Beach Futbol Club Boys 2008 team won the Cal South Mayors State Cup the last weekend in February. In a closely contested final, the local squad edged a Union Independent FC Elite squad 2-1 to come away with the title.
“I’m still breathing hard, it was so dramatic,” said Coach Benny Artiaga after the game, according to the team’s profile on the Cal South website. “We faced, by far, the toughest team we’ve faced in the tournament. We had to hang on and our kids stepped up.”
Beach Futbol Club Boys 2008 team won the Cal South Mayors State Cup the last weekend in February. In a closely contested final, the local squad edged a Union Independent FC Elite squad 2-1 to come away with the title.
“I’m still breathing hard, it was so dramatic,” said Coach Benny Artiaga after the game, according to the team’s profile on the Cal South website. “We faced, by far, the toughest team we’ve faced in the tournament. We had to hang on and our kids stepped up.”
The team’s journey to the final started with a 3-2 win in the round of 32. From there things looked to only be getting better as in the round of 16 the squad finished off a Legends FC squad 7-2. But then, things got a little rocky.
“When Santi, one of our best players, went down…we had to figure out how we were going to get through it,” said Artiaga.
And figure it out they did, as the team put away its quarterfinal game against a FC Heat squad 3-2 and then shutout its semifinal opponent 5-0.
“The beauty of this age group and coaching them so young, you just never know who’s going to step up. The boys did a great job,” said Artiaga. “I was telling our parents that I’ve won State Championships in college and high school, and I put this moment above any of them.”
The Boys 2008 team includes three team members from Seal Beach: Rory Newman, Brayden Jones and Carson Jones. Brayden and Carson are brothers and are also second and first grade students at McGaugh Elementary.
To read the team’s full profile on the Cal South website visit http://bit.ly/2mERiK5.
–This article appeared in the March 15, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.
