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Just when you thought The Culver City football team might catch a break in the schedule, they must face undefeated El Segundo after a 42-10 loss to Lawndale last week.
The 6-0 Eagles may be the best team in the Ocean League and the young 0-6 Centaurs will try to ground the Eagles Friday night at the Jerry Chabola field at 7 p.m. on Homecoming Night.
Culver City is trying to focus on El Segundo and forget last weeks’ game against Lawndale. The Centaurs were behind 14-10 going into the third quarter but the offense went flat and the defense wore down for a final score 42-10 score in Lawndale’s favor.
“We just can’t find anything that we are doing well,” Culver City’s coach Jahmal Wright said. “We will keep fighting. Centaurs don’t give up. The main thing I keep telling our team is no one is going to feel sorry for us. We just have to line up and play hard.”
Injuries also played a key part in why Lawndale was able to score so many points in the second half. Starting left guard Richard Yoshida had the flu and their starting center was injured in practice so the offensive line was hurting.
“It’s tough going to war when you have key injuries,” Wright said.
The Centaurs will have their hands full Friday with an El Segundo team that has scored a ton of points and given up only 28 in six games. Their All-CIF quarterback Lars Nootbaar and running backs Ryan Kelly and Miguel Wagner-Bagues lead el Segundo.
If Culver City expects to stay in the game they will have to play their best game of the year. They need to eliminate mistakes and hold on to the ball.
“We tell the players every week that everything starts at practice,” assistant coach Cornell Myles said after the loss to Lawndale. “We tell the players that the way you practice is the way you play in the games. We tell the players that regardless of the outcome of the game you just played you have a game next week.”
Despite their 0-6 record, Myles sees some positive things in this team.
“I like the enthusiasm of this team but when the game starts we are having a hard time getting our momentum going in the right direction,” Myles said. “We still get excited when we make big plays so that means that we have not given up. Next week is home coming and we need to show some Culver City pride.”
The Centaurs will need all of their players to be on the same page. Junior quarterback Quintorius Truitt must cut down on interceptions and get the ball to their game breaking wide receivers, Justin Manyweather and Evan Tillman. The offensive line will need to open holes for running backs Donovan Davis, Anthony Polk and Fred Poindexter. On defense linebacker James Simon is improving according to Myles.
Manyweather hopes to come up with some big plays against El Segundo like he did against Lawndale. Manyweather intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown in the first half.
“He threw a ball I thought I could get to and I did,” Manyweather said.