The Culver City varsity football players and coaches need to have short memories. They need to forget about their last-second 19-14 loss to Peninsula because they face another south bay school on Friday. The Centaurs will host the 2-0 San Pedro Pirates at 7 p.m.
Although the 0-2 Culver City Centaurs played better in the second half against Peninsula their first half mistakes sealed their fate.
“That was a tough game to lose because we are just trying to find a way to get some positive things going,” Coach Jahmal Wright said after the loss to Peninsula.
In the second half the Centaurs took the lead, 14-13 on a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Xavier Ryan to junior receiver Justin Manyweather during the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. Culver City could not hold the lead when they gave up the game winning drive with less than a minute to go.
The Peninsula coach Mike Christensen was happy with the win at Culver City.
“We made it a lot harder than it should have been,” Christensen said. “I told my team that Culver City was not going to give up so you have to give them credit. They kept battling but both teams are really young.”
The Peninsula coach kicked the ball away from the faster Centaurs the whole game.
“They were a little faster than we are and we did not want to give up big plays,” Christensen said.
The problem is the Centaurs gave up the big play when Peninsula quarterback Daniel Schubert hit 6’6 wide receiver Jason Burr with a perfect pass between two Centaur defenders to set up the game-winning touchdown.
“I thought the kids played hard but we did not play smart,” Wright said. “We had some turnovers that killed us. We gave them life but we are going to fix our mental errors. We also need to execute better on offense but I am happy with our running game. If we can improve on our passing game we can be a good offensive team.”
One of the stars of the game for the Centaurs was Manyweather. He caught what appeared to be the winning touchdown and played solid defense until the long pass play to Burr.
“I feel like we can play better,” said a disappointed Manyweather. “We need to play better on both sides of the ball and we need to play hard for the seniors.”
The girls’ volleyball team will play one of the biggest games of the year today a 4 p.m. when they battle St. Paul inside the Del Goodyear gym on the Culver City campus. The St. Paul Swordsmen are 8-1 and ranked No.3 in the CIF 4AA Division. Culver City is 7-1 and ranked No. 3 in the CIF 3AA Division. Both teams have several Division 1 college prospects.
The lady Centaurs are led by Taylor Selfridge, Armani Moultrie, Mina Grant and Jessica Stewart. They are coached by Joe Manzo.