Girls Lacrosse Team Breezes Past Winless Culver City

After one half,  it was pretty much over.  Julia Denney scored a goal, then Bailey Czech fired in the first of her team-high four. Tully Tampakes and Mariah Linnett added goals, followed by Angelica Troung and Meesha Robinson. Just that quickly the rout was on as the high-scoring Redondo Union High girl's lacrosse team took out Culver City 18-2 on Tuesday, winning for the 10th time in a row and by a double-digit margin for the eighth time in those 10 games.

''You know what, we really have a high scoring offense. We can score a lot of goals. To beat us, you either have to have a real good defense or you're going to have to score 18, 19 or 20,'' Sea Hawks' coach Tom Borgia said. ''We have a lot of pretty good sticks and we have a lot of really athletic girls that can run, and today was like a slow-down game and we scored 18 goals. When we really turn it on we can get over 20 pretty easily against some teams.''

Culver City, lacking experience and depth, was one of those teams.

The Sea Hawks, who are leading the state in goals scored, assists and points, chewed up a lot of clock working for good shots on goal and went deep into the bench. Chantel Celotto, who is Redondo Union's leading scorer and went into the match tied for third in the state with 53 points, scored one goal and spent the rest of her time setting up teammates. But it didn't keep the score down completely, with Linnett scoring three times for Redondo Union and Denney, Troung and Robinson scoring twice.

After a 1-2 start in which they scored a total of 17 goals, the Sea Hawks have averaged almost 18 per game in rolling to an 11-2 record and a perfect 8-0 in Bay League play. They have scored 194 goals already, four more than in a 16-win season a year ago.

''In the beginning we weren't really working as a cohesive team and so we just kind of focused on our own goals, but now I think we've bonded as a team and now we're able to work together,'' said Czech, a junior. ''I think we are one of the only teams that have plays and so when you have plays you're able to work together as a team. Other teams are more focused on one person and we're focused on team stuff.''

Redondo Union figures to get more of a challenge Friday when it plays at rival Mira Costa, which is 3-1 in league play and is coming off an extended break.

''The game Friday against Mira Costa will be a whole different world. They're a very good team and we're looking forward to hopefully winning on their field for the first time ever," Borgia said.

''The first two years they killed us and we won once here last year and they won there, so we're looking forward to that. Culver City has come a long way. They're a relatively new team. They only have one or two subs (on the bench) and we have a whole other team.''