Mandilon Inc. Scores Big in First-Ever Soccer Tourney

was at it again with another one of their fundraisers, but this time they decided to kick things up a notch out on Geiser Field. 

The group organized and hosted its inaugural soccer tournament at on Sunday to raise more money towards college scholarships for graduating students from Watsonville and high schools.

The teams started to battle it out around 8 am and by 7:30 p.m. it was the Worst Guys that ironically came out on top and celebrated.

As for Alfredo Torres, one of Mandilon Inc.’s co-founders, the tournament seemed like a grand success as it managed to get past wet conditions from over the weekend.  

“The weather could not have been more beautiful,” said Torres. “But it was a great turnout for such a short time frame to put this together.”

Without a doubt Torres received plenty of help from his fellow Mandilones, yet, it was all in the mind of the “official Mandilon football commissioner” Federico Castañeda that truly brought together Sunday’s fun-filled tournament.

But it wasn’t a simple project and there were a few bumps along the road. Like for example no referees were on hand except for volunteers and members of Mandilon Inc. Other small factors came into place for Castañeda too.

“I think the hardest thing with the short time is to try to get the teams together to participate,” said Castañeda. “Because it’s the first time that we do something like this, it’s kind of hard to get the teams to commit to be here.”

“And the weather was another factor.” added Castañeda.

Each football club had an entry fee of $200 and consisted of mixed groups that were anywhere from the raw talented kids in high school all the way to savvy veterans which belonged to a 35-and-older-league.

There was no prize money involved, just a chance to become the first ever champion of the event, first and second place trophies, and of course pride.   

The eight teams in the tournament were La Banca, La Huarucha, Zacatecas, Imperio, Worst Guys, Martinelli’s, San Luis and Cueramaro. 

Each football club played two 54-minute games to determine who would end up in a final four single-elimination bracket which went to the teams Cueramaro, Martinelli’s, La Banca and, of course, the Worst Guys.  

The first semifinal game was an eyesore to watch as the Worst Guys pummeled team La Banca 5-2 to move on. The second semifinal game wasn’t close either, after team Cueramaro shut out team Martinelli’s 3-0 and they too advanced to the championship game.

In the finale, it was the Worst Guys versus team Cueramaro for a chance to bring home the gold. 

The Worst Guys showed no mercy after they scored the first goal within minutes of the start of the first half and then struck again with two more goals just before halftime to go up big 3-0. 

After the teams took a quick breather and switched sides on the field, it was time to determine the first ever Mandilon Inc. soccer tournament champion.

Team Cueramaro came into the second half with greater intensity and they scored a goal with only a couple of minutes into the second half, the score was now 3-1. The attack was still strong from team Cueramaro, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the large deficit. 

The Worst Guys put the nail in the coffin right after they scored one last goal before the game ended and wrapped it up with a final score of 4-1.

After the game, Mike Gomez from the Worst Guys talked about Sunday’s tournament win.

“We feel great man,” said Gomez. “I think it was a team effort, everybody played a little bit of everything for us to actually win first place.”

One other player from the Worst Guys was San Jose State University soccer player Roberto Castañeda.

“We just joined this little tournament to help out the guys,” said Castañeda, “because I play soccer over there and then I know that some of the guys play soccer from here, and it’s always great to get a little bit of help.”

The way Mandilon Inc. is supportive of future education and higher learning; the participants in Saturday’s tournament were also a part of that too.

“It was a great fundraiser,” said Torres, “a big community effort to get everybody to come together and participate for it.”