Animo Leadership rallies to take Division 3 crown
LONG BEACH » Midway through the first half, Animo Leadership senior midfielder Alex Lugo shouted loudly to his teammates to wake up.
The Aztec Eagles were trailing Bell Gardens by a goal and went into halftime trailing by the same margin.
“I feel like we were comfortable that we had made it this far,” Lugo said of Saturday's CIF Southern Section Division 3 final. “I had to remind them that we came this far for one reason and we had to continue playing the way we were.”
The response showed in the second half as topseeded Animo (24-1-1) scored twice to rally for a 2-1 win at Veterans Stadium for the program's fourth CIF-SS championship under coach Sergio Medrano.
“We had a lot to prove this year,” Lugo said. “We made it to the CIF finals last year (Division 5) and we didn't get the result we wanted. We definitely came out hungry this year to get what we wanted. That drive that we had carried us to the championship.”
Daniel Arreola scored the equalizer early in the second half, knocking home a spilled rebound attempt by the Bell Gardens goalkeeper.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, and after being denied on a couple of decent opportunities, Lugo found the winner. His first attempt was blocked, but the second found its way into the goal for the 2-1 lead.
“Alex Lugo wears the No. 10 jersey for a reason,” Medrano said. “That's the heaviest jersey on the team, historically in our program and in world soccer. …We asked him for a game-winner at halftime. He was like I got it and he executed what he said.”
Bell Gardens took a 1-0 lead in the first half on a penalty kick by Rodolfo Lopez.
Both teams had stretches of pressure over the opening 40 minutes, but Medrano agreed with Lugo, that Bell Gardens had the better run of things.
“They were on us, to be honest with you,” Medrano said of the first half. “They executed their game plan and put us in trouble. At halftime we had a talk about that. …That's the way soccer is, it rewards teams that's putting the pressure on and that's what they did.”
Animo lost to Palm Desert 3-1 in last year's Division 5 final. Lugo wanted a chance to add his name in the history books as a CIFSS champion.
“I wanted to stay in my community,” he said. “I had family that went there and it kind of means a lot to me. I was on varsity since my sophomore year, so I grew a big love for this program and I just wanted to add another star to this badge (on the jersey) and get another CIF championship.”