The Palisades Banditz, a local AYSO all-star team coached by Alex Gansa and Gary Gray, won all six games to capture the West Torrance Christmas Classic last weekend, but it wasn’t easy. In the finals, the Banditz needed three sudden death penalty kicks to beat Culver City, 1-0, with Willie Gansa scoring the decisive goal after 40 minutes of regulation play, 10 minutes of overtime and eight shootout rounds. Banditz goalie Andrew Tinger made two diving saves in the shootout With only 11 players, the Banditz prevailed despite playing over 270 minutes of soccer in two days, scoring 17 goals and allowing only one. Sawyer Pascoe and Shane Centkowski each netted three goals in a game. Charlie Porter, Quaid Walker, Ryan Kahn and Jordan Lewis played strong defense all tournament long. U-12 Girls The Pali Storm girls under-12 AYSO all-stars finished second out of 16 teams at last weekend’s Torrance Christmas Classic. In Sunday’s playoffs, Pali defeated West Covina, 2-0, in the quarterfinals. Izzy DeSantis scored on a 22-yard direct kick and Eve Babcock scored off of a pass from Deborah Abber. In the semifinals, Pali beat Los Alamitos 1-0 when DeSantis scored off of a cornerkick. Santa Monica edged Pali 1-0 in the final. Pali won all three of its pool play games on Saturday, getting goals from DeSantis, Jenna Davis, Zoie Aliado and Lucy Tilton. U-10 Boys Coach Chris Ball was very specific with United Paly, his boys under-10 AYSO all-star soccer team, before the Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Tournament last weekend, ‘We’re playing four games and we might not win a single one,’ Ball said, ‘But I want you to win this.’ When presenting the medals and trophy, Beverly Hills officials told United Paly players they won because, after three games, they were one of only two U-10 teams to have a perfect score. As an added bonus, United Paly won all of its games so easily that Ball told his players to pass back and forth and not try to score. U-10 Girls Palisades’ first-year team, coached by Phil Pecsok, finished 3-1 at the Beverly Hills Tournament, winning 2-1 and 7-0 on Saturday, then losing 5-1 and winning 2-0 on Sunday. With only seven players and no substitutions, Pali was led by Laila Touran, who scored on a penalty kick in the first quarter and Cassie Jernigan tallied the winner with one minute left. Goalie Elizabeth Seeley made several key saves to preserve the win over Culver City. Courtney O’Brien, Taylor Pecsok and Elizabeth Seaman each scored twice against Beverly Hills and Jernigan also tallied against Beverly Hills. Seaman scored the only goal in the third game against Ventura off of a corner kick from Pecsok. Then, in Pali’s final game against West Hollywood, Seaman and Pecsok scored. Fullback Emma Seaman, Elizabeth’s twin, played solid defense in front of Seeley.
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