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| July 22, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update – Day 5
|  Monday saw the Atom and Pee Wee Gold Divisions end, while the Bantam’s had their opening two rounds of playoffs to eliminate all but 4 teams in sunny Estero, Florida.
First up would be the Pee Wee Gold Final, featuring the Labeda Militia, from Detroit, and the Mission Raiders, who’s older bretheren claimed the same title last year in St.Paul and who’s roster is comprised of mainly first year players.
The Militia would advance to the championship with a 5-1 victory over the East Coast Fury and the Raiders would roll over the Tour Nor Cal Mavericks 7-1 in the other semifinal.
The Raiders would open the scoring on a goal by Bachensetta while on the power play and held the one goal lead through much of the first half. Mission Raiders goalie made a big save with just over 2 minutes left in the half to preserve the lead. Labeda would finally tie the contest with a PP goal of their own at the 1:11 mark off a slapper by Berry from the left side.
The two teams would be tied 1-1 at the half and this time it would be the Militia who would come out strong to start the 2nd as they claimed their first lead of the game just 56 seconds into the 2nd half as Kilgore scored to put them up 2-1. The Militia would get some help from their goaltending as he made a big save off a 2 on 1 with 7:33 remaining. Then while shorthanded, the Militia would again take a one goal lead off a goal scored by #3 while a delayed penalty was being called on the Raiders. Only 38 seconds later though, and on the same PP, the Raiders would come back yet again as #8 scored the tying goal. The two teams would still create some excellent scoring opportunitites right down to a big save off a backhand at the final buzzer.
We’d have our first OT Final of the Finals, bonus time for players, fans and those watching NARCh TV. Labeda would get an early PP in OT before taking a penalty of their own a minute into their power play. The Raiders goalie would make a strong save as a Militia player attempted to go 5 hole 3 minutes into the extra session. Adding to his impressive performance, the Raiders goaltender stopped a semi 1 on 0 a couple of minutes later to keep his team’s chances intact. Finally, 5:08 into the period, #3 on the Militia took a nifty feed cut across the net and hit a fade away wristed into the far left corner to clinch the Pee Wee title.
Next up, we’d have the Atom Gold Final, which featured the local Gulf Coast Storm and Tour Bordercats. The top seeded Storm advanced with a 6-2 win over CCM Team Innovative while the Bordercats defeated AMB Grey by a 4-1 scorein the 2nd semifinal.
After the player intro’s it would only take 3 minutes before the Storm opened the scoring with a goal by Angelo. The Bordercats would answer back at the 5:00 minutemark off a shot from the slot by #25. Tencza would put the Storm ahead again only 21 seconds later. The game would remain 2-1, until the Storm scored twice within 42 seconds to stretch the lead to 3. They’d continuet the run with their 4th consecutive goal after the Bordecats goalie lost his stick and then had a player convert off a turnover. Trailing with 4:30 left, the Bordercats would pull their goalie in order to get some more offense, a risky move. However they kept the Storm off the board until the Storm closed out the 7-1 win with 2 goals in the last 16 seconds.
After the game, both teams were interviewed by the local NBC affiliate for the news that night, hopefully they have a copy!
Squirt Gold continued today and the Team Breakaway ‘90’s looked sharp with wins over Mission Patriots Blue and Mission Patriots Red. Mission Marvel Spiderman had a pair of 8-0 wins as they start to prepare for the 2nd round. More will come today as teams will finish their prelimary games and head into the playoffs.
One interesting moment in the Squirt Gold was when the goalie from the ISCA Grizzlies stopped a penalty shot against the Palm Beach Nailers.
Bantam Gold entered into their first 2 rounds of the playoffs with the Marvel Silver Surfers, Mission Raiders (who would win in OT), Mission St. Louis, MotorCity RollerDogs, Tour Bordercats, Nike Buffalo Wings and ISCA Grizzlies advancing to the quarterfinals where they would join the #1 seed K-Tek Kondors. Mission St. Louis and Bordercats would be the only 2 lower seeded teams to win their opening round games. The bye wouldn’t hurt K-Tek as they rolled into the semi’s with a 9-1 win . The Silver Surfers would continue to play well as they defeated the Bordercats 7-0. The Mission Raiders would win a close matchup with ISCA, 2-0 and the Nike Buffalo Wings were the only lower seed to win their quarterfinal and advance to the semifinal with a 4-2 win. Today’s semi will feature K-Tek playing the Wings while the Silver Surfers and Raiders meet in the other.
Atom Platinum would see the Bauer Jr. Pythons winning both their games along with the Jr. Wizards ’94, Bordercats as teams had the first day of play, a lot more will be forthcoming in this division as all the teams get a couple of games under their belts.
In Mite Platinum, the Tour Bordercats, Tour Rapid Fire Smoke, LaVerne Marvel X-Men, Nike OC Blades ’92, St.Louis Tour Blast ’92 all won their opening games to kick off the division. Can any of the teams put an end to the Blades run, check in tomorrow.
Pee Wee Platinum started off with the Nike OC Blades ‘88’s winning their opening round game as a few teams opened play, their toughest opponent could be their own ’89 team who knocked them off at Winternationals. St.Louis Blast also looked good in their games and perhaps the best game in their division was the Mission Everblades comeback win over the Hosers 88 as they came back from a late 3-2 deficit to win 4-3.
In Division 1, Mission HotSkates pulled of a mild upset in their 3-1 win over AMB and the New Jersey Sharks defeated the BC Blur 5-1 to remain in the playoff hunt. Leading the way so far is Team Tour who’ve easily won their 2 games and the Mission Snipers who also remain 2-0.
Check back for updates and photos on NARCh.com
See the Latest News section for Jim's past daily articles on the 2003 Finals.
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