When the CIF Southern Section office reconfigured the football leagues in the South Bay and the Westside Culver City HighSchool knew right away, they were put in one of the toughest leagues in the CIF Southern Section. The reality is 7-0 Inglewood, 6-1 Culver City, 5-2 Leuzinger, 5-2 Mira Costa and 3-4 Palos Verdes are all very good football teams that can win games on any given Friday night. “We already knew before the season started how tough the league would be,” said Culver City head boys football coach Jahmal Wright after practice last Monday.
The Bay league standings are also very tight. Inglewood and Mira Costa are 2-0, Culver City and Palos Verdes are 1-1 and Leuzinger is 0-2. A good example of how balanced the league is in the last two weeks Inglewood barley beat Leuzinger, Culver City edged Palos Verdes, Mira Costa ran past Culver City and Palos Verdes edged Leuzinger. Right now, Inglewood appears to be the team to beat for first place and the other four teams are in a dog fight for playoff seedings.
On Friday Culver City will face Leuzinger at home on Homecoming Night at 7 p.m. “Both teams are fighting for our football lives, so we are expecting their best punch,” said Wright. “They are a physical team, and they have a lot of good athletes. They play with confidence, and they bring the fight to you. Both teams are fighting to get into the playoffs because only three teams are guaranteed a playoff spot although a fourth team can still make it as a wild card.”
Wright is hopeful the CCHS student body and the Culver City community will come ready to cheer on the Centaurs. “We are hoping to have a big home field advantage on Friday night,” said Wright. “We need our crowd to really be loud and give us the support we need to win a tough football game.”
To beat Leuzinger the Centaurs will have to control their running game, something they failed to do against Mira Costa last Friday. The Mira Costa Mustangs beat the Centaurs 56-34. Mira Costa’s running back Aj McBean ran for over 300 yards against the Centaurs. “They did a great job having their team prepared,” said Wright. “They made some offensive adjustments that they had not shown in their previous games. Their coaching staff had a very good game plan, and they executed it well. We must do a better job of tackling and do a better job of maintaining our defensive assignments We will fix our mistakes and get ready for our Homecoming game.”
The Centaurs have the talent to fix their mistakes on both sides of the ball. On offense Culver City has the ability to score from anywhere on the field. They are led by quarterback Seth Shigg and receivers Myles Singleton, Braylon Singleton, Harley Moore, Mark Fourte, William Fourte and Justin Hoang. The defensive unit relies on the play of Dae’lon Moutra, Jordan Njoku, Darryl Davis Jonas Ross and Mario Reyes.
Also on Friday, the two first-place Bay League teams clash when Mira Costa travels to Inglewood. Every week in the Bay league the plot thickens. “Now we have to bounce back and win,” said former CCHS head football coach and current assistant coach Cornell Myles. “It’s as simple as that. We really have to come together now because we want to make it to the playoffs. We have to show up on Friday and play Culver City football. We can overcome our mistakes. I try to tell our players that adversity is our strength. This is Homecoming.”
