SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Less is more for Barons in 2005-06

By Phillip Brents
Posted Feb. 8, 2006

The Bonita Vista Barons entered the 2005-06 CIF/Metro Conference season with a decidedly new look. Losing the top two scorers in the Mesa League last year — including conference Player of the Year James Arakaki — certainly contributed to that. Yet the Barons, despite their inexperience, find themselves positioned to wrap up another championship title this season.

A victory against third-place Eastlake on Tuesday will guarantee at least a co-championship in the Mesa League for Bonita Vista, which is scheduled to play second-place La Jolla on Thursday.

A La Jolla win in the regular season finale could complicate things but the Barons appear to have already made their statement that “less is more.”

Eastlake can certainly attest to that after absorbing a pair of one-goal defeats this season at the hands of their chief rival.
Bonita Vista used two second-period goals by Blake Tanner and an opportunistic third-period goal by freshman Ryan Wood to slip past the Titans, 4-3, and maintain their grip on first place in the Mesa League standings in a game played Jan. 26 at Skate San Diego in National City. The win was the sixth consecutive in league play for Bonita Vista after a 1-8 start to the season.

“Another good one — Eastlake and Bonita Vista,” Barons coach Keith Quigley said in reference to the fast-paced, up-and-down-the-court contest. “Our strategy was to maintain the intensity for three periods. We knew they would come out hard. We knew it would be very intense.”

The teams exchanged goals in the opening period, with Eric Enciso giving Bonita Vista (6-0 in league play, 7-8 overall) a short-lived 1-0 lead before Eastlake’s Luc Ruiz tied the score just over a minute later. Tanner, assisted both times by Encisco, struck for a pair of goals 44 seconds apart in the first three minutes of the second period before the Titans (3-3, 6-8) started to gain offensive momentum.

Casey Shotwell, set up by Zach McElroy, trimmed the Baron lead to a goal at 3-2 when he finally managed to get a shot past BV netminder Cody “The Wall” Mazzarella with 3:23 elapsed in the third period. But Bonita Vista’s Ryan Wood caught a sprawling Daniel Hoshina out of the cage on a long shot by Ryan Veenstra and, after a fortunate bounce, tucked the puck into an empty net to give the Barons a 4-2 edge with 5:10 remaining in the game.

The opportunistic goal proved to be the game-winner after McElory beat Mazzarella on a long rifle shot from just inside the red like with 35 seconds to play. The Titans nearly tied the game but a shot was ruled to have gone in after the final buzzer had sounded, thus preserving Bonita Vista’s one-goal victory.

“Cody made some huge saves for us. Eastlake has got a couple guys who can rip the puck,” Quigley said. “Cody kept us in there by making some key saves.”

Enciso led the Barons on the scoreboard with one goal and two assists. Quigley said Enciso, in particular, has elevated his game the second half of the season. Once again, Willy Anderson and Steven Micallef played well at the back.

“I’m really impressed how the team has come together the second half of the season,” Quigley said. “We had the toughest schedule to start the season. We learned from some games. Being 6-0 in league now, the focus for the past month has been on taking the division. We know we can’t compete heads-up against the North County schools but we want to do something down here.”

Consider the message almost delivered to the rest of the Mesa League.

The setback was disappointing for the Titans, who entered the game without three players in the lineup, including key performer Nathan Scharmann, who was unavailable for the contest, according to Eastlake coach Jeff Mechling.
The Titans had numerous chances in the game but it seemed to be either a case of Mazzarela standing tall between the pipes or Eastlake players overskating rebounds when the puck did elude the hot BV netminder’s glove hand.

“The game was surprisingly fast considering both teams don’t have a lot of depth. It’s tough playing with seven players. We just don’t have the depth this year,” Mechling said. “The guys were playing their third game in as many nights. We ran out of steam. In spite of that, the guys played hard. They played with a lot of heart.”

Eastlake expects to field a more experienced lineup next season, noting that Scharmann is just a sophomore and Shotwell a junior. Another key player to emerge this season is freshman defenseman Andrew Abuyo, the Titan coach said.
“It always seems to be next year against Bonita. I’m getting tired of it,” Mechling quipped.

Notepad
La Jolla served notice to the rest of the Mesa League it still wants to finish as a champion after skating past Eastlake by a 13-9 score on Tuesday. The Vikings received eight goals from three assists from Johnny Noris, who is chasing Mar Vista’s Ian Nicklen for the conference scoring lead.

Noris had three goals and an assist in La Jolla’s 4-4 draw against Bonita Vista on Jan. 30. The Vikings took a 4-3 lead on a goal by Noris, set up by teammate Nick Whaley, with 1:26 left in the game but the Barons showed their resiliency by rebounding to tie the game with just 29 seconds left on the scoreboard clock when Tanner got the game-tying goal, assisted by Anderson.

Mazzarella once again played a huge part in the game with his goaltending for Bonita Vista, which received two goals and one assist from Tanner and a goal and assist from Anderson.

Noris, meanwhile, had a power play and short-handed goal for La Jolla, which is bidding for a berth in the 12-team Kiwanis Cup playoffs that start Feb. 20.