SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Spartans find offense but losing streak continues

By Phillip Brents
Posted Dec. 11, 2003

Chula Vista High roller hockey coach Oscar Mendoza had never seen anything like it in the history of the team. The Spartans had been shut out in three consecutive games to start the 2003-04 season. The scores spoke for themselves: 23-0 to Bonita Vista, 15-0 to La Jolla and 18-0 to Eastlake.

At right: Heath McNerney, Willie Wiser and Bryan Flitcraft provided the offense for CVHS in Tuesday's game against La Jolla.

Chula Vista had not only lost three games in a row but had been outscored 56-0 in the process.

Mendoza, who helped start the Spartans as a club team with his father Carlos, could not recall a Chula Vista squad going so long without a goal. He could only scratch his head prior to Tuesday’s rematch with La Jolla at National City’s Skate San Diego roller rink.

“We’ve always had a scorer in the past,” Mendoza said.

The Spartans finally got the goals they had been seeking as Heath McNerney, Willie Wiser and newcomer Bryan Flitcraft all punched shots into the Vikings cage. However, the offense — as welcome as it might have seemed — did not prove enough in Chula Vista’s 13-3 loss.

Mendoza, however, remains realistic about expectations this season.

“We have a young team. The schedule has us playing the best teams at the start of the season. Hopefully, the team will learn from this and it will make us a better team once we start playing teams more our caliber,” the Spartan coach said.

The scoring drought officially ended at the 4:25 mark of the first period as McNerney put in a rebound shot by Wiser to tie the game at 1-1. Four minutes later, the score stood 2-1 in Chula Vista’s favor as Wiser — the first player in team history to compete all four years of his career at the CIF level — scored unassisted.

After scoring the go-ahead goal, Wiser let out a yell that could be heard from one end of the rink to the other.

“I had been waiting for that one,” he said.

The Spartan lead was short-lived, however, as La Jolla reeled off six unanswered goals to take a 7-2 lead. Flitcraft scored an unassisted goal with 3:29 to play in the second period to make the score 7-3. Chula Vista surrendered the game’s final six goals.

The Vikings, who were led by Jamie “Bam Bam” Huntley (5 goals, 1 assist) and Chris Granillo (4 goals, 4 assists), improved to 2-0 in their first year in Metro play.

In other games Tuesday:

La Jolla Country Day 4, Bonita Vista 4
Eric Enciso scored with 17 seconds to play with the Barons employing the extra attacker to notch the tie after Max Guise had given the Torreys (0-2-1) a 4-3 lead with 1:07 left in regulation. Freshman Matt Mulligan had tied the game for LJCD with 2:55 to play. Metro Conference scoring leader James Arakaki (16 goals, 15 assists) paced Bonita Vista (2-1-1) with two goals and one assist while Guise led all scorers in the contest with two goals and two assists. Willy Anderson scored a power play goal for the Barons, whose winless streak was extended to 0-1-1. LJCD goalie Ben Bartlett, who opened the season with 52 saves on 64 shots in a 12-1 loss to Scripps Ranch, had 36 saves on 40 shots in the game against Bonita Vista.

Hilltop 14, Southwest 0
Erick Morgan (8 goals, 2 assists) and Cory Garvin (3 goals, 1 assist) led the offense as goaltender Jeremy Schmidt recorded the shutout. The outburst hiked Morgan’s season scoring to 17 goals and seven assists.

Slap shots
•Also on Tuesday, Castle Park defeated Mar Vista its first loss of the season, 15-3, behind seven goals by Richard Garcia while Andrew Woodfine scored five goals to pace defending Division I champion Scrirpps Ranch to a 21-0 victory against Sweetwater.

•On Monday, Hilltop’s Travis Tampueco scored a dramatic goal with three seconds to play to lift Hilltop to an 8-7 victory against previously undefeated Bonita Vista. The Lancers, who received a hat trick in the game from Nick Donahue, had opened up an early 3-0 lead before the Barons — fueled by two goals each from Blake Tanner, Chi Hom and Enciso — stormed back to lead 6-5 with 6:18 to play in the contest. Donahue tied the game with 2:00 left.