Photos: Kristi Citron

Clearwater Beach FL— Four teams from Oceanside, California flew across the country to compete at the seventh annual Major Beach Soccer National Championships held on December 10^th and 11^th and, after a weekend packed with action and excitement on the sugar sand of Clearwater Beach (next to the Gulf of Mexico), two of the four teams ended up returning home with National Titles. Jim Wood, the mayor of Oceanside, met with both teams to congratulate them on their victories.

Crown Heights – The New 2016 MBS BU18 National Beach Soccer Champions!

A team named Crown Heights, composed of Oceanside High School senior varsity players, made the history books in the BU18 division with four straight wins in the preliminary rounds, defeating teams from Syracuse, New York (by a score of 4-1), Chicago, Illinois (in a 9-1 blow-out), West Palm Beach, Florida (in a tight 2-1 match), and their local rivals from El Camino High in Oceanside, California (with a hotly contested 6-1 final score) to finish in first place after the preliminary matches, securing a position in the National Championship Final. This left their cross-town El Camino High rivals, Swap Meet FC, to battle it out with the Syracuse BSC Warriors. Unfortunately, once the dust settled, the strong and talented players from New York advanced to the final round to face Crown Heights for the Championship Match and, in doing so, eliminated the possibility of an “El Clasico” finale between the two Oceanside-based teams that were competing in this division.

The contest between New York and California, a classic East versus West Coast match up, did not disappoint as both teams battled hard to take the coveted 2016 National Title. Crown Heights drew first blood with an incredible goal from Angel Villalobos at the beginning of the match, but the Warriors rallied back to level the score 1-1 by the end of the first period. The determined OHS players, who are all part of the Crown Heights Resource Center, advanced their lead at the very beginning of the second period with a surprisingly quick goal by Miguel Arango, occurring right after the kick-off, stunning the New Yorkers, who quickly regrouped and fought back with everything they had. Fortunately, for Crown Heights, the score line remained 2-1 at the end of the second period. A very tight contest indeed between two teams from the opposite ends of the United States! As the third period commenced, Angel found the net for a second time in the match, helping to further build on the team’s lead, and this would prove to be a crucial goal that would eventually keep the match from going into overtime and penalty kicks to decide the outcome.

The Syracuse players refused to concede, keeping the match close by scoring a free kick at the edge of the Crown Heights’ goalkeeper box, bringing the score to within a goal with only 5 minutes remaining to play in the final period. The action continued at a frenetic pace, highlighting the style, skill and finesse that both teams possessed, but the boys from the City of Oceanside were able to effectively stop the Warriors ongoing attack, during the remaining portion of the final period, to give O’Side the coveted BU18 MBS National Championship! A video of the entire match and highlights of other matches will be posted on YouTube over the next week or two and a link will be provided here.

The excitement level was high as the final whistle blew and the long journey, which started last June when the players barely scraped up enough money for entry fees to compete at the national qualification tournament on Coronado Island, came to a close. Ultimately, winning the qualifier in Coronado opened the door to receiving the invitation letter from MBS to compete at the National Championships.

These very deserving young men worked extremely hard to raise the funding to fly to Florida and they also trained regularly at the harbor, several times before their daily high school soccer practices, in preparation for this national competition. This helped them win in a big way as they defeated every team in the preliminary rounds and then took down a physically larger team from New York in the final.
“The separation is in the preparation,” said Coach Francisco Flores, “this is a truly inspirational story, as they came and they conquered. They represented their community and all those who invested funding and believed in them, and all that hard work and effort ended up paying huge dividends as they were crowned National Champions,” Flores continued, “anything is possible if you work hard, work smart, and stay focused.”

SoCal Legacy Wins Two Back-to-Back National Championships!

SoCal Legacy’s road to a second National Championship was a rough and bumpy ride with plenty of drama and challenges compared to Crown Heights’ clean sweep of every team in the entire BU18 division. Legacy won the MBS BU14 National Championship in 2015, when they were at the top of their age bracket, but this year they had to move up to the BU16 division, meaning that they had to face teams that were one year older than they are. In addition, they only brought an 8 player roster and were plagued with several injuries throughout the tournament. “It was an extremely difficult competition due to several issues”, said Steve Citron, head coach of one of the most successful youth beach soccer teams in the history of Oceanside. “Just keeping the players taped up, iced up, hydrated, and able to play was a full-time job.”

Legacy had a rocky start in their first match against a local team out of Dunedin, Florida. Although winning by a score of 4-1, the team could not find its rhythm and, more importantly, was having difficulty finding the net. One of Legacy’s key defenders, Andrew “Drew” Torres, who is a sophomore at OHS, came off the field towards the end of the second period with a toe injury and was not able to return for the remainder of the match. “With one of my top flight starters, Eiko Rodriguez, taped up and nursing a sprained ankle and then having Drew coming off the field prior to the end of the first match, I just knew it was going to be a very long weekend,” said Citron.

The second match was against a team out of Chicago and a re-energized Legacy took the Midwest team down 8-1 to finish off the first day undefeated in preliminary action. “Chicago was good, but just could not deal with Legacy’s explosive transitional play,” said Citron. The next morning Legacy faced off against a highly ranked and local team favorite, hailing from Wellington, Florida called “Kicks”, it was a very difficult contest and at one point Jimmy Cruz, Legacy’s tremendously talented keeper, made an amazing penalty kick save that could have brought Kicks to within a goal, but that save changed the momentum back to Legacy’s favor and led them to a 5-2 victory, which also brought their consecutive winning streak to thirty-two 5v5 beach soccer match wins. Unfortunately this was not without some sacrifices, as Alexis Trujillo, a key defender for the Legacy franchise, ended up limping off the field, prior to the end of the game, after being aggressively dead-legged by the opposing team. He would end up missing most, if not all, of the next match. Little did they know that the team’s winning streak, which spanned a two-year period, and represented about half of their total victories, would soon be broken.

The fourth and final preliminary round was against the undefeated “Dune Dawgs”, also playing out of the Wellington, Florida area, which is located just outside of West Palm Beach. Both teams were undefeated at that point, so they were both guaranteed a spot in the final and this match would simply determine the first and second place winners of the preliminary rounds. Coach Steve had researched the Dawgs prior to arriving in Florida. “They have an extensive Facebook page with plenty of videos highlighting several matches where they were completely blowing out other teams and I had a feeling that they would be the ones to beat in this tournament,” said Citron. As they took the field it became apparent that this team had a lot of height, strength, and ability, scoring two quick goals to take an early lead against Legacy who, up to that point, had never trailed in any of the earlier matches. “We fell behind quickly and just could not catch up. From that point forward, every time we got within one goal to tie, the Dawgs would pull ahead by another goal.” The lapse in defense early on and a hand ball just outside the goalie box later in the match, resulting in an easy goal, led to Legacy’s first defeat since March of 2015, with a final score of 4-5. The streak was gone and now even the National Championship seemed like it was slipping between their fingertips. “It was a wake-up call and we only had 3 hours to regroup and pull it together”, said Citron.

Coach Steve approached the team about an hour before the Championship Match, “I told the boys that every great team has their defining moments and those moments are what make them great, and that this was their chance to prove that they were the National Champions. A significant part of any sport is having the mental strength to maintain confidence, desire, and determination even in the wake of adversity. They had to stop doubting themselves, as doubt prevents one from achieving their full potential,” said Citron.

As the championship round commenced it was Legacy that started out with a bang, as Israel “Izz” Ramirez rocketed a shot into the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead, which lasted through the entire first period. The Dawgs tried to get into the heads of the Oceanside players by making comments about how Legacy had “come a long way to lose” and both the first and second periods were vicious as the Dune Dawgs targeted Torres, the tallest member of SoCal Legacy, in an apparent attempt to take him out in order to intimidate the rest of the team as well as open up the Legacy defense to attacking plays in the air, but each time Drew hit the ground he got back up. The yellow cards started to fly against the Dawgs after Coach Steve continued to plead his case each and every time they took down his players. Then, as the second period unfolded, Jair Castillo found the back of the net, extending Legacy’s lead to 2-0 after being awarded a penalty kick following one of many fouls against him in the goalkeeper box.

Dakota Miller, from the Dune Dawgs, was soon shown a second yellow card after jumping up and kicking Jair in the back, resulting in his ejection and a two-minute power play for Legacy before he was replaced on the field. Legacy played the entire match without a single card, but the Dune Dawgs would end up accumulating a total of 5 bookings by the end of the game. The momentum continued with a net-ripping shot by Eiko Rodriguez prior to the end of the second period, increasing the Legacy lead to 3 goals. The team had obviously overcome its fears, found its rhythm, and was playing an exceptionally smart match. Cruz was having the game of his life with some tremendous saves and quick, accurate ball distribution to his team’s counter-attacking players.

“I knew they were going to throw huge numbers at us in the third period in order to try and get back into the game, so the key was defense, quick counter-attacks, and time management. We had one 10 minute period separating us from a second consecutive National Title,” said Coach Steve, “and I did not want to give our opponents any opportunity to close the gap.” As the whistle blew the intensity ratcheted up to its highest level, and an onslaught of attacking plays commenced as the Dune Dawgs desperately looked towards getting on the scoreboard early in the final period. Then it happened, a quick transitional counter-attack by Legacy created a 1v1 situation for veteran Israel Ramirez, who was positioned outside the goalkeeper box and next to the sidelines of the players’ box. With a defender at his back, he flicked the ball into the air quickly and threw a full on bicycle kick with perfect form and landing. The shot was just out of the keeper’s reach and ricocheted off the upper side post within the upper far-post corner of the goal to not only further Legacy’s lead, but also blow-out any chance of a last minute comeback by the Dune Dawgs. “They came out in the third period with everything they had, but their hopes were completely destroyed after Izz hit that incredible bike – it was over,” said Coach Steve, “at that point, with the score at 4-0 they knew, and we knew, it was inevitable that SoCal Legacy would capture their second National Title playing up in an older division,” said Citron. “We lost our overall winning streak, but we won our second National Title. I will take those kinds of trades every day.”

As the final whistle blew, the boys from O’side headed towards the medal stand knowing that they had not only overcome several challenges, such as the age disparity, the minor injuries, and smaller roster, but also their own fears and doubts. “I knew that our opponents were playing dirty and talking smack on the field, so I told the boys that they should never let anyone tell them that they can’t accomplish something, because they can achieve anything they set their minds to,” said Citron, “they not only faced their defining moment, but grabbed onto it with passion and a whole lot of heart and truly did something great!” It was a total team victory as every player competed in every match, “with only 8 players on the roster, some of which were injured at various times throughout the competition, every player had to step up and do their part in order to ensure that we would still have enough gas in the tank to make it through 5 games. So Juan Nava, Mateo Citron, and Jair Castillo all performed extremely well and played a critical role in making sure that the entire team would be able to play their best in the final,” Citron added.

Now with a 62-8-3 record and 12 championship victories under their belts, including 2 consecutive MBS National Titles, SoCal Legacy appears ready to head to Virginia Beach in June 2017 to compete in the North American Sand Soccer Championships, the largest and most competitive beach soccer event in the world. Rumor has it that Crown Heights may join them, “We’ll need a lot of financial help from our friends, relatives, and the community, in order to send these teams to Virginia Beach,” said Citron, “but these young men are well equipped and very capable of representing our city and even our state at any competitive event going forward.” Indeed, in many ways, the players on these two teams represent the best our community has to offer.

“Both teams play with a lot of passion and the results speak for themselves,” said Coach Francisco, “it’s truly amazing what can be accomplished when a team pulls together and plays from the heart with such passion – you can achieve anything!”