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| August 16, 2002
By Jim Anderson
Final Day Update: NARCh Has Left The Building
After 13 days of the best roller hockey played this year, a season comes to a close
|  The 2002 NARCh Finals concluded this evening with 4 Finals and 3 All Star Games.
When we left off earlier this morning,
the Mite Final was still being played.
In a back and forth battle, the CPH
Mission 'velocity and Tour
Powerhouse played a hard fought
battle and it looked as if once again
we were going to see OT in a
championship game. However with
only seconds remaining a CPH
Mission Velocity player found the net
and led CPH to victory over a tough
Tour Powerhouse team, which has
had a good showing throughout the
tournament.
The Varsity Cup Final followed and #!
Santiago met Varstiy Blues.
Santiago was the overwhelming
favorite on paper and early on the
game was close. In the 2nd half
though, Varsity Blues grabbed the
lead and Santiago couldn't answer
back, and once again the top seed
found themselves upset by a lower
seed as Varsity Blues won by a 5-2
score.
Squirt Final followed and found the
#1 OC Blades vs the #3 St. Louis
Blast. All tournament long OC has
been playing well as a team and
today was no exception. Ken Gibo's
squad just shut down the Blast
offensive and skated to a 5-2 victory.
The Bantam's featured the #7 AMB
86 vs the #8 Mission Empire
Snipers, probably one of the only
times these 2 seeds have met in the
championship game. The Snipers
took a 1-0 lead, AMB then scored 4
unanswered goals to win the title
4-1.
All Star Games followed and the
West had a 3-1 lead entering the last
3 games to be played. The EAST
would have to sweep the remaining
games to win the series.
The Mite's ended that in the first
game winning in what wound up
being an 8-7 shootout. Towards the
end it appeared as if the 2 teams
were both scoring at a goal a minute
pace. That gave the WEST a 4-1
lead in the 7 game series
Squirts followed and the EAST
players were fired up by their coach
Rob Ferrara. Once again offense
was the special of the day and the
EAST pulled away to win 9-6.
For the Bantam's, Tim McManus was
missing and fellow Long Islander's
Armin Olivieri and Greg Thompson
manned the bench in his absence.
With a team made up of mostly
Snipers, Powerhouse along with
players from the Goodsports Nike
Bad Apples and Delsports Dirty
Birds, the EAST was truly a coastal
bunch. The WEST appeared to have
a deeper bench on paper and the
odds of Ken Gibo dropping back to
back games seemed fairly
immeasurable. In the end, the EAST
rallied from a 2-1 deficit (Josh Sciba
had scored late in the first half to put
the WEST ahead) and were powered
by Andrew Olivieri's hat trick to win
6-4.
That's it, NARCh has officially left the
building. It's been a wild 13 days
with 300 teams battling for roller
hockey supremacy. Thanks for all
who came out and supported us for
the 9th Annual NARCh Finals.
Goodnight.
 
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