment. Work will also include the opening, inspection and repair and/or upgrade of the process heaters, heat exchangers and drums/towers/vessels; change catalyst in four reactors, along with inspecting and repairing these reactors; several valve inspections, repairs, calibrations and replacements; and replacing baseplates, motors, seals and rotors. See City Council, page 5
Torrance_030217_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above