Redondo Beach Rebels End the Season with 12-0 Record

On the final night of the season, the Redondo Rebels seventh and eighth grade lacrosse team won back-to-back games to finish 12-0 and wrap up the California Youth Lacrosse League championship.
 
Coach Jimmy Faecher was not too surprised with his teams' success. ''We made it to the championship game last year with mostly seventh graders,'' he said. ''We had a lot of returning players who are super athletes and play multiple sports. We felt we had a real good chance of having a spectacular team this year."
 
The Rebels jumped out to a four-goal lead against the Palos Verdes Panthers in the first of their two games on Sunday and never looked back, winning 10-3. Dominic Peluso led the way with four goals and Harrison Faecher and Harry Whitson each had two goals. Josh Williamson had a one goal and one assist, Brett Ware had one goal and Noah Ross had four assists.
 
Moving from one windy field at Campus El Segundo to the other, the Rebels expected to face a tougher challenge in the finals against the El Segundo Eagles. But the Rebels jumped out to another early lead with goals by Williamson, Ware and Whitson, that one on a great feed from behind the goal by Williamson, and went on to a 9-3 victory.
 
After a goal by the Eagles to cut the lead to 3-1, the Rebels answered quickly with four consecutive goals by Whitson, Peluso, Williamson and a spectacular goal by Ware after making a lunging one-handed catch on a fast break. The Eagles made it interesting scoring two more goals, but again the Rebels answered with goals by Peluso and Faecher to close out the scoring.
 
Minutes later, the Rebels charged the field to celebrate - with sticks and gloves flying through the air, the Rebels piled on the goalie, with their record at 12-0 and their undefeated season complete.
 
Assistant Bill Williamson gave most of the credit to the head coach, Faecher. ''Jimmy taught the boys advanced skills and plays. We took a bunch of football players and made them lacrosse players. The boys persevered, played and practiced hard and really loved the game."
 
As with most undefeated teams you need a balance of offense and defense. Faecher had praise for his defense, "You can't say enough about our defense. We didn't give up more than three goals in any game this season and that is a tribute to our goalies, our long pole defenders as well as our midfielders."
 
As Coach Faecher huddled his team and all of the parents for a group picture, you could sense the feeling of accomplishment from everyone. Faecher praised both the parents and the team and told his players this was a dream season that they will always remember.

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