SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Broncos are back, win second title

Rancho Bernardo tames Vista Panthers 7-4 in club league final

Quarterfinal round playoff summaries

By Phillip Brents
Posted March 14, 2003

The Rancho Bernardo Broncos lost just one player off last year’s San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference championship team and perhaps it was not surprising when the team finished undefeated in regular season play this season. Nor was it particularly surprising that the Broncos repeated as conference playoff champions following their 7-4 victory against the Vista Panthers March 1 at Skate San Diego in National City.

Rancho Bernardo (12-0-2) became only the second team in the eight-year history of the conference to win more than one championship title, joining the Monte Vista Monarchs (three titles from 1997-99) as the only other team to win more than one championship in the club-based league.

The Monarchs’ bid to revive their once dominant dynasty ended with a 7-6 loss to Vista in this year’s semifinals.

“Our goals this season have been to keep the team strong and play each game like it is a championship game — that’s how everybody is treating us – and to keep our focus,” Rancho Bernardo coach Ray Goodrich said. “We pretty much stayed on track.”

The top-seeded Broncos, who trailed 1-0 early but stormed back with four unanswered goals in the next 10 minutes, had five players score in the title game, led by Mike Majam with two goals and two assists and Jared Goodrich with two goals and one assist. Dane Ludolph had a goal and two assists while Kevin Meisner and Jordan Goodrich both had a goal and assist.

Second-seeded Vista (10-2-2) received goals from four different players: Chase Ambuter, Nick DiMento, Dennis Furlong and Lucas Smith. Jimmy Peattie had two assists.

After the Panthers made it a 4-2 contest, the Broncos reeled off three more unanswered goals to take a commanding 7-2 lead.

While last year’s RB team featured strong defense, excellent goaltending and a pair of outstanding offensive players in Jared Goodrich and the since graduated Matt Wick, this year’s Inland League champion Broncos squad was built more around defense. Rancho Bernardo allowed 24 goals in 11 regular season games — the second-lowest number of goals in the conference after Southeastern League champion Monte Vista (20).

Jared Goodrich’s move from forward to defense may have been the catalyst, allowing him to take advantage of his superior rink vision to aid his offensive ability. Senior defenseman David Drasin and senior goaltender Ryan Bracamonte also contributed heavily to the success of this year’s team while other players to watch included senior defensemen Wes Jones and Eric Rowe, senior forward Ryan Deitrick and freshman forward Andy Meisner.

“Those are the things that’s taken us to the top – changing our defense up a little bit. We had to go with a different make-up after Matt left,” Ray Goodrich said.

The Broncos opened the season with a 3-3 tie against St. Augustine, which went on to finish 5-4-2 as the runner-up team in the Southeastern League, but ended the regular season with a 9-2 victory against Vista in a battle of the conference’s remaining two unbeaten teams.

The momentum continued into the playoffs, though that is not to say the Broncos were not tested in postseason action. Rancho Bernardo rallied with two late goals, including an empty netter, in scoring a 4-2 quarterfinal-round victory against 10th-seeded Torrey Pines and escaped another scare in the semifinals with a 7-6 victory against fourth-seeded San Pasqual.

Kevin Meisner, assisted by Drasin, scored the 3-2 go-ahead goal with 7:40 to play in regulation and Jared Goodrich added an empty net goal with three seconds remaining in the quarterfinal-round matchup against Torrey Pines (7-6-0). The Falcons, who had upended seventh-seeded Fallbrook in the opening round, twice had knotted the contest on the scoreboard on goals by Kenny McCubbins (who had all four goals in the 4-1 playoff win against Fallbrook).

In the semifinals, the verdict as to which team would advance to the playoff final went down to the final seconds after the Broncos saw their early three-goal lead whittled away against San Pasqual, which had finished runner-up to Rancho Bernardo in Inland League play with an overall 8-2-1 record.

“You knew when it was 4-1 that it wasn’t safe yet,” Ray Goodrich said. “They’re a very good third-period team. They’ve got some excellent players – the Yeoman brothers and Nick Popoff. We all knew it would be a tough game. It could have gone either way. Right down to the last 10 seconds I was worried that it would go the other way.”

The Golden Eagles, who were led by Popoff and Andy Yeomans with two goals each, narrowed the gap to 4-3 with 10:40 left in the final period and pulled within a goal on two more occasions before the final buzzer sounded to end their season. Brock Backus set up three goals in the game for San Pasqual while teammate Aaron Galadon added a goal and assist.

Jared Goodrich (three goals), Kevin Meisner (two goals, one assist), Drasin (one goal, two assists) and Majam (one goal, two assists) all had three points for the Broncos while Jones contributed two assists.

There was also some doubt as to whether Vista would skate in the championship game. After coughing up an early 4-1 advantage to third-seeded Monte Vista (9-2-2), the Panthers took advantage of some untimely Monarch defensive breakdowns in the late going to regain the lead and prevail 7-6.

Ambuter keyed the Panthers with four goals while DiMento added a goal and three assists. Ambuter tied the game at 6-6 with 2:27 to play and Jimmy Peattie, assisted by DiMento, received credit for the winning goal with 1:28 to play in regulation.

“All season these guys have played over their heads. The puck has bounced our way. Our big scorers were scoring. (Goaltender) Adam Apperly was playing huge all season. He was making some saves,” Vista coach Harry Smith said.

Monte Vista entered the 12-team playoff bracket with an 8-1-2 record, with the one loss by forfeit, and four unanswered goals later held a 5-4 lead before trading goals with the Panthers for a 6-5 lead. Tony Mauro and Justin Spears each scored twice for the Monarchs, who had recorded the most inspirational comeback victory of the playoffs in a 7-6 overtime victory in the previous round against fifth-seeded Escondido by recovering from a 5-0 deficit midway through the second period.

Ambuter led Vista with three goals and one assist while teammates Andrew and Jimmy Peattie each chipped in with a goal in a 6-2 quarterfinal-round victory against eighth-seeded Mt. Carmel. Furlong had two assists for Vista, which built a 4-0 lead in the game.

The Sundevils, who defeated ninth-seeded St. Augustine 8-2 in first-round playoff action, cut the Panthers lead to 4-1 on the first of Mike Baumker’s two goals with 9:36 to play in the middle period. However, the Panthers answered within a minute to regain their four-goal lead.

In other quarterfinal round games, fourth-seeded San Pasqual downed 11th-seeded Carlsbad Lancers 4-1 as Nick Popoff scored twice for the Golden Eagles and Kevin Eaton contributed a goal and assist. The Lancers, who scored a 2-1 upset win against sixth-seeded Poway in the opening round, cut the San Pasqual lead to 2-1 on Tim Carr’s goal with 5:21 to play in regulation. However, Popoff responded with a goal just 11 seconds later to restore the Eagles’ two-goal lead and Andy Yeomans added an insurance goal, assisted by Nick Yeomans, with 1:17 to play.

Monte Vista’s dramatic – or might it be called miraculous? – comeback win against Escondido has to be the talk of this year’s playoff tournament, however.

Brandon Schaeffer’s short-handed goal, assisted by Brett Timmins with 43 seconds gone in sudden-death overtime allowed the third-seeded Monarchs to escape with the dramatic victory. The Cougars (8-4-1) had led 5-0 midway through the game.

“That’s what Monte Vista hockey is all about,” Monarchs head coach Kyle Trelford told his team after the thrill-seeking win. “A lot of teams would have given up down 5-0 and blamed it on the referees or something else. But they kept working hard. It was a good game. I'm really proud of them.”

Timmins, a standout ice hockey player, took charge of his team’s inspired come-from-behind effort with four goals and two assists while Schaeffer had three goals and an assist.

The Monarchs began their torrid comeback when Timmins scored with 3:16 to play in the second period to spoil Cougars sophomore goalie Colin Reischl's shutout bid. Timmins added another uncontested goal with 41 seconds to play in the period and two more unanswered goals to start the third period -- the first by Schaeffer and the next by Timmins for a hat trick -- whittled the Cougar lead to 5-4.

Keven Johnson appeared to give Escondido – an 8-5 first-round winner against 12^th-seeded Rancho Buena Vista -- a boost when he scored with just over six minutes to play to give his team some additional breathing room at 6-4. But the Monarchs were not finished with what they had started.

Timmins scored his fourth goal of the game 43 seconds after Johnson's tally to hand the momentum back to Monte Vista, which tied the game with 35 seconds to play in regulation time on Schaeffer's second goal of the contest, unassisted.

The Cougars appeared to get a reprieve, however, when the Monarchs took a penalty with 25 seconds remaining, with the excess time spilling over into the five-minute sudden-victory overtime period.

Escondido got one rush down court and a shot to the side of the Monte Vista net but Timmins gathered in the rebound along the boards and broke up the right side, with Schaeffer skating up the middle on an odd-man rush. Timmins centered the puck to Schaeffer and he slid it in at short-range distance for the winner.

Nate DeWindt led the Cougars with two goals and one assist while Ryan Engstrom had a goal and two assists and Mat Schreyer scored twice.

Escondido, which managed a major turnaround from a 2-8-1 non-playoff qualifying campaign the previous season, loses just one senior off this year’s team.

“The loss is disappointing but it couldn’t have happened against a classier team,” said Cougars coach Al Schoffstall. “Maybe next year it will be our turn.”

Non-playoff qualifiers included La Costa Canyon (3-7-1), West Hills (3-7-1), San Marcos (2-9-0), Point Loma (2-9-0), La Jolla (1-10-0) and Mission Bay (0-11-0).

Five of the six teams in both the Inland League and North County League advanced to the playoffs while only the top two teams in the expansion heavy Southeastern League qualified for post-season play.

Schaeffer had two goals and two assists and Mauro and Spears both contributed a goal and two assists to lead Monte Vista past St. Augustine 6-3 in a battle of unbeaten teams in Southeastern League play to clinch this season’s league title in the final game of regular season play for both teams.