City SC plays halftime game on Sockers’ field

Joe Naiman

for the Valley News

The Temecula-based City SC soccer club played the halftime game Sunday, Jan. 15, at Pechanga Arena in San Diego when the Major Arena Soccer League game that evening was between the San Diego Sockers and the Kansas City Comets.

“You can’t believe the excitement,” City SC coach Carlos Basso said.

Basso coaches three City SC futsal teams. Futsal differs from indoor soccer in terms of number of players – five on each team, surface – a harder floor, smaller ball size and out of bounds designation – lines rather than walls or boards. His teams are the girls 10-and-under Pre-Academy, girls 10-and-under Premier and girls 6-and-under squads. Basso, who was born and raised in Brazil, also oversees four Brazilian soccer camps each year.

“I’ve been very happy with City SC,” Basso said.

Last year Basso’s 6-and-under team won the National Premier Leagues’ Discovery League championship, and in December, his 10-and-under Gold Team won the Southern California championship. The 10-and-under Gold team provided the players for the Jan. 15 halftime game.

Basso, who is now 58, came to the United States when he was 20. In 1986, he signed a developmental contract with the Sockers and was on their reserve team, although he didn’t play with the primary team during his first stint with the Sockers. He played for the Milwaukee Wave and the Tulsa Ambush before becoming a member of the Sockers in 1993 when the Sockers were in the Continental Indoor Soccer League.

Basso moved from San Diego to Temecula in 2000.

The Temecula-Murrieta Soccer Club added Basso to the organization’s staff in 2000. That club eventually became the Hawks Soccer Club, and Basso coached there for 20 years. In 2020 the Hawks and the Legends Football Club merged to become Legends Temecula Valley. Basso coached one year with the Legends before joining City SC two years ago.

“I wanted a challenge,” he said.

Sockers general manager Sean Bowers, who has lived in Murrieta since 2003, played on the United States national futsal team from 1996 to 2004 and was the team captain for the entire time. He took part in the 1996 and 2004 futsal World Cup tournaments. In 2011, Bowers founded 619 Futsal, which has the goal of helping to develop youth soccer players in the San Diego area. Bowers played on the 1991-1992, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2009-2010 Sockers teams and became the Sockers’ general manager in July 2016.

“We keep in touch,” Basso said of Bowers.

Bowers invited Basso to have his players participate in the halftime game. Although the 10-and-under Gold team had 14 players, only 10 players made the trip to San Diego in that day’s rainstorm. The players were divided into two teams of five players apiece, and the game lasted for approximately eight minutes.

“They really enjoy it. We don’t have indoor soccer here in Temecula, so for them it was kind of something new,” Basso said.

No formal score was kept for the halftime game. The Sockers themselves scored the MASL game’s first four goals and obtained a 7-3 victory over the

Quarterfinals: Tuesday, Feb. 14

Semifinals: Friday, Feb. 17

Finals: Friday, Feb. 24 or Saturday, Feb. 25

In the Murrieta Valley at Linfield Christian game, Nighthawks coach Brian Weathers returns to one of his previous head coaching stops before taking over at his high school alma mater. If Murrieta Valley defeats Linfield Christian and ends up hosting that game it will be played at an alternate venue. Nighthawk Gym is being used as a host site for the CIF-SS Southern Division Individual Boys Wrestling Championships this weekend and is unavailable.

CIF-SS Girls’ Basketball Playoffs

Crean Lutheran or New Roads at Nuview Bridge

DIVISION 6

Wild-card matches

Temecula Prep at Chino

(Monday)

First-round

Santa Rosa Academy at Xavier

Prep Citrus Hill at Elsinore

Garden Grove Santiago at San Jacinto

DIVISION 7

Wild-card matches

San Jacinto Valley Academy at Silver Valley

For boys’ soccer, Mountain Pass League champion Citrus Hill was the only semi-area team that made the cut for the Division 1 playoffs this season and will travel to Cathedral for their first-round match. Temescal Canyon was the Sunbelt League champion and will be the No. 2 seed when they host Arcadia in their first-round match this week. South Valley League champion California Military Institute received the No.1 seed in the Division 7 bracket and will take on Tahquitz, Silver Valley or Gorman Charter once the wildcard rounds finalize. The Division 7 bracket had an abundance of automatic qualifiers, so Silver Valley will have had to play Gorman Charter with the winner playing another wild-card match at Tahquitz early in the week.

CIF-SS BOYS SOCCER

PLAYOFFS (Matches at 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. Dates, sites and times subject to change.)

DIVISION 1

First-round

Citrus Hill at Cathedral

DIVISION 2

No local teams

DIVISION 3

No local teams

DIVISION 4

First-round Chaparral at El Toro

Great Oak at Nuview Bridge

DIVISION 5

Wild-card matches

Rubidoux at Hemet

Schurr at Elsinore

First-round

Patriot or Jurupa Valley at Orange Vista

Segerstrom or Norco at Vista

Murrieta

Rubidoux or Hemet at Linfield

Christian

DIVISION 6

First-round

Indio at San Jacinto

Arcadia at Temescal Canyon

DIVISION 7

Wild-card matches

Silver Valley or Gorman Charter at Tahquitz

Hamilton at Environmental

Charter

Yeshiva at Rancho Verde

Cantwell-Sacred Heart at Temecula Prep

Heritage at Don Bosco Tech San Jacinto Valley Academy at Gladstone

First-round Tahquitz, Silver Valley or Gorman Charter at California

Military Institute

CIF-SS Boys’ Basketball

Playoffs

Last Sunday afternoon a group of 12 teams from the area, who qualified for the playoffs, found out what their road to championship weekend on Feb. 25 will look like.

Rancho Christian is the area’s only top seeded team, earning a No. 1 seed in Division 2A. Their playoff journey starts against Norco in first-round action. Norco is an at-large selection from the Big VIII League who reached the quarterfinals a season ago.

The Eagles were champions of the Ivy League this season, which was also their first season with the Raincross Conference.

Area league winners include:

Ivy: Rancho Christian; Mountain

Pass: Liberty; Southwestern: Great Oak, Vista Murrieta and Murrieta Valley; South Valley: Santa Rosa Academy; Sunbelt: Temescal Canyon.

Here is a complete list of the first-round matchups. (All games are scheduled for 7 p.m.)

DIVISION 1

No. 4 JSerra at Great Oak

DIVISION 2AA

No. 11 Crespi at Vista Murrieta

Murrieta Valley at No. 12

Linfield Christian

DIVISION 2A

Norco at No. 1 Rancho Christian

DIVISION 3A

Yorba Linda at No. 5 Temescal

Canyon

Murrieta Mesa at No. 4 Valley

Torah

DIVISION 4AA

Hacienda Heights/Wilson at Santa Rosa Academy

DIVISION 4A No. 15 Lakeside at Yucca Valley

San Bernardino at Liberty

DIVISION 5AA

Temecula Prep at Calvary

Chapel Downey

DIVISION 5A

Cornerstone Christian at No. 6

San Gorgonio

Here is the remainder of the playoff calendar: Second round: Friday. Feb. 10

The Rancho Christian Eagles and the Great Oak Wolfpack will lead the area teams into the playoffs as nine teams moved into the postseason, which started earlier this week with wildcard games if necessary, and first round matchups that began on Thursday.

Rancho Christian, the Ivy League champion, earned a No. 1 seed in Division 3A while Southwestern League co-champion Great Oak earned a No. 3 seed in the same division. For the Wolfpack there has been a rapid turnaround under second year head coach Jared Curtiss who came over from Murrieta Mesa, where he was an assistant, after the spring 2021 season.

Last season (2021-2022) the Wolfpack went 14-7 overall and 5-5 in Southwestern League play, receiving a playoff berth for the first time since 2018-2019 when they earned runner-up honors, but fell to Orange Lutheran in the first round. This year’s league championship is Great Oak’s first since the 2016-2017 season and their 20 regular season wins is the program’s highest total since 2018-2019.

“I knew there were pieces here from my time as an assistant at Murrieta Mesa and thought we had a chance to mold a high caliber culture that we had in my teams back home in Oregon,” Curtiss said. “Our students’ version of hard work wasn’t the same as ours but we held kids to the standards of hard work and collective responsibility and we’re seeing that pay off. Our captains, especially the seniors in Payton and Kimber, will do a great job of making sure we don’t get caught looking too far ahead and keep everyone focused on what’s in front of us.”

Curtiss’ leading scorer is senior guard Alyssa Schuetze who averaged 12.3 PPG and 4.5 RPG while shooting 40% from the field and just under 30% from the threepoint line. His daughter Payton runs the point and averages 6.5 PPG with an impressive 6.2 APG (assists).

Meanwhile, 3.4 miles up the road at Rancho Christian, Aalyiah Stanton does a little bit of everything for the Eagles averaging 30.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 4.2 APG and 3.8 SPG.

Area league champions include, Arrowhead League: California Lutheran; Inland Valley League: Orange Vista; Ivy League: Rancho Christian; Southwestern: Great Oak and Vista Murrieta.

Girls’ Water Polo Playoffs

Murrieta Valley had the only girls water polo team that received a seed for their respective divisions as the CIF Southern Section released its playoff pairings last Saturday morning. The Southwestern League champion Nighthawks received the No. 3 seed in the Division 2 bracket and will open the postseason this week at home against Centennial, which won the Division 5 section championship last season. Here is a complete list of the first and second round matchups. Matches are scheduled for 5 p.m. (Dates, times and sites are subject to change.)

DIVISION 1 No local teams

DIVISION 2

First-round Vista Murrieta at Dana Hills

Centennial at Murrieta Valley

DIVISION 3

Second-round

Claremont or La Serna at Elsinore (bye in first round)

DIVISION 4

First-round

Temescal Canyon at Great Oak

DIVISION 5

Quarterfinal round

Muir or Rowland at Hemet (bye in first round, no second round)

DIVISION 6

Wild-card matches

Long Beach Cabrillo at Paloma

Valley

First-round

Cabrillo or Paloma Valley at Tahquitz

Montclair at Lakeside

Indio at West Valley

Boys’ and Girls’ Wrestling

Playoffs

BOYS’ DUAL MEET

WRESTLING

DIVISION 1

Temecula Valley defeated Paloma Valley 48-30 in Round One, fell to St. John Bosco 59-12 in the semifinals Saturday, Jan. 28.

DIVISION 2

Chaparral are CIF Southern Section champions after defeating Covina 81-0, Villa Park 57-18, Camarillo 36-33 and Servite 50-21. Great Oak fell to Servite 50-33.

DIVISION 3 No local teams

DIVISION 4

Lakeside are CIF Southern Section champions after defeating Barstow 60-24, La Canada 69-11, South Torrance 57-24 and Victor Valley 40-31.

DIVISION 5 Liberty (Winchester) fell to La Habra 49-30.

DIVISION 6 Santa Rosa Academy fell to Schurr 51-24.

Orange Vista fell to Glenn 74-6.

GIRLS’ DUAL MEET

WRESTLING

DIVISION 1 Orange Vista fell to Northview 55-12.

DIVISION 2

Murrieta Valley fell to Ventura 63-16.

Chaparral tied Valencia 42-42, but did not advance.

Article contribution made by sports writer Derryl Trujillo and sports editor JP Raineri. Please email socaltrekkie@gmail.com or sports@reedermedia.com if there are any changes in times, dates and/or sites.