El Segundo CA— Oceanside-based beach soccer team SoCal Legacy BFC defeated South Gate at the El Segundo “Copa Cobana” Beach Soccer Tournament by a score of 8-3, in the boys under 14 tournament final on Sunday, August 2nd as they continued their preparation for competing in the 2015 Major Beach Soccer (MBS) National Championships in December.
The victory marks their third consecutive tournament championship this summer, having also won the “Soccer in the Sand” tournament on Coronado Island in May and another “Copa Cobana” tournament at Huntington Beach in June.
The win also represented a major milestone, with Legacy having won the El Segundo Championship three years in a row. The team was undefeated during the entire event, scoring 33 goals and allowing only 9 against. Seven goals into the tournament they achieved another milestone, reaching the 300th goal scored since the inception of the team..
The team is fast approaching the 350th goal mark and they are on a 13-game winning streak heading into the National Championship.
The MBS National Championship Tournament is set for its fifth year of competition on December 12-13 in Clearwater, FL. This is an invitational “tournament of champions” for both girls and boys U12, U14, U16, U18, and Open divisions. Each competing team must qualify by winning a championship at one of many qualifying beach soccer tournaments around the country. In the past, teams have come from Seattle, The Great Lakes area, North and South Carolina, Philadelphia, and New York. Some of the qualifying tournament locations in 2015 include Seaside (Oregon), Rochester and Long Island (New York), Grand Haven (Michigan), Headlands Beach (Ohio), Michigan City (Indiana), Chicago (Illinois), Erie (Pennsylvania), and Detroit (Michigan) as well as several locations in Florida.
But the team still needs community support to achieve their goal of competing at the national level. Although the tournament is in December, they are actively fundraising now as they need to make flight and lodging accommodations soon, before availability goes down and prices go up.

“The team has been practicing since April at the Harbor Beach in Oceanside and these young athletes really deserve a chance to represent our city and state at the national championships”, said their coach, Steve Citron, “They have worked very hard over the past 3 years and these efforts have really paid off in their recent performances. Florida is a long haul and we will need about $12K to pay for air fare, lodging, ground transportation and other expenses for the players.” Most of the players’ parents cannot attend, but any that do will be paying their own way. “We are seeking financial support from our community to help the players,” Citron stated.
The team is actively seeking corporate sponsorship and individual donations. If you are interested in helping, please send a check or money order, written to “SoCal Legacy BFC”, to PO Box 4186, Oceanside, CA. 92052-4186. Local and national businesses seeking to sponsor this team are encouraged to contact the coach directly by e-mail at socallegacybfc@gmail.com, by phone at 760.805.8837, or at the PO Box listed above. The team has also set up a GoFundMe page for individual donations at www.gofundme.com/SoCal-LegacyBFC