The562’s coverage of high school soccer is sponsored by Long Beach FC.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The CIF playoffs aren’t about style points, merely about surviving and advancing. In a parallel universe, Long Beach Poly may have won their second round match against Culver City by a handful of goals, but it’s only the result that matters.
So while the Jackrabbits can acknowledge they left some goals on the table, another 1-0 victory will do just fine as Poly punched its ticket to the Division 4 quarterfinals with their win on Burcham Field Saturday afternoon.
“It was pretty much just like the last game, we’ve just got to put our chances away,” said Poly coach Carlos Casillas after another 1-0 victory for the Jackrabbits. “Our defense is stepping up, our goalkeeper Noel is stepping up big time, we just gotta add a couple more goals just to make the game a little bit easier for everybody.”
Senior Roberto Bermudez again delivered the game-winning goal for the Jackrabbits, and he was a consistent scoring threat the entire day. He racked up six shots and was a thorn in Culver City’s side from start to finish.
His breakthrough finally came in the 47th minute after he was tackled from behind in the penalty area. Bermudez calmly stepped to the spot to finish off his own PK, giving Poly what proved to be the only goal they’d need.
“That’s how it’s been, we have multiple chances and we can’t score them, but once we get one, we know we’re gonna keep that zero,” said Bermudez of his confidence in one goal being enough for the win. “We may not play the best soccer, but hey, if they can’t beat it, or it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, you know?”
Poly’s brand of soccer was plenty effective on Saturday as they outshot their visitors 11-3 in the first half and finished the day with a 22-9 edge in that department.
The Jackrabbit defense was able to maintain a clean sheet for the second playoff game in a row, as Noel Gutierrez made six saves (four in the second half) to preserve Poly’s lead.
Even with the one-goal lead, the Jackrabbits generated plenty of scoring chances as they hunted a 2-0 lead. Bermudez and Matthew Sanchez made several runs directly at their defenders, putting pressure on the Centaurs to make a play.
Eventually, the Jackrabbits were awarded a second penalty with only a few minutes left in the game, when Sanchez was tackled from behind by a Culver City defender, resulting in a straight red card. It was Daniel Silva stepping to the spot this time, and his PK was pulled wide left to keep it a one-goal game.
“We knew they played yesterday, because they got that postponed game, and we knew they were going to be on heavy legs,” Casillas said. “So we decided to put pressure on them and it worked, we got the two PK’s out of it. The fact that we got to play on Thursday and they had to play Friday, we knew those legs were going to be heavy, so we wanted to push, push, push.”
The Jackrabbits will remain on their home field on Wednesday in the quarterfinals, hosting the winner of Laguna Beach and Indian Springs.
Whomever they play, Poly is confident in how they’re playing, and are hoping to have a full-on scoring breakthrough sooner than later.
“If we don’t score the first chance, we don’t talk down to each other. We just keep our heads up and we keep on going,” Bermudez said. “We just keep on going until you find the first one, but once you find that first one, we’re gonna keep going for more. Obviously, today we couldn’t get more, but we just kept on going. We don’t drop heads. We don’t blame each other. We just keep on going. As a team, we work together and we defend together.”
