TORRANCE TRIBUNE November 9, 2017 Page 5
World Series Loss Means More
Heartache for Dodgers and Fans
By Adam Serrao
The World Series championship that has
eluded the Los Angeles Dodgers for so long will
have to wait at least another year to find itself
a home in Southern California. A series filled
with amazing victories, heartbreaking losses,
incredible performances and gigantic meltdowns
most likely could have gone back and forth for
another seven games. Eventually, however, it
ended in favor of the Houston Astros, as the
American League team showed up on the road
in the game that mattered most. The Dodgers
will have a very long offseason to look back at
what went wrong in the World Series. They’ll
also have an even longer 162-game regular season
schedule to play in order to make another
run at the team’s first championship victory
in what will now be 30 years of heartache.
Heartache probably can’t begin to describe
the feeling of Dodger fans everywhere as they
watched their team quickly take a 5-0 deficit
in the only Game 7 of the World Series that
Los Angeles has ever been a part of in the
team’s local history. In the biggest moment
of his career, on one of the grandest stages
in the entire sports world, Dodgers pitcher
Yu Darvish failed. The conclusion to a series
that may have been among the most dramatic
ever played ended in the most anticlimactic
fashion possible as Los Angeles was out of
the game and championship contention from
what seemed to be the opening pitch.
Word came out days later that Darvish was
tipping his pitches, meaning that batters like
George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa
knew what was coming before the ball even
reached home plate. It certainly looked that way.
Much of the blame there can easily be placed
on Darvish--a pitcher the Dodgers acquired for
exactly this situation. How, though, as coaches,
do you leave a pitcher who clearly doesn’t have
it out on the mound in the most important game
of the year to give up five runs==especially
after his last outing against the same Astros
team in Game 3 in which he looked just as bad?
As far as blame goes, it can certainly be
placed on Dave Roberts and the rest of the
coaching staff for trusting too much in analytics
and not in their own eyes. Many different
questionable moves throughout the entirety
of the World Series simply culminated in
leaving Darvish out on the mound for far too
long. That, combined with the way that the
Dodgers’ best players sulked and felt sorry for
themselves from the second inning on, gave
the team zero chance at pulling off a comefrom
behind victory in a winner-take-all game
in front of their home crowd.
Ten players left on base only began to
tell the story of a team that clearly did not
want it as much as the Houston Astros. Cody
Bellinger--who looked as if he had been out
partying too late for Halloween the night
before--committed a brutal error to start the
game when he inexplicably threw a fielded
ground ball behind Darvish, who was covering
first base, in a play that led to two runs and a
massive momentum switch for Houston. Not
only was the Los Angeles home crowd taken
out of the game from that point forward, but
Bellinger also proceeded to hurt the team at the
plate. He struck out three times on the night
and went 0-4, acting as the main, major hole
in the lineup that led to almost zero offensive
production for a team that still managed to
obtain more hits than its counterparts in the
final box score.
The Dodgers were 98-0 this season when
having the lead after eight innings of play. Yet,
in Game 2, Roberts left Jansen in for his second
career six-out save attempt and the Dodgers
wound up losing the game. The Dodgers were
100-1 in starts by Clayton Kershaw when he
was given at least a four-run cushion. Kershaw
gave up both a four-run lead and a three-run
lead in Game 5 before being pulled in a loss
that eventually saw the Dodgers go down 3-2
in the best of seven series. Theoretically, the
Dodgers should have won five of the first six
games played against the Astros, were it not
for bad coaching decisions and All-Star players
buckling under playoff pressure.
Putting the blame game aside, the Astros
were simply the better team. They made more
plays when it counted and fewer mistakes at
key moments in the series. For the Dodgers,
they are now forced to once again focus on
next year. How will the team get better so that
it can finally take the next step forward and
become champions instead of simply making
it to the playoffs or the Fall Classic? Darvish,
Logan Forsythe, Brandon Morrow and Chase
Utley are all free agents, among others. Clayton
Kershaw will be another year older, coming off
of another year in which he was injured. Corey
Seager may need surgery to repair his ailing
elbow. Drama involving Adrian Gonzalez hovers
around the team. All of those questionable
situations, and more, surround a 104-win team
that finished with the best record in baseball
yet will be looking to improve upon a year
that once again somehow ended in letdown.
The Dodger season went on for as long as
it possibly could have this year, providing
the team’s fans with a maximum amount of
entertainment value. The year may have ended
with a loss and in disappointment, but the
memories of joy, elation, excitement and accomplishment
will remain. The only thing to do
now is to focus attention toward next season.
The Dodgers have been through three decades
of baseball that have all ultimately ended in
disappointment. Los Angeles and the team’s fans
will once again look forward to next year in order
to finally rid the franchise of all of its surrounding
regret. – Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
Saxons Secure Pioneer League
Supremacy Over Rival Spartans
By Adam Serrao
The last time the North High Saxons football
team lost a game under head coach Todd Croce
was in the second week of September when the
regular season was still fresh and relatively brand
new. Since that time, the Saxons have rattled
off six wins in a row, culminating with a victory
last Friday night at North High over their
inner-city rivals from South. There wasn’t much
hope for the Spartans on their sideline coming into
the game, knowing that the team was up against
a much superior opponent. That fact played
itself quickly on the field and it wasn’t long
before the Saxons took a 49-0 shutout victory
in the last game of this year’s regular season.
If the North High Saxons received a victory
in their game against South High, they would
become the Pioneer League champions of
the 2017 high school football season. Saxons
running back Saeed Galloway took that fact
to heart and pushed his team towards victory
with two rushing touchdowns on the night.
Galloway ripped off huge chunk plays all
night long to not only keep South’s defense
on its heels, but to also wind down the clock
and expedite a 49-point victory.
Junior Beau Maglinti stepped in for the
senior captain at quarterback, Sean Sigala,
and did a fine job. Maglinti not only heaved
two touchdown passes on the night, but also
gave the Saxon faithful a glimpse at what their
lead signal-caller may look like next season.
North’s defense came away with a touchdown
to cap off a great all-around team victory in
the last game of the season before the playoffs
get started this week. The Saxons will take the
number one seed heading into this year’s CIF
Southern Section playoffs.
For South, a disappointing season has come
to an end, but as Spartans head coach Matt
Mishler stated after the game, “There are
definitely some good things to build on for
the future and we’re looking forward to it.”
Despite what South’s final overall record of 1-9
(1-4 in league play) might tell you, his young
team battled all season long against plenty of
adversity. South’s lone victory of the regular
season came two weeks ago over Centennial,
keeping Mishler and his club out of last place
in the final Pioneer League standings.
Sophomore starting quarterback Drew Nash
won’t be the only one returning to the team
next year for the Spartans. While South will
lose 11 seniors heading into next season, they
will regain the services of 21 underclassman,
including Nash and much of his very young
wide receiver core that should certainly help
the team mature and win more games next
season. As far as the top-seeded Saxons go,
the playoffs will begin this Friday night for a
team that finished the year off with that sixgame
winning streak. Croce and North High
(8-2, 5-0) will take this year’s Pioneer League
championship and all of the momentum that
comes along with it into the playoffs as they
look to attain a much-coveted CIF championship
trophy.
West High vs. Torrance High
All that the West High Warriors had to do
last Friday night at home was win one game
against the Torrance Tartars and they would assure
themselves of a spot in this year’s playoffs.
Winning a football game isn’t always as easy
as it sounds, especially when it’s against an
inner-city and divisional rival like the Tartars.
Despite a 14-0 lead for Torrance in the first
half, however, the Warriors rallied behind junior
wide receiver Dutch Silverlake and eventually
pulled out a 24-21 victory.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to, but
Coach said we can’t give up,” said Silverlake,
who like his team was staring at a two-touchdown
deficit midway through the second quarter of
play. Torrance’s running backs were getting the
job done early for their team. Ethan Meyers
took the ball over 60 yards for a touchdown
with three minutes left in the first quarter before
Eric Suarez ran another one in for a 14-0 Torrance
lead in the second. Meyers would wind
up rushing for over 100 yards on the night,
but the West High offense would eventually
wake up behind Silverlake and his quarterback
Brandon Poffenbarger to take back the game.
A 13-yard touchdown pass from Poffenbarger
to Silverlake with less than one minute remaining
in the first half of play was good enough
to tie things up at 14 points apiece. It was
Poffenbarger’s second TD pass of the night.
The Warriors kept their momentum going in the
third quarter as Silverlake not only connected
on a 31-yard field goal to break the tie, but
then also caught another touchdown pass from
his quarterback to put West up by 10 heading
into the fourth and final quarter of play.
The Tartars would answer midway through
the fourth quarter when starting quarterback
Nathan Gottlieb drove his team down the field
and scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge.
Unfortunately for Torrance, the team was unable
to complete the comeback--falling short
on a last-second 46-yard field goal attempt that
would have tied things up, but instead resulted
in a heartbreaking three-point loss.
Silverlake had six catches for 111 yards to
lead his team on offense for the night. “I’m
just happy that we’re going to the playoffs,”
he said after the game with a relieved look on
his face. Poffenbarger had three touchdown
passes on the night. West (5-5, 4-1) has now
taken over sole possession of second place in
the Pioneer League standings and will receive
a bid into the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
With the loss, the Tartars (3-7, 2-3) drop into
fourth place behind the Leuzinger Olympians
and out of playoff contention.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
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