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The Centuars Fall to Lompoc For most of the past two and a half months, the Culver City High football team’s season has been something of a roller coaster ride. But just as the ride seemed to be getting really interesting, it came to an abrupt halt last Friday night. The Centaurs started the season by winning three of their first four games, then hit a lull that threatened to leave them out of the playoffs, then recovered to win their last two regular-season games and their first CIF-Southern Section playoff game to appear on the way to a...
Centaurs To Host Playoff Game Could it be 2011 all over again for the Culver City High football team? Just like last season, the Centaurs came into the playoffs having had to win their final game just to make it to the postseason. Then when it seemed like a longshot for Culver City to go far in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs, the Centaurs stunned everyone by making it to the Western Division championship game. Culver City still has a long way to go to repeat that feat, but the Centaurs started off on the right foot last Friday with a 34-20...
Like last year, Centaurs Barely Qualify With its collective back against the wall, the Culver City High football team responded with one of its best efforts of the 2012 season. Facing a must-win situation to make the CIF-SS playoffs, the Centaurs routed rival Beverly Hills, 41-0 in their final regular-season game last Friday night to keep their season alive. Culver City will begin the Western Division playoffs this Friday night at Goleta against Dos Pueblos, the second-place team from the Channel League. That’s the definitive part. What’s mor...
Third Place Is At Stake Friday The breaks aren’t exactly going the Culver City High football team’s way right about now. The Centaurs lost their first- and second-string centers last Friday against Morningside, and the third-stringer is the starting left guard, which means much of the offensive line is being shuffled. The quarterback situation is uncertain. After completing just 3 of 12 passes last week and committing costly turnovers, starter Xan Cuevas was pulled from the game and backup David Handler was put in. But neither quarterback had...
Loss To Santa Monica Mars Hopes Instead of getting better, it seems as if the Culver City High football team’s offense is getting progressively worse. And the Centaurs’ playoff hopes are progressively getting bleaker. In one of its worst offensive performances in years, Culver City was stifled last Friday night in a 17-3 loss to Santa Monica, as the Centaurs were held under 200 yards and fell to fourth place in the Ocean League. The Centaurs fell to 4-4 overall, but even worse fell to 1-2 in league, and have to win their final two reg...
Key Game Is Friday Night In a season that started out with so much promise, the Culver City High football team’s motto is quickly becoming “what could have been.” In each of the Centaurs’ losses this season, they have had myriad opportunities to win, but have failed to take advantage because of their own mistakes. It happened again to Culver City last Friday night in a key Ocean League contest against Inglewood, as the Centaurs doomed their chances of winning with five turnovers. The result was an ugly 12-9 loss that put a dent in Culver...
Hawthorne Routed, 47-0 Coming off a tough loss to Southern California power Bishop Amat two weeks ago, the Culver City High football team was in need of a confidence-boosting game. The Centaurs got just what they needed in their Ocean League opener as they routed lowly Hawthorne, 47-0, at home last Friday night. Culver City, which improved to 4-2 overall, gained 404 total yards — including 289 rushing — while holding the Cougars (1-5) to just 54 total yards on 49 plays. “Our defense was terrific,” Centaurs coach Jahmal Wright said. “We wer...
Centaurs Flub Chances In Defeat In only its second matchup against a team from the CIF-Southern Section’s highest division, the Culver City High football team had every opportunity to pull off a big upset. Instead, the Centaurs beat themselves as much as —or maybe even more than — Bishop Amat did. The Centaurs certainly had their chances last Friday against the Pac-5 Division Lancers, but despite having the football inside the Bishop Amat 20-yard line the first three times they had the ball, they came away with zero points. Eventually the m...
They Warm Up With a 51-0 Win The only thing that West Adams Prep provided the Culver City High football team with last Friday was a chance to have a glorified practice before the real test. Playing against a clearly overmatched team, the Centaurs won 51-0 to improve to 3-1. But the real barometer of how good Culver City is comes this Friday against Pac-5 Division powerhouse Bishop Amat. The Centaurs will travel to La Puente to take on the Lancers, ranked No. 15 in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times. Bishop Amat is 4-0-1 and one of...
Backups Stumble But Culver Wins Last Friday’s game against Redondo almost seemed like three games in one for the Culver City High football team. There was the first quarter, when the Centaurs fell behind 6-0 and did little offensively. Then there was the next 2 ½ quarters, when Culver City dominated and took a 32-13 lead. And then there was the final four minutes, when Coach Jahmal Wright put in the backups with a seemingly safe lead and almost lived to regret it. But the Centaurs held off a late Redondo rally and held on to beat the Sea Ha...
First Time In Nine Years It was an unusual beginning to the 2012 season for the Culver City High football team. And that’s a big reason why the Centaurs’ first game ended with such an unfamiliar feeling. Culver City rallied from deficits of 14-0 and 24-13 to take the lead late in the fourth quarter last Friday night against West Torrance, but the Centaurs’ kicking game and defense let them down at the end, and they walked off the field with a 30-25 loss to the Warriors. It was the first season-opening loss for Culver City since 2003, accor...
NICE TRY CULVER CITY Centaurs Lose In CIF Finals The remarkable playoff run put together by the Culver City High football team didn't have the happy ending the Centaurs were hoping for. After stunning No. 1 seed Serra on the road in its playoff opener, then rolling past Righetti and Santa Monica at home to reach the CIF-Southern Section Western Division championship game, the Centaurs ran into a determined Arroyo Grande team on the road last Friday night, and while Culver City hung tough for a little more than a half, Arroyo Grande proved to...
Culver To Play At Arroyo Grande Five weeks ago, when the Culver City High football team was beaten by Santa Monica on its home field, the Centaurs’ season was hanging by a thread. But since then, the Centaurs have stitched together an improbable CIF-Southern Section playoff run that now has Culver City one victory away from a championship. Avenging that loss to the Vikings, the Centaurs (10-3) routed Santa Monica in a rematch 37-6 last week in a Western Division semifinal game, and advance to Friday’s championship game against Arroyo Gra...
The Culver City High football team’s CIF-Southern Section playoff run might be a surprise to some, but if you listen to Centaurs coach Jahmal Wright explain, it makes perfect sense. “At the time of year the playoffs start, a lot of teams are banged up,” he said. “But we suffered so many injuries early in the season, by the time the playoffs rolled around those guys were getting healthy, and we started to hit our stride.” Culver City, which lost several key offensive players during different parts of the regular season, has regained its healt...
Culver Eliminates Top-Seeded Serra It didn’t seem like this was possible. Not with the Culver City High football team facing the No. 1 seed in the CIF-Southern Section Western Division playoffs, on the road. Not with the Centaurs facing a Serra team that had gone 50-4 and won two CIF titles since the start of the 2008 season. And certainly not facing a 14-0 first-quarter deficit in front of a hostile crowd. But in a season that has gone anything but according to plan, Culver City got up off the deck after being flattened early and delivered a...
Inglewood Takes Advantage, 30-10 The Culver City High football team was already hurting before last Friday’s game against Inglewood, with several key players hampered by injuries. The pain only got worse during the game. Much of it was due to seven turnovers committed by the Centaurs in an ugly 30-10 Ocean League loss to the Sentinels that put a speed bump in front of Culver City’s hopes of reclaiming the league title. The Centaurs fumbled the opening kickoff, and it only went downhill from there, and even though Culver City’s defense kept...
Ocean League Games Begin Friday The things that the Culver City High football team was able to get away with in their first four games were the things that cost them against Narbonne last Friday night. The occasional offensive sputtering, the untimely penalties, the damaging turnovers, the defensive breakdowns that sometimes held the Centaurs back but didn’t break them were too much to overcome against the Gauchos, the best team Culver City has played this season and a team that you can’t be...
Narbonne To Visit Friday Night So far, Culver City High football coach Jahmal Wright likes what he sees from his team. The Centaurs are 4-0 this season after a 52-0 rout of Leuzinger last week, and they are averaging more than 40 points a game while allowing an average of just under 15. But Wright admits that Culver City’s toughest test so far is yet to come. After an easy win last week over the Olympians, this Friday the Centaurs host city power Narbonne (2-2), which is coming off a 26-20 v...
Mistakes Eliminated In Second Half For the first two quarters of the Culver City High football team’s 2011 opener against West Torrance last Friday, the Centaurs looked a little shaky, even though they led by a touchdown at halftime. Culver City’s offense scored 35 points in the first half, but the Centaurs had relied mostly on big plays, as they struggled with penalties and other miscues. And the defense allowed 28 points in the first half, as West Torrance took advantage of the Cen...
Ever since he was 10 years old, watching college football games on TV, Ijumaa Armstrong wanted to play football for the University of Hawaii. Armstrong got that wish granted last week when the Culver City High safety signed a letter-of-intent to play for the Rainbow Warriors. Armstrong, one of the Centaurs’ top defensive players the past two seasons, said he’s excited about heading off to the island. “Hawaii was my first choice all along,” Armstrong said. “I grew up watching them as a little kid. I love it there. It’s an island paradise....
Culver City High boys’ basketball coach Jonathan Chapman wasn’t all that surprised with how last week went for the Centaurs. Culver City lost both of its games last week, Ocean League contests to Santa Monica and Inglewood, and Chapman had foreshadowed it all by saying as the week began that the biggest way to get his team to recognize its complacent play was if “we lose both games.” So after a 59-58 loss to Santa Monica at home and a 61-49 loss at Inglewood, Chapman was ready to meet with his t...
The roller coaster ride that has been the Culver City High football team’s 2010 season is on the rise. The Centaurs, who have been up and down all season, hit a high point last Friday when they defeated Beverly Hills 49-34 in their regular-season finale to clinch a CIF playoff spot. It was a game they had to win to make the postseason, and Culver City came up with one of its best offensive performances of the season when it needed it most. Culver City’s defense also came up big, as the Centaurs built a 36-7 lead and held off a rally by Bev...
