Birmingham Gives Dolphins the Boot

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Unable to play its league games because of an LAUSD teachers’ strike the Palisades High boys soccer team wanted to stay sharp, so head coach Dave Suarez arranged a contest last Wednesday against another charter school, Birmingham from Lake Balboa, and the Patriots showed why they are City Section title contenders, handing the Dolphins their worst home defeat in 11 seasons under Suarez with a 6-0 rout in heavy rain at Stadium by the Sea.

It was Palisades’ most lopsided loss since being blanked by the same score at Bell in the

first round of the City playoffs in 2008-09—a game Suarez remembers all too well.

“That was my first season and it wasn’t fun… this feels the same except the season isn’t over,” he said. “We have time to learn from this, regroup, and hopefully have another crack at them in the postseason. We dug ourselves a huge hole early and they played much more unselfishly than us. That’s a top three [City] team for sure. ”

Julio Vigueras began the scoring six minutes in, Anthony Miron scored on a rebound five minutes later and David Diaz got a goal in the 20th minute. Miron’s header made it 4-0 before the Dolphins managed their first shot on goal.

It went from bad to worse for the Dolphins went goalie Tommy Meek had to be helped off the field 10 minutes into the second half.