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| July 20, 2004
By Irish #19
Day Four - Part Two
|  High School Sees Four Teams Advancing, Pee Wee and Squirt Gold Get Rolling and More NARCh 2004 Champions are Made. Crazed Wombats, Weather Patterns and the Knights Go Mid-evil.
Please excuse the two-parter. This is the second part from yesterday.
Senior Gold:
This was a really great great game. You saw a Team Omni from Missouri who were new to each other play a solid Chubracabraz from So Cal.
The game went back and froth. In an interview later, the Head Coach said that he had watched carefully Team Omni and that they had executed their picks almost flawlessly. In fact, he gave a compliment to them, saying, “Omni executed their play the way I wanted my players to execute their play.” The Chubbies stuck a dedicated defensemen back at the red, respecting the speed and finesse of Omni, and this proved to disrupt and avoid most of the Omni patented odd man rushes.
In the end the offensive skill of Patrick Gallagher and some key defensive play of Mike Nijjar and Kris Kransky, aka the Kranstinator, proved the difference. Nijjar made a critical stop, batting down the puck not only stopping a surging Omni, but causing a turn over that resulted in Gallagher’s gwg. It takes a week, three days and two hours to get around Kransky, who has speed enough to use his size not to intimidate but to eliminate charging forwards. He can then turn it back up and shoot with the best forwards—proving this young man who typically plays goalie in roller hockey, is not a single faceted machine. The Chubbie’s goalie was solid throughout, and in the end, he came up with several key saves to preserve the victory.
It is also the first Championship for the West Covina rink that houses the Chubbies and well earned and well deserved one at that.
Junior Gold:
Cincinnati Stormed to victory in the Junior Gold Division.
The storm was taking on a confidant Corona Knights, many of whom had just played and won the 18u division. But the Knights went mid-evil and the Storm stayed steady, and the locals post their first medal – a GOLD.
Midgets Gold:
In this game the Corona Knights came in a heavy favorite, having played to a stand still throughout the year many of the best AAA teams in TPC, and dropping down to AA right before the TPC finals, and then winning AA. In NARCh qualifier tournament play they did not do so well in a qualifier, but did not have many of their key players. So they were an obvious favorite by any observer and a team I called early as the team to beat.
Chula Vista may have been in the shadow of the Knights, but for a time they played them to a standstill and played a game where either team going into the second half of the second period of play could win. Chula Vista is a hockey man’s team. A group of gritty boys who define the term team play and who exhibit the idea that four is stronger than one.
The Knights play like many basketball teams, however, and watching them you see them take their runs, and then quiet down, to suddenly start another run. They are emotion personified. So, when Scott Hill of Vancouver, sitting next to me during the game, said when they were tied in the second “The next goal here will be huge, eh?” He wasn’t just correct. He was dead on true.
The Knights win the 2004 Midget 18u Gold Division.
High School Preview:
Four teams are advancing in High School: Oakville, Temecula, South Park Place and Marina.
The key match up here, and one many people are calling the early final, is the Marina and Oakville game. You will find contrasting styles as Marina’s flash will try to subdue Oakville’s size and strength. Since this will not go up on the site until after game time, I can reveal the Marina strategy will be to stay out of the box, control the puck, and stay away from any matches in front of the net against the bigger Oakville team. Marina will try and shoot long range and crash in, i.e., use their strengths against Oakville’s weaknesses.
Though I have no inside information, I think the Southies will charge hard and see if they can out skate and out power Temecula.
Tomorrow:
Tomorrow (Tuesday) a High School Champion will be crowned.
Squirt and Pee Wee Gold continue play in preliminary rounds.
Bantam Gold shakes out and Play offs happen.
Junior Platinum starts up where some interesting seeding may find the top four teams squaring off against each other in early action, including Mudcats, Bordercats, Stars and the Rattlers all of whom have schedules in preliminaries that look like the semi finals. Some early games that could end up being the eventual final. So, don’t pay too much attention to the win/loss in early going here or the Seeding, as the match ups will be so jumbled that with the top teams playing against each other early, a team that barely makes the cut could easily be a finalist. This will be one very, very interesting division.
To read Irish #19's previous articles on NARCh 2004 see the Latest News section.
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