After Brotherly Advice, Cleveland Wins Title

The man directing the team was not its coach and the best player did not score, but the Cleveland High boys’ soccer team captured the Hart tournament, defeating Palmdale, 2-0, Friday at Hart High.

Luis Castro, who had scored seven goals in the Cavaliers’ three earlier tournament victories, turned decoy and playmaker, as Payman Karbalai scored in the 50th minute and Gerson Bolanos scored in the 70th minute to derail the Falcons (11-2-3).

Cleveland (6-2-1) was “coached” by Castro’s older brother, Wilber Quintanilla.

Quintanilla, currently an assistant at Notre Dame, became a self-described “helper” to second-year Cavalier Coach Mario Campos during the past week.

Quintanilla spent the match shouting instructions, making substitutions and detailing strategy while Campos stood silent.

Despite all appearances, Campos insisted he was running the team.

“Wilber is not coaching,” Campos said of Quintanilla, who coached the Grant High girls’ team to the 1994-95 City Section 4-A title. “He’s helping me see the problems that I can’t see because of my inexperience. I’m a math teacher [at Cleveland].”

Regardless of whom is officially at the helm, there is no doubt that Quintanilla has helped lift Cleveland, formerly a City Section pushover.

The Cavaliers unleashed an unpolished but effective defense on Palmdale, shutting down the Falcons’ Murad Dibbini (25 goals) and Merrick Henry (10 goals) with the brazenly physical play of sweeper Todd Johnson and fellow defenders Elmer Maneilla and Edwin Melendez.

At the other end of the field, Karbalai scored his goal when he headed a ball over charging Palmdale goalie Jarrod Cline and then kicked it into the net from 10 yards. Bolanos beat a stumbling Cline on a 20-yard shot from an extreme angle that rolled across the goal mouth, off the far post and over the line.