Area 1-P of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) held its annual all-star tournament in Culver City over the past two weekends to determine which teams would advance to Sectional playoffs. The Palisades’ U-10 girls team, coached by Phil Pecsok, was the only local team to advance to Sectionals March 10-11 in Riverside. Pecsok’s team played six games to reach the finals and outscored its opponents 27-1. In the final against Culver City, Palisades trailed 4-2 with five minutes left before scoring two goals to tie. Overtime yielded no goals so the game was decided on penalty kicks. The teams were tied through five attempts before Pali finally succumbed in the seventh round of sudden death. Palisades’ U-12 girls, coached by T.R. Gregory and Tony Oliva, beat L.A. Central 7-1, tied Hollywood 1-1, beat South L.A. 3-0 and tied West L.A. 1-1 in round robin play. In the quarterfinals, Pali played South L.A. again and won 2-0. In the semifinals against Beverly Hills, Pali lost 2-1 before rebounding to beat West L.A. in the third-place game. The U-10 boys, coached by Lars Ekstrom, were third in pool play and finished fourth overall. Area 1-P is one of 11 areas in AYSO’s Section 1 and consists of eight regions: Culver City, Santa Monica/Venice, Pacific Palisades/Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood/Wilshire, Los Angeles Central and South Los Angeles. Molly Milligan’s U-14 girls squad went 4-0-1 in pool play, won its quarterfinal game, lost a close semifinal and beat West L.A. on penalty kicks to take third place. On the first weekend, one team from each of the eight regions in girls U-10, U-12 and U-14 and boys U-10, U-12, U-14 played four games to determine ranking. Last weekend a single elimination game knocked out four teams, leaving four teams to advance to consolation and finals.
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