Erush Kicking Around His College Offers
Mike Erush has a problem most would love to have. Too many colleges are interested in landing the Birmingham High senior and member of the under-17 U.S. national soccer team.
NCAA runner-up Santa Clara came to Erush’s house last week, Loyola Marymount and San Diego are in regular contact with him. He has taken recruiting trips to UC Irvine, San Jose State and UCLA, and he has another planned to St. John’s later this month.
Erush said UCLA and Loyola Marymount are the front-runners.
All the attention is understandable. Last weekend, Erush was chosen most valuable player of the Western region Olympic development team in the Tampa Sun Bowl. The eight-team tournament consisted of four U.S. regional teams, the under-18 Canadian national team, and top youth club teams from Spain, Mexico and Bolivia.
Erush’s team tied Bolivia, 1-1, in the first game and beat Canada, 2-1, with Erush scoring the first goal. He had three assists in a 4-0 victory over the Midwest before the West lost, 2-0, to the East.
One of Erush’s teammates was Mike Enfield, a junior form Ventura High, who had an assist against Bolivia. Enfield will leave today to join the under-18 national team for a 12-game tournament in Chile.
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Midfielder Leonard Griffin of Littlerock is in San Antonio trying out for the left fullback position on the under-18 national team. If chosen, Littlerock coach Eric Stanford said Griffin will forgo the rest of the high school season and give up his UCLA scholarship to train with the national team full time.
“I’m excited for him,” Stanford said. “This is bigger than Littlerock.”
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Lindon Pecorelli of Crescenta Valley, the region’s leading scorer with 25 goals in 13 games, has accepted a scholarship to Connecticut.
Pecorelli, who has three or more goals in six games this season, has scored 61% of the goals for Crescenta Valley (8-5) despite being double- and triple-teamed.
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Jenna Wertz, center midfielder for Westlake, will be sidelined four to six weeks by a knee injury. Wertz has committed to Washington State.
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Imani Dorsey of Harvard-Westlake was chosen to the Parade All-American girls’ team. The senior, who has committed to the University of Portland, was selected as a defender but plays forward and midfielder for the Wolverines (9-2-2).
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Valencia’s best weapon has been Devin McLean’s flip throw-in. Several other girls in the region can perform the maneuver, including Celisse Hayden of Louisville and Lauren Baer of Westlake, but none with the accuracy of McLean.
McLean can throw the ball more than 50 yards and place it within 10 feet of her target. Valencia (11-2-3) has scored seven goals on the flip throw-in this season, including a 1-1 tie with Canyon on Wednesday and the winning goal in a 3-2 victory over Ventura on Dec. 9.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
The Top 10
Rankings of region soccer teams
BOYS
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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 5 St. Francis (Mission) 11-2-3 2 2 El Camino Real (West Vly) 10-2-4 3 1 Buena (Channel) 9-5-1 4 3 Reseda (Valley Mission) 4-2-1 5 6 Ventura (Channel) 13-1-3 6 7 Birmingham (Vly Mission) 4-3-3 7 NR Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 8-2-3 8 8 Calabasas (Frontier) 11-0-1 9 9 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 8-1 10 10 Hart (Foothill) 11-4-1
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GIRLS
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RK LW School (League) Rec. 1 1 Buena (Channel) 17-0 2 2 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 9-2-2 3 3 Westlake (Marmonte) 8-1-2 4 4 Louisville (Mission) 8-2-5 5 5 Chaminade (Mission) 11-4-2 6 5 Hart (Foothill) 4-5 7 7 Ventura (Channel) 11-4-1 8 8 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 7-2-2 9 9 Quartz Hill (Golden) 10-1 10 10 Chatsworth (West Valley) 4-3
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