July 29, 2010
California teams turning in golden performances at NARCh
Irvine's 949 Anarchy Squirt Club Division team proudly displays its championship trophy earned at the 2010 NARCh Finals in San Jose (Photo: NARCh)
California teams have continued to make a statement at the 2010 NARCh Finals since the puck first dropped on the massive 336-team tournament on July 16 at Silver Creek Sports Complex in San Jose.
Seven California champions and nine silver medalist teams were crowned in the tourney's opening five days of competition and three more Golden State teams were added to the champions list, and five more as runners-up, as the event reached its halfway point.
In games played on July 24, the Mission Raiders Black topped the Pama Prospects, 5-4, in overtime to secure the Midget Gold championship title while California's Team X came up one goal short in its Junior Gold final against New York's Tour Excitement Green, losing 3-2 in triple OT.
All four teams in the Midget Gold medal games were from California, continuing a trend echoed throughout the opening nine days of the event. In the third-place game, AKS 91/92 edged Reebok Eschelon HB 5-4. Two of the three medal-winners in the Junior Gold Division were from the Golden State as the Bodangles doubled up France's Frenchies Rookie, 4-2, in an international match-up.
Kyle Musser scored four goals, including the game-winner 19 seconds into overtime to lead the Raiders to the Midget Gold title, while Ray Mesa and Drew Yeomans each scored twice as AKS 91/92 claimed the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Cheyene Tackett scored twice to give Team X an early 2-1 lead but it was the stellar goaltending of teammate Greg Hamm (playing with a knee brace after a first-half injury) that kept the New Yorkers at bay until a two-on-one break by Zach White and Cameron Yarwood finally produced the game-winner.
In the third-place game, Ryan Newens recorded a natural hat trick for the bronze medalist Bodangles.
The top four teams in the Bantam Gold Division were all from California as well. The Tour Raw Steel 94 OG squad shut out the Tour Outcasts 94s, 1-0, to capture the gold medal while the San Diego Selects skated past the NorCal Riot Black, 5-1, to claim the silver medal in games played on July 23. The Bantam Gold final was a rematch of a round-robin encounter that ended in a scoreless tie.
The top four teams in the Pee Wee Gold Division were all from California to add to the state's bulging medal count. In the championship game, the NorCal Riot edged Labeda XDH, 1-0, while Rink Rat Split slipped past the Tour Raw Steel Selects, 3-1, in the third-place game. Rink Rat entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed while Raw Steel was the No. 2 seed but both were upended in the semifinals by the upstart third-seeded Labeda XDH and the fourth-seeded Riot. Labeda XDH squeezed past Raw Steel in overtime.
The championship game between Labeda XDH and the home-standing Riot was played in front of a standing-room only crowd. NorCal's Steven Monte scored the game's lone goal while Riot netminder Noah Schwarzback posted the shutout to prove that defense does indeed win championships.
In the bronze medal game, Rink Rat rolled to the victory behind goals by Riley Hummitsch, Josh Musty and Brandon Mills.
The top-seeded Revision Devil Dogs, a long time California power, fell, 3-2, to British Colombia's Eagle Ridge Roller Hockey in its bid to win the Squirt Gold championsihp title on July 21.
In one of the more crowd-pleasing moments so far, the Mission Raiders scored five goals in a 1:26 span to erase a 3-2 deficit en route to posting a 7-3 win against New York's FLID Nation in a Midget Gold Division round-robin encounter on July 21.
In one stretch of play on July 23, 29 of 34 games were decided by two goals or less. Both the Midget Gold and Junior Gold division made a case for parity at this year's NARCh Finals in particular. In Midget Gold, 11 games were decided by one goal, three games ended in ties and seven games were decided by an empty net goal. In Junior Gold, 10 games were decided by one goal, three games ended in ties and nine games were decided by an empty-net goal.
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