Sea Hawks Are Fast, But Los Alamitos Much Faster

This did not have quite the storybook ending that the Redondo Union High girls lacrosse team had hoped for. The Sea Hawks grabbed the tiger by the tail and not unexpectedly, perhaps, they were devoured.

Los Alamitos, that surrealistic tiger, proved as ferocious and as invincible as advertised, demolishing a game but overwhelmed Redondo Union squad 24-7 Friday in the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section championship game.

With the victory, Los Alamitos continued its domination of Southern California girls lacrosse. It capped a perfect 21-0 season for the Griffins, who will take a 41-game winning streak into next season. Redondo Union finished the season at 16-3.

"They were everything I expected of them,'' said Redondo Union co-coach Tom Borgia, who leading up to the game, compared Los Alamitos' lacrosse dominance to that of the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team, which has steamrolled 78 consecutive  foes. "We're able to outrun every team that we play but we couldn't outrun 30-yard passes tonight,'' Borgia said.

As great as Los Alamitos passes the ball, its defense even is better. The Griffins harassed and harangued anyone wearing a Redondo Union jersey who happened to have the ball. Numerous times, the Griffins were able to jar the ball loose.

"Defensively, they check all over the field,'' Borgia said. "They're not 41-0 for nothing.''

Like a precision fast break in basketball, where the ball never touches the floor between passes by the executing team, Los Alamitos could conduct a lacrosse clinic on how to pass. There were more times than could be counted Friday when the Griffins went on a counter attack that resulted in a three-on-nothing charge on goal.

"They use both hands and we're not there yet,'' Redondo Union co-coach Erin Garnsey said. "You can't expect to be prepared for something like this because you can't simulate a team like this in practice. At halftime our girls said that they wished that we had been able to play a team like this during the season.''

Despite the lopsided final score, Redondo Union did more than just show up. After Los Alamitos freshman Jullie Crowell scored the game's first goal, at the 19:57 mark, Redondo Union tied the score on a scintillating end-to-end run for a goal by junior Julia Denney, the first of her four goals.

"I felt we were right in there at that point, that we really had a chance,'' Denney said.

Los Alamitos quickly took a two-goal lead but Redondo Union's Meesha Robinson, in the final game of her brilliant high school career, threaded her way through three defenders and fired the ball past goalie Natalie Richards, to narrow the deficit to 3-2. Robinson scored another goal later in the half, on one of her patented spin moves. But that merely resulted in her garnering more defensive attention. She was held scoreless in the second half.

"I felt like after I scored my second goal, they marked up on me more,'' Robinson said.

For Redondo Union, an alarming pattern already was established.

Los Alamitos was dominating the draws. The score was 11-6 in favor of Los Alamitos at halftime but Redondo Union very easily could only have trailed by three goals at the intermission.

With under a minute left in the first half, Robinson was sandwiched between a pair of defenders but got off a shot that just missed. Los Alamitos went on the counter attack and Crowell fired in a shot past Sea Hawks' freshman goalie Heather Czech, with only 29.6 second left in the half.

Dazed but still confident, Redondo Union gathered together at halftime, as Garnsey and Borgia discussed second-half adjustments.

"We'd never been down like this before,'' Garnsey said. "The most we'd been down was one goal. But even at halftime we felt we were still in it. We just didn't take the next step.''

Los Alamitos began the second half by snuffing out any upset hopes Redondo Union possessed. The Griffins fired shot after shot past a beleaguered Czech, who allowed by far her most goals this year. Shaina Denny led Los Alamitos with six goals. Tracy Paulson was right behind her, with five.

"Some of those (shots on goal) were really fast,'' Czech said. "It was crazy. But I want to try stepping out to the ball more. I don't really do that much and coaches have told me that I need to in order to (make) more saves.''

Los Alamitos kept its foot on the pedal until the final horn. The Griffins outscored Redondo Union 13-1 in the second half and it was apparent two minutes into the second half that the season would end in disappointment for Redondo Union. Sea Hawks' senior Tully Tampakes scored her team's lone second-half goal.

"I wish we would have played them earlier in the season,'' Denney said. "We didn't see any competition like this. I think it might have made a difference here today.''