Photo By BOB OTTO
YUCAIPA / SAN JACINTO, CA – See the San Jacinto Tigers and Yucaipa Thunderbirds boys’ soccer teams in action during their match that ended with the Tigers edging out The Thunderbirds 1-0 in the Hemet tournament.
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HEMET, CA – The end result? Not what the coach wanted.
But the effort? Now, that had Yucaipa High Thunderbirds boys’ soccer coach, Claudio Rivas, smiling and pleased.
The Thunderbirds opened their 2009 season in the 16-team Hemet tournament with a 1-0 loss to the San Jacinto Tigers (2-0) on Thursday.
Tigers’ junior forward, Alfredo Lomeli, scored in the 17th minute on a low blast into the left side of the net in front of the goal, and just out of the reach of diving goal keeper, Richard Caballero.
The Tigers played the ball down the right side line, and then Nicholas Schultz set up the goal by centering a pass to Lomeli near the 10-yard line.
San Jacinto made the goal stand up, and forced the action into Yucaipa’s side through out much of the first half. But in the second half, the Thunderbirds seized the momentum.
“In the second half it was a totally different game,” Rivas said. “We changed strategy a little bit by putting an extra player up top to put more pressure on their defenders. It worked, but we didn’t put the ball in the net, and their goal keeper made a couple of great saves, but I was pleased.”
By BOB OTTO / Writer & Photographer
HEMET, CA – About five years a go while working for the Valley Chronicle newspaper in Hemet, I came upon this duck family swimming in a pond at the Diamond Valley Golf Club, while covering a golf match. I happened to spot the photo while cleaning out some files.
I was never sure, but doesn’t the big fellow swimming and guarding the rear flank look more like a goose than a duck?
HEMET, CA – The Yucaipa High School junior varsity and freshmen boys’ water polo teams sounding defeated the Hemet Bulldogs in pre-season matches with the Thunderbirds JV team dominating the Bulldogs, 12-2, while the freshmen team came away with an exciting 5-4 victory.
Goal keeper, Kyle Bosson, was especially impressive as he twice stopped shots within five feet of the goal to preserve the freshmen win.
YUCAIPA – My granddaughter has called me, “stingy.” My grandson rolls his eyes when I start in with, “when I was a kid we didn’t get spoiled by all the stuff you kids have today.”
Stingy? No. I much prefer to think of myself as “frugal.”
I drive a 1998 Honda Accord with 248,431 miles on the odometer. And I plan on adding at least another 100,000 miles to that total. Now, my wife refused to drive the car a year ago, and I begrudgingly agreed to co-sign for a new 2008 Hyundai Sonata that she is still giddy over.
Me? Not so much. “The Accord runs just fine and will last us at least a few more years,” I tried to argue in vain.
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Photos By Brian Otto / Hemet Photographer
The heroic Valley Wide girls basketball team lead the 9-10 year girls division to the championship. They played with skill and class beating there opponents one by one throughout the season. Check out the photos from their semi-finals and championship game. Email us if you have any questions at OttoInFocus.
Over 90 photos of the girls winning the championships are available to browse and purchase. Check them out at TWO separate galleries.
Click Here To See First Gallery of Photos.
Click Here For the Second Gallery of Photos