Boys’ Soccer ties Beverly Hills 1-1

Boys' soccer forward Javier Lopez (’14) was hoping the team would win their last home game Feb. 7 against one of its biggest rivals, Beverly Hills, but the game ended in a tie, 1-1.“We played pretty good but it always comes back to [the fact that] we are missing goals every single game,” Lopez said. “The good thing is that we create enough opportunities that we can actually put one or two away.”According to coach Andy Rock, the team’s standings in league are going to depend on how well other teams play. This will put Samo on a wild card stage.“It’s going to be tight now,” Rock said. “It depends on what happens with Hawthorne and Culver City. We have a little rivalry with Beverly Hills,” Rock said. “Their [Beverly] already not in a good position in the league and this game didn’t really mean anything to them.”The game was exciting because it was the last time playing Beverly Hills and according to forward Andres Carreño, (’14) the team is Samo’s biggest rival.“We’re a fit team so we’re able to outlast other teams,” Carreño said. “[But] today Beverly matched us in almost every way.”According to Rock, co-captain Omar Sanchez (’14), who received a red card on Feb. 5, contributes a lot to the team.“You saw today how much he means to the team to be playing,” Rock said. “That hurts us a little bit but no excuses we should’ve won the game.”Coach Serafin Rodriguez believes that the team was too passive. Because of this, Samo didn't get the outright win.“The team was a little too excited that they didn’t play to their strengths,” Rodriguez said. “We were waiting for [Beverly Hills] to score before we reacted. When Beverly scored that’s when we started playing and it was a little too late.”Defender Roberto Lopez (’14)scored during the second half of the game. According to Rodriguez, that goal allowed the team to at least tie and gave it overtime.“It lifted us up it gave us that little push that we needed,” Lopez said in regards to Lopez’s goal.According to Carreño, although the team was unable to score during overtime, the fact that the team did not lose is also very important.“It brought us hope and got us some extra time, unfortunately we weren’t able to take advantage of that,” Carreño said. “I usually like overtime because the adrenaline is running. You’re motivated to get a goal and you don’t feel your injuries or how tired you are you just work through it.”“Extra time is always like the flip of the coin,” Rock said. “You can’t expect but you’re always hoping for the best.”