It was Senior Night at Culver City High School on Monday, and the girl’s varsity soccer team was looking for a big win against Palos Verdes to celebrate the day. Culver City is led by Head Coach Pete Barlett and is the only Division 3 team in the Bay League. The Centaur women have struggled a little bit this season in the league going 3-6-1 on the year in league play. But playing against Division 1 and 2 opponents in the league, they have played hard this season and grown a lot, sitting above two other schools in the standings. 

Palos Verdes is led by Coach Joe Flanagan and has enjoyed a more successful season this year with an 8-2 record in league contests. Beating Culver City 2-1 earlier this year at home in P.V., the Sea Kings came into this game looking for a strong showing to help finish off their excellent season. 

The Centaurs started the first half of the match off fast, as they got a few corners and free kicks in the first fifteen minutes of play. Palos Verdes is led by senior forward #19 and captain Madi Steinbach, who was buzzing around in the first half breaking up plays and pushing the ball up to help her team maintain possession. Throughout the half, Palos Verdes seemed content breaking up play and holding the ball in the midfield. The second half was a different story altogether, with the Sea Kings coming out strong and maintaining possession for most of it. While they were struggling to get a good look at the goal, they were able to make sure the Centaurs weren’t able to mount their own sustained attacks. 

Culver City was happy to defend most of the second half and try to hit back on the counterattack. Culver City was led by senior midfielder #6 Luna Chavez who did her absolute best to try and slow down the pace of the game, control the ball, and let her team find open spaces to fill. The Centaurs were able to generate a corner kick and a free kick towards the second half but mostly were remiss in playing on the counterattack. With eight minutes left in the half on one of those counterattacks, Chavez grabbed possession of the ball at midfield, and lashed a serious shot from 10 yards outside the goal, hitting the crossbar in Culver City’s best chance of the night. 

Even though Culver City truly defended admirably in the second half, six minutes later the relenting pressure would prove to be too much. The Sea Kings were able to put in a goal right before the end of added time. A series of passes and touches bouncing all over the place, finally found an attacker in the box who was able to get a hold of enough of the ball to put it in the net. 

Despite their league showing, Culver City still find themselves with a winning record overall on the season at 12-8. I was able to catch up with Coach Barlett who spoke on the game and their season as a whole. “It’s tough to lose when you’ve got a gameplan, we’ve executed a gameplay, we’ve frustrated them, we’ve created opportunities on the counter, but that’s the margin, literally inches there hitting the bar,” he said. 

“The most important thing is trying to make the playoffs. If we can nick the point tonight, we definitely would have secured it, but we’ve got Santa Monica on Wednesday and there’s a chance then.” 

When asked about the season as a whole, Barlett said, “We’ve got to keep our heads up, stay positive, learn from mistakes. It’s been a really good season, we’re ranked third by division 3 in CIF, and we’re in a really tough league.” 

He added, “If we can get out of this league and make the playoffs, that would be an amazing achievement. Goals win you games, we need to take opportunities when they come, work rate was excellent, defending was excellent. 

And about Chavez, he said, “She’s super talented. It’s senior night, she’s a senior, and she led by example.” 

Culver City played Santa Monica on Wednesday and ended the game with a 2-2 draw to pick up another point and qualify for the playoffs.

Photo by the author