Boys' soccer: Jimenez deals Crespi playoff blow

Minutes before the start of Long Beach Cabrillo's Division I second-round boys' soccer playoff game with Crespi, I had Cabrillo Coach Pat Noyes brief me on who to watch on his team today. One of the three guys he mentioned was senior forward David Jimenez who he described as "the real deal."

However, special instructions accompanied Noyes' revelations: "Don't tell anybody [over on Crespi], OK?"

I promised to keep my lips seal and that's a shame because if I spilled the beans about Jimenez's incredible talents to Crespi Coach Rob Kodama, maybe things could have gone differently the Celts. But I wouldn't bet on it.

All it took was 40 seconds for Jimenez to score the first goal of the game before adding another in the second minute to push Cabrillo (15-4-1) to a 2-1 victory over Crespi on Tuesday. Jimenez now has 30 goals on the season and has got to be considered one of the top goal scorers in the Division I playoffs. Heck, he may be one of the best twine twitchers in the entire Southern Section.

Here's a quick interview with David "the real deal" Jimenez:

Also, here are my photos from this afternoon's big game. I apologize if they came out blurry, but it's the best my civilian camera can handle. Unfortunately, I don't think I snapped any shots of Crespi goal scorer Spencer Chapman, who netted his final prep goal on a header in the 66th minute.

-- Austin Knoblauch