I.E. Republic FC Honors Owner With Promotion

By Salvador Torres
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

LA MIRADA (June 10, 2025) - Despite their coach’s health status, the boys from San Bernardino are the SoCal Premier League 2nd Division champions.

Eric Ramos scored early and I.E. Republic FC did not look back in a 3-0 victory over Artesia DES FC in the 2nd Division Final at Biola University’s Al Barbour Field on Saturday, June 7.

With the win, the San Bernardino-based team, playing without owner and coach Gabriel Placencia, earns promotion to the SoCal Premier League’s 1st Division for the 2025-’26 season.

“If you have a team that believes in what you preach, they buy in,” Placencia said. “We deserve it, it’s ours (and) it was there to take.”

Jose Politron and Seth Aguilar also had goals in the victory for I.E. Republic FC (14-1-1 overall), which previously won the 2023 SoCal Premier League Spring Season championship.

Placencia, recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, has been bedridden in the hospital for nearly 2 months after an infection nearly took his life.

“We haven’t been doing anything since March,” Placencia said. “I had to cancel all the friendlies, and we haven’t trained (together) in a month, but the boys are active.”

Regardless of his health, Placencia was confident heading into the matchup against Artesia. He trusts his players - especially Politron, now the team’s player/coach - and knew they would stay focused and not get comfortable against Artesia.

The game plan worked. Ramos scored his third goal of the calendar year after intercepting a poor goalkeeper pass, beating a defender, and slotting the ball into the back of the net to take the lead.

Artesia DES FC made costly mistakes and played more in a reactionary way to compensate for I.E. Republic’s intensity and high pressure.

In the second half, IER played the counter attack and got a second goal from Politron, his fourth of the year. Politron took one touch before on a line-splitting pass from the back and lobbed it in over the goalkeeper from around 40 yards away.

Eventually, IER would strike a third time with a goal from the substitute midfielder Aguilar in the 79th minute after recovering a loose ball and blasting it into the left side of the goal.

The team started the first half of the season under the SoCal Elite name, but after a contract dispute reverted to I.E. Republic FC and finished the season scoring 66 goals while allowing only 10 across all competitions.

Since January, the team is on a nine-game winning streak.

Torres covers soccer in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. His work can be found at www.ie-soccer.com