A look into how the 12u and 16u divisions played out at NARCh FINALS

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By: Raine Hernandez

TAYLOR – Now with the Pro division finally coming to a close, the attention shifted to all of the other divisions left to be resolved at the 2019 East Coast NARCh Finals. With the divisions finally came to a close, take a look at the results of these divisions:

The beginning of the day started in the 12U Gold Platinum final, as the HB 06 team squared off against the Pittsburgh Pharaohs. The Honeybaked mercied their way through every opponent in the competition except for the Pittsburgh Pharaohs, who was also the other team in the Platinum final.

In Round Robin, the Pharaohs fell out on the possible upset, losing to HB by a score of 5-3 and were looking to avenge the defeat. The championship game featured a feisty two periods of action, however, Honeybaked’s team proved to be too strong with the likes of Luke Janviriya leading the way, defeating Pittsburgh 7-4, taking home the Platinum championship.

Next up was the 16u Silver final as Hot Shots Inferno found themselves in a tough battle against OMG USA, the USA Junior Women’s National Team. Similar to the Platinum final, physicality was the center of attention, as both teams were clawing to win that gold medal. The Women’s National Team started out with a 2-0 lead with goals from Nicole Maddox and Evanity Herrera, but the Inferno stormed back to nod the game at 2. With the game looking to head to overtime, the Inferno took the lead, following a shot from ’05 born player Max Sokol for his second goal of the game, leading the Inferno to a 3-2 win and the Silver division champions.

The Tour RoadRunners and the St. Louis Blast 02’s battled it out for the 16U Platinum division title. Much like the 12U division, it was known who clear-cut favourites were and, in this division, it was the RoadRunners and the Blast. Both teams eased their way to the championship game, even with the Blast mercying their game 8-0. In what was an evenly matched game, the Blast came out with the win, defeating the RoadRunners 3-1, led by stand-out goaltender Chase Christopher, who was outstanding in the championship game stopping 18 of 19 shots en route to the victory and Jared Bratton, who tallied the second and third goal for the Blast.

The 16u gold division had their championships when the Konixx Outcasts 02’s faced the Motor City Vipers. The Outcasts and the Vipers had to deal with adversity to head to the gold championship following a grueling and difficult round robin. Things would not change in the finals, as both teams traded goals with one another, until the Vipers would hold on with the 4-3 win, Vipers head coach Ben Hay’s first NARCh cup as a coach. Tyler Hissong was the true x-factor in this game, scoring the Vipers’ 3^rd and 4^th goal, including the game-winning goal.

Last but not least, the 12U Gold and Silver divisions wrapped things up as the Cayman Islands and Farm Tough battled for the gold division, while the Rinos Na-Palm from Colombia squared off against Inferno. It was a barn-burner for the gold title (no pun intended) as a combined 11 goals were scored in the hockey game. Jaxson Cover led the way for the Cayman Islands, scoring a hat-trick, while for Farm Tough, it was James Ingle who had a hat-trick of his own, as the two players were heavily relied upon to bring home the championship for their respective teams. In the end, it would be Farm Tough who was able to pull away, winning by a score of 6-5.

Finally, the Rinos and the Inferno fought to the very end for that NARCh Cup, in what was a very intense defensive hockey game, highlighted by the great performances by both goaltenders, David Torres for the Rinos and Nick Daniels for the Inferno. With a loud and strong crowd, the Rinos held on for the 2-1 victory after Sebastian Leon scored the go-ahead goal with 3:45 remaining, and will take back to Colombia, the Silver championship.