Last week, the Sea Kings opened their season with a 13-4 shellacking of Chadwick and followed that with an 8-4 win against defending Bay League champion Mira Costa. On Tuesday, Palos Verdes defeated Hill neighbor Peninsula in a 14-6 rout and dropped in at Redondo Thursday, taking a 14-1 victory in the process.

Opponents have acknowledged Palos Verdes’ superiority, and it has all but made the Sea Kings more confident.

“We’re going to take the Bay League,” said attacker Jon Spangler, who had three goals Tuesday. “We’re not going to let up. We should be a challenge for any team out there.”

Spangler and hard-shooting junior Nolan Semel aren’t the only ones back this year. Palos Verdes (5-0) retained nearly all of its team that went to the Bay League championship, and the Sea Kings look deep with attacker David Scott — five goals this week — and midfielder Adam Wagoner back from injury.

“We don’t need one player to score for us. It’s not so much one man dodging through three guys. It’s more open now and anyone with the best shot can take it,” Spangler said.

A new face is Head Coach Lane Jaffe, who held the same position at UCLA last year.
“We’re stacked at attack with three returning attackmen [Sammy Romer, David Scott and Spangler] and six offensive middies that can contribute,” Jaffe said. “Our middies, [Wagoner, Semel, Ryan Rheingold, Brandon Hixenbaugh and Peter Trelenberg], are aggressive and they’re our workhorses. We’ve got a lot of team speed as well.”

The Sea Kings also believe Alex Marin might be the best goalie in the area. “He’s a pure stopper, quick and takes up a lot of the goal, and does a good job creating transition for our offense,” Jaffe said.

Should the Sea Kings maintain their success, Palos Verdes won’t have to just settle for the Bay League title. This year the winner of the Bay League plays the Mission League champion, then goes on to play an Orange County team in an unofficial championship game at the Home Depot Center.

Peninsula Rebuilding

Peninsula (3-2) made it to the semifinals of the Bay League Tournament, and the Panthers are confident they can succeed. But the Panthers have to overcome the departures of Matt Hovsepian (Virginia Wesleyan) and Victor Poon (UCLA).

“We’re in a transition this year and working out the kinks,” said Peninsula midfielder Aaron Sawelson, who had three goals in Tuesday’s loss. “We’re a tight group and have a strong midfield with Alex Richard, Colby Marshall and myself, but we lost a lot of good players. We’re not up to par with prior years. PV is out of our league, but we’re going to battle with Mira Costa.”

Saweslon likes the play of Greg Lin, a defender/midfielder with a penchant for physical play. “He means business out there,” Sawelson said. At this point in the season, Peninsula’s offense will be coming from its midfield, which Richard said was unusual. Scott Spielman, he added, could emerge up front.

Peninsula Head Coach Alex Fountain is in Asia and could not be reached for comment.

Chadwick Improving

Addition by subtraction is the motto at Chadwick. After going 3-12 last season, the team had a number of seniors decline to join its campaign this year, but the Dolphins are now 3-3 after a 10-5 win at Culver City. Nima Majd and Garrett Wymore had three goals each.

“We’re definitely playing well as a team this year, and we’re doing it with a younger group, which is surprising,” Head Coach Brian Kelly said.

The Dolphins still need polish, but Kelly said they can compete with Peninsula — who they lost to 9-6 — and Mira Costa.

Kelly is also big on goalie Ben Goodman, a junior who makes up for his size with quickness.

Wagoner’s return to the field this academic year has given him his due. In football, he was selected to the Bay League’s Second Team for his efforts as defensive back — 42 tackles, two interceptions — but he also contributed on the Sea Kings’ offense, scoring three touchdowns while rushing for 405 yards on 51 carries and leading Palos Verdes with 266 yards on returns. “He was never a guy fearful of contact. He had to take a few hits and deliver a few as running back. He was always in the mix of things. It was great to have him back last year,” said Palos Verdes Head Coach Pat Fresch.

And as one of the captains for Palos Verdes’ lacrosse team, Wagoner scored in the Sea Kings’ 14-6 romp over Peninsula Tuesday.

Getting hurt

Wagoner hurt his back while moving some of his grandmother’s furniture. He was putting a table in the back of a pickup truck driven by friend and teammate Ryal Jagd. “I heard a pop and felt a pain and let them know I hurt it pretty bad,” he said. The next day, a friend of the family who is a chiropractor advised Wagoner to go to the hospital to get scanned.

Doctors found three fractured vertebrae, two caused during Wagoner’s sophomore season in JV football and one caused while moving the furniture. He would be in a back brace for seven months, which would ruin any chance of playing junior year football. “It was the most devastating thing I’ve heard, personally,” Wagoner said. It was even more painful that Palos Verdes could have used Wagoner, who was voted the team MVP of his frosh/soph and JV teams. Top starter Sho Funai went down with a leg injury and missed half of the 2006 season on the Sea Kings’ first play of the year.

Wagoner got a number of opinions from doctors. Some said he should never again participate in contact sports and others said he would be OK in time. By the time he got the brace off — seven months later — he had to prepare for lacrosse season.

Another setback

Despite going to a personal trainer four to five times a week for an hour and two months of physical therapy, his comeback to Palos Verdes athletics was derailed by a groin injury he suffered in his first lacrosse game against Loyola on March 4, 2006. He had scored two goals in that game. Wagoner tried to continue playing — he scored two more goals in the Sea Kings’ following game against Downey — but found that the groin injury and his back were just too much for him. He stopped playing a few games into the season, and missed out on the Sea Kings’ run to the Bay League Tournament finals that capped the lacrosse season.

Wagoner went back to the trainer and refocused on football. Football season went well initially, but the pain grew as the season went on. When Palos Verdes began its Bay League portion of the season at Leuzinger, it really began to hurt. “I told my coaches and limited myself in practices,” he said. Fresch, who indicated Wagoner initially was gun-shy in his football comeback before withstanding a few hard hits, said Wagoner used ice and extra stretching. “No one told him to stop playing. He kept pushing,” he said. Jagd noticed Wagoner was still in pain as well. “It slowed him down, but he gave his all. He knew it was the last time he could play football,” he said.

This season in lacrosse, Wagoner said he hasn’t felt any pain. Wagoner doesn’t look like he’s lost a step, said Head Coach Lane Jaffe. “Athletically, you wouldn’t even know he was ever hurt,” Jaffe said, adding his leadership on and off the field made him a natural pick as one of the team’s captains.

Tim Romer, who worked as an assistant coach last season, said Wagoner is an aggressive midfielder who picked up the sport quickly when he started in middle school. “When he first started in the seventh grade, you could tell he was going to be a good player,” said Romer, who helped coach Wagoner and other Sea King players to a middle school championship. “We missed him a lot last year,” Romer added. “This year he’s one of our good middies and one of the core ones. He’s very determined and very physical when he’s on the field. He’s got good stick work and moves that help him on offense, too.”

Jon Spangler, one of Palos Verdes’ top scorers, said Wagoner is also the guy the team looks to when things get physical. He’s often the guy laying out the hits, Spangler added. Maybe it’s the running back getting revenge for all the hits he has taken on the gridiron. “Not a lot of lacrosse players like to hit,” Wagoner said. “I carry that aspect over from football. Football has made me tougher than most of these lacrosse guys.”

Future

Wagoner, a 17-year-old Lunada Bay resident, isn’t out of the woods yet with his back. Standing or sitting for a prolonged period of time brings pain. A decade from now he’ll probably need back surgery.

Wagoner wants to go to USC, UC Santa Barbara or San Diego State next year and major in business. He also wants to continue playing lacrosse, though probably on the club level.
“To be really honest, the field is my home,” he said.

There’s one other thing Wagoner wants to do: play at The Home Depot Center in a proposed lacrosse championship game. “You don’t want to think about it, but it’s in the back of [the team’s] mind. That’s our ultimate goal,” he said.

The physical play continued in the second half as the Vikings defense was able to keep the pressure on and keep pace with the Sea Kings goal for goal. Downey showed the strength of their offense by having four different players score a goal apiece. PV held a big edge on shots taken but conversion was tough with Downey’s effective goalie play. The final score was 8 – 4.

Palos Verdes had 6 players score and 4 assisting. Leading the scoring with three goals was Nolan Semel. Adding a goal apiece were Matt Chong, David Scott, Jon Spangler, Sammy Romer and Ryan Rheingold. Assists were credited to David Scott, Jon Spangler, Sammy Romer and Adam Wagoner.

Palos Verdes established themselves early in the game with ball control on the face-offs, and by utilizing crisp passing to set-up scores on each of their first three possessions. They used their tight defensive sets to stymie the Redondo attack, and their superior stick handling skills to create and prevail on ground ball opportunities. With ball control and squad size clearly the advantage for Palos Verdes, the Sea Kings were able to substitute liberally and keep fresh legs on the field while Redondo’s smaller squad became fatigued by the fast pace and lack of subs.

Palos Verdes had nine players score and two more that contributed for assists. Leading the scoring with two goals apiece were Brandon Hixenbaugh, Mike Macfarlane, Jon Pang, David Scott and Nolan Semel. Also contributing with a goal apiece were Andrew Pandora, Sammy Romer, Peter Trelenberg, Ryan Rheingold, and Matt Chong. Assisting on scores were Brandon Hixenbaugh, Sammy Romer, Adam Wagoner and Andrew Pandora.

The Sea Kings defensive unit played a strong game highlighted by the longstick middie play of Matt Moen, well executed clears, and a number of momentum changing steals. Palos Verdes rotated three goalies through at the net including senior Alex Marin, junior Reuben Vollmer and freshman Matt Schladen.