Tragedy struck the
El Camino Real (Woodland Hills, Calif.) boys soccer team Wednesday when goalkeeper
Francisco Rodriguez was murdered near his family's front yard.
In the aftermath, more than just El Camino Real are showing support.
According to a report in the LA Daily News, players from nearby schools also showed respect for the young man known as "Pancho" in high school and club circles. ECR decided to play its regularly scheduled Friday Los Angeles City Section game against
Cleveland (Reseda, Calif.) and the Cleveland players wore the same black armbands the ECR players wore. They also took part in a 26-second tribute of silence before the game.
Rodriguez wore No. 26.
Crespi (Encino, Calif.) and
Chaminade (West Hills, Calif.), nearby private schools, also wore the black armbands and took part in a moment of silence at their game.
Cleveland also honored ECR's desire to start the game with an empty net in respect to Rodriguez. The 10-man formation lasted until the ball was kicked out of bounds and
Randdi Misrahi was brought into the game to play goalie.
"(Rodriguez) still would have wanted us to play no
matter what, so we had to respect his wishes. That's how passionate he
was about the game," Misrahi told the newspaper. "I just wanted to keep up everything
he was doing because I didn't want to let him down. This was the best
game we've played in a while and it was a great pick-up for us because
we really needed it."
The ECR Conquistadors won the match against Cleveland by a 2-0 score and moved to 11-4-3.