Culver City Wins West LA Passing Tournament

The 2011 football season is still three months away, but early indications are that Culver City High will be a force to be reckoned with come September. The team has looked impressive in seven-on-seven competition so far and won Saturday's West Los Angeles College Passing Tournament.

The Centaurs were first out of six teams, beating Fairfax, Long Beach Cabrillo, West LA College's incoming freshmen and Washington Prep. One unique twist was that extra points were from the three-yard line while two-point conversions were moved back to the 10-yard line. Games were played on fields shortened to 40 yards. 

"We went for two points every time because we like having the extra space to run our spread offense," Culver City offensive coordinator and former Centaurs player  said.  

Culver City won the tournament despite missing three of its best pass catchers: slot receiver and wideouts and .

"We have so much depth at the receiver position," said kicking coach and assistant quarterbacks coach , son of the late  after whom the Culver City High gym is named. "We have seven potential Division I players in all, so we should be very competitive."

Culver City has run a spread offense since 1995 and led the state in passing the following season under sophomore quarterback . Fans can expect some more aerial highlights next season under third-year head coach and Culver City alum , who was "very pleased" with Saturday's results.

Pool play opened against LA City Section Division II champion Fairfax, which is coached by Culver City graduate . The Centaurs won easily, 40-8, as quarterback threw five touchdown passes—two to and one each to , and .

and each had an interception and Porche, slated to back up O'Connor, also threw for a score.

In the second game, Culver City defeated Long Beach Cabrillo 30-18, with O'Connor connecting with Jackson for two scores. Porche and also had touchdown receptions and Deckard and Washington each picked off a pass.  

The Centaurs played a team of West LA College incoming freshmen in the semifinals and emerged victorious, 20-12. O'Connor had three touchdowns, including one each to Jackson and Haywood.

The championship game pitted Culver City against Washington, a City Section school from the Marine League, and the Centaurs prevailed 30-21. Horchin had two scoring receptions, Haywood and Porche added one apiece and linebacker had an interception. 

Saturday's tournament triumph followed an impressive showing the weekend before in the San Fernando Valley Elite Passing Tournament at Pierce College, where Culver City reached the semifinals.

After a 26-25 overtime loss to Birmingham, the Centaurs defeated Valencia 30-25 and routed St. Genevieve 44-7 to advance to the elimination round. They beat Palmdale 39-34 behind Porche, who quarterbacked the first four games because O'Connor was taking the ACT exam. O'Connor arrived in time to lead Culver City past Westlake 41-32 in the quarterfinals.

Culver City built a 16-14 halftime lead before losing to eventual-champion Alemany 35-23 in the semifinals.

"In the last 10 years these passing tournaments have been an amazing indicator for how we're going to play during the season, so we take them very seriously," said Goodyear, who graduated from Culver City in 1970 with the fifth-most career passing yards in CIF Southern Section history. "Next week we're playing in San Dimas in the Bonita Passing Tournament. We've been going to that tournament for a long time and when we've done well there we went on to have a good year."  

Culver City finished 6-4 last season—the first time in five years the Centaurs did not win the Ocean League. They lost to Chaminade in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Porche ran the Wildcat offense last season, throwing for 476 yards, six scores and no interceptions, completing 28 of 29 passes. At receiver he had 38 catches for 488 yards and three touchdowns. 

Jackson caught 44 passes for 814 yards (an average of 18.4 yards per catch) and scored 13 touchdowns last fall. Horchin caught six passes for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns and linebacker (who has offers from Southern Methodist North Carolina State and West Virginia) had three sacks last fall while averaging nine tackles a game. As the back-up quarterback, O'Connor threw for 560 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.