Daniel Ipatzi and Edwin Santacruz are two outstanding athletes at Channel Islands High School who, as junior forwards, are both captains of the varsity soccer team.

Ipatzi and Santacruz have known each other since their days at Blackstock Junior High.

“We’ve been rivals a long time, but it wasn’t until high school when we actually started to get close,” said Ipatzi.

As soccer season draws to a close, Santacruz (13 goals) and Ipatzi (6 goals) mentioned they had a good team, but felt they were unlucky in a couple of games. In the final game of the season, with a playoff berth at stake, they lost to Hueneme 3-1.

Channel Islands finished the season 2-3-3 in league and 9-9-7 overall.

Out of all the aspects of soccer, Santacruz says, “Soccer is my passion; it’s all I’ve been doing since I was a little kid.”

Ipatzi, however, says, “Soccer has been my escape from reality at my hardest times.”

Even though they are teammates, when it comes to pro soccer, Santacruz likes Real Madrid and Ipatzi pulls for Barcelona.

This upcoming year for 2018-19 Channel Islands has all but two players returning, so captains Ipatzi and Santacruz have their goals set on a PVL League title next year.

Ipatzi and Santacruz are two outstanding athletes but they are also exceptional students with both – coincidentally — a 3.3 GPA this past semester.

They both aspire to play soccer competitively at the next level, with their dreams playing side by side.