LAPD Soccer Team - San Diego Games
Standing: L-R.... Coach Hugo Cepeida, Edgar Ramos, Sean Norwook, David Blake, Mark Hubert, Hugo Virrueta, Joey Stevenson, Kevin Bonilla, Geoff Carlson, Manny Mandieta, Coach Don Barfield.
Squating: L-R.... Sifredo Cano, Brian Rivas, Kenny Pitado, Elias Aguayo, Joel Dominguez, Alberto Duenas, Woen Lee. Missing from photo.... Kevin & and Luis Interiano - Goalie.
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The LAPD Soccer Team, coached by Hugo Cepeida, traveled to
San Diego this past June to compete in
the newly named U.S. Police & Fire Championships – previously known as the
Western States Police & Fire Games. This
is one of the premier law enforcement sporting events in the nation.
The schedule for the ‘men’s open’ was, as usual, a grueling
one. LAPD played six games in five
days. No other organized soccer event
plays that many games in so few of days.
And to top it off in the qualifying rounds, we played 2-games per day
for a total of 4-games in just 2-days just to qualify for the medal round.
Monday, our first two games went relatively smooth,
sustaining wins over the Ventura Sheriff’s Office, 3-0 and the U.S. Border Patrol,
2-0.
On day two, we were pitted against California Department of
Corrections where in again we had a strong performance winning 3-1.
Our second game of the day was against San Francisco Combo
Team. LAPD has had a long time rivalry with
San Francisco for decades. They are a
strong, physical and a very determined team.
This game proved to be all of that and more. The physical play escalated wherein several
San Francisco players were ejected for their harsh play. LAPD maintained their posture and
subsequently won 2-0 to advance.
On Thursday, we were on to the semifinals. LAPD drew San Diego Fire as their
opponent. SD Fire is a talented and
daunting team. LAPD met them head on,
having several opportunities to score.
Unfortunately, so did SD Fire. Both
teams were reeling from four brutal prelim games that had taken a toll on
all. Several players were unable to
continue due to injuries, leaving us with fewer and fewer players to play. Our goalie, Officer Luis Interiano played a magnificent
game, taking on excellent quality shots from SD Fire, stopping attempt after
attempt. Luis stood tall and at the end
of regulation time, it was tied 1-1.
The overtime proved to have no effect on the score, so on to
penalty kicks to determine the winner.
In this head to head battle, after the first 5-players from each team
the score was unchanged. SD Fire managed
to score on their sixth attempt while LAPD failed. SD Fire advanced to the Gold Medal round
while LAPD moved on to the Bronze Medal round.
On Friday, as faith would have it, we played the second team
of LAPD, headed by Art Mares. Two LAPD
teams played each other for the third place medal. By half time the score was 0-0. Both teams played with a winning spirit,
however fatigue and injuries played a big part on both teams. LAPD – Cepeida managed to score in the second
half and by the time the clock ran out, LAPD – Cepeida won 3-0 and received the
Bronze Medal.
In the end, LAPD – Cepeida ended up in 3rd place
overall out of 16-teams. We are all
proud of our accomplishments and look forward to our next tournament in
September.
Our next soccer tournament is the North American Police
Soccer Championships to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada the week of
September 2nd, 2012. This
soccer tournament brings together the finest law enforcement agencies in all of
North America.
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