|
|
|
 |
| |
| July 24, 2003
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update Day 7
Who's Next?
|  Mission Empire Snipers win another Division 1 Championship, bringing the organization’s total to 11, as we complete the first week of play here at the NARCh Finals.
The Atom Platinum division would come to a close today beginning with early round playoffs. The Tour Bordercats would defeat the Las Vegas Tour Rebels 6-0 to move into a semifinal with the Bauer Jr. Pythons and the Nike OC Blades would defeat the Mission Cobras Elite, 3-0 to advance to a semi matchup against the #1 seed Jr. Wizards ’94.
The Jr. Wizards ’94 outlasted OC 3-1 to advance to the Final while the Bauer Jr. Pythons would hold off the Bordercats to make it an All Florida Final in the Mite Platinum. 12 teams had come into Florida for the Final and it would be two teams less than a day’s drive away who would play for the title.
In the Final, Bombich would get the Wizards on the scoreboard first with a goal just 50 seconds into the game. However the Pythons would strike back quickly, just 96 seconds later, as Worth converted a pass to tie it at 1.
The Pythons would then take the lead off a goal by Payne at the 6:54 mark and Guertler would score their 3rd consecutive goal to stake the Pythons to a 3-1 lead, which they would hold til the half.
The Wizards would score to make it 4-2, but in the end they just couldn’t keep the Pythons offense in check without sacrificing their own scoring chances. The Pythons would score twice more to put the game away as they won another NARCh title with a 6-3 win.
Division 1 also had its playoffs today, and provided the best hockey we’ve seen here to date @ TECO. Close calls would be the norm today as Team Tour eked out a 2-1 win over the Nike Buffalo Wings while the Ontario Tour Firewheels outlasted the Mission Hyper Patriots in OT to win 5-4. The Mission Snipers would jump out to a 5-1 lead over Eproshop.com before nearly giving the game away. They would hold on to win 6-5 and in the last semifinal, AMB pulled away from the Bauer Pythons late in what was a very physical matchup, as they capitalized on 2nd half power plays to win 6-2.
In the first semifinal, Team Tour would right itself and roll over the Firewheels by an 8-0 score and advance to the Final. Mission Snipers and AMB would have a much bigger battle on their hands in the 2nd semifinal. AMB would open with 2 goals in the games first 53 seconds to grab a 2 goal lead. The Snipers would answer back with 3 straight goals of their own to take their first lead early in the 2nd half before AMB had momentum swing back its way after scoring two quick ones again to take a 4-3 lead. Once again, the momentum would change and the Snipers would answer back with 2 goals of their own, both 5 hole, to take the lead one last time and they’d hold off AMB with a 5-4 win.
Once again, we have Team Tour and the Mission Empire Snipers in a Division 1 Final. For those who have been attending NARCh for a number of years, most will remember the classic battle in 1999 at the Cooler when the Snipers erased a big early deficit to win in OT after Tommy Prate scored in OT. Team Tour again was loaded with some of the top players in the game, Brito, David, Beilstein, Leggat and Allan. That alone is a formidable line in the PRO division. The Snipers have depth though, check out Pete Pennecke’s quote in the NP magazine, and its true, there’s no true dropoff from their #1 to #10 player. While they may not be as big of a name as some of the Tour players, the Snipers have their share of big time players. Derek Kern has been a dominant player throughout the tournament and players like Brunk, Richford, Cianfrani, Scheer and Thompson have the talent to play with anyone.
Of course, with all this talent between them, the two teams would play a scoreless opening 6 minutes before the Snipers would score a PP goal with 4:30 left in the first as Cianfrani smacked in a Kern rebound to take a 1-0 lead. The Snipers would keep the 1-0 lead through the half and into the 2nd before Brito put forth a great 2nd effort to muscle past his man and get his own rebound to tie it at 1, with 10:25 to play. However Tour would take another penalty at the 2:27 mark and the Snipers would again capitalize with Scheer scoring off a rebound to give the Snipers the lead once again. They would stretch it to 3-1, just 20 seconds after going on the PP, as Scheer scored his 2nd of the game and Kern notched his 3rd assist. Matt Brunk would score their 4th PP goal of the gamejust 26 seconds later and the lead would stretch to 4-1.. Tour would close it to 4-2 off an Allan slapshot from the right side, yet another PP goal. The Snipers would kill off a penalty late in the game and hold off Team Tour for their 3rd consecutive Division 1 Title (Finals 02, WN 03, Finals 03) and their 11th NARCh title.
Our trio of championship games would also feature the Squirt Gold Final, featuring Mission Marvel Spidermen and Upland AKS Empire. Upland had upset CPH Quest 3-1 to advance while the Spidermen would be victorious over the Palm Beach Nailers by a 6-1 margin.
Marvel would open the scoring in the opening minute as Sanchez scored off a backdoor play to get the early 1-0 lead. Upland wouldn’t lose their composure though as they had about 90 seconds of continuous pressure in the Marvel zone to get into the game until they took a penalty at the 3:35 mark. Just 40 seconds later Marvel would capitalized as Duran hit a short side slapper from 30 feet out. AKS would get on the board with just over 3 minutes remaining in the half though as Saligumba knocked home the rebound to bring the Empire to within 1. Once again though, it would be Duran who hit another slap shot from either further out that found the top corner and Marvel again led by 2 and it stayed 3-1 through the end of the half. The two teams played scoreless hockey in the opening 5 minutes of the 2nd half before #91 scored 5 hole and Sanchez notched his 2nd of the game just 29 seconds later to pad the lead to 5-1 before they’d score one last time with 56 seconds left to win the Squirt Gold division with a 6-1 victory.
Atom All Star recap coming tomorrow, sorry! Until then, check out the pics of the new uniforms!
Mite Platinum finished today with the West claiming 4 of the 5 playoff seeds. OC Blades ’92 took top honors followed by St.Louis Tour Blast, Mission Marvel X-Men, Tour Smoke and Tour Las Vegas Rebels. The Smoke and Rebels will play a playoff game at 9AM to see who advances to meet the Blades in the semifinals while the Blast and X-Men will face off in the other semifinal.
The Squirt’s also continued in round robin play today and the Rollin Hogs picked up 2 wins and Nike OC Blades ’90 also looked good in picking up a 2-0 win over the Davie PAL Cyclones. Mission Marvel Silver Surfers, another team that is on everyone’s minds continued to play well with a 5-1 win over the Eagle WC Warriors and Sudden Death, which is comprised from many of the Powerhouse players including Brandon Pirri, posted a 10-3 win over AMB Grey. Finally Team Mission Detroit looked strong in their 8-2 win over the Rinkside Rockets ’91 squad.
Pee Wee Platinum notes: Hosers 88 and Tour Smoke played a great game this afternoon with the California parents actually being louder at times than their NY counterparts. It was easily one of the most exciting games of the day and in the end the Hosers 88 would eke out a 3-2 win to improve their playoff chances. The StL blast 89’ers are strong as always along with the Nike OC 89’s.
Bantam Platinum notes: Tour Mavericks have apparently found the form that they had earlier in the year as they notched another win. Tour Mudcats defeated Team Mission-Canada 8-0 and AMB 86 came back from an early 1-0 deficit to beat a tough Team Skatezone by a 3-2 score. One of the days best games was the Rivermen and Tour Bordercats, in the end the Rivermen would hold on to their one goal lead and get a big win against one of the divisions top teams, 4-3. Andrew Oliveri finally arrived for the Mission Snipers, who seem to be finding their form, looking much improved in their 6-1 win. Adding Stahl and Bokina to what is essentially the same team that advanced to last year’s Championship game is a big boost to an already talented squad. DMB defeated the Tour Blast in a battle of midwest teams by a 6-2 score and Nike OC Blades are again a team to beat as they defeated the Mission Cooler Selects, who have not played poorly in defeats in their games, 6-2.
Check back for updates tomorrow along with NARCh TV coverage of Finals and All Star Games. Mite All Star listings to be posted at the rink at noon tomorrow.
See the Latest News section for Jim's past articles on the 2003 Finals.
|
Site
Credits |
|
|
|
