Silver Division NARCh Finals prove golden

By Phillip Brents

Tour Pacific Cup teams came away with three of the six gold medals awarded in the Silver Division at the 2004 NARCh Finals in Cincinnati. Highlighting the parade of champions were the Mission Patriots from California in the Mite Division and Arizona’s Mission Excalibur Black in the Squirt and Pee Wee divisions.

Impressively, Pacific Region teams captured 56 percent of the medals in the Silver Division Finals.

Atom Division

The Mission Patriots, seeded third, finished third after trimming the fourth-seeded Cincinnati Skatetown Swords, 5-4, in the third-place game. The top-seeded Michigan Wildcats won the division after scoring an 8-2 victory against the second-seeded Cincinnati Storm.

Mite Division

Garrett Niklowitz highlighted the Mission Patriots’ championship drive by earning the Top Goaltender award (.826 save percentage). The division ended with California teams sweeping all three medals. The Patriots - the Tour Pacific Cup A Elite Tier champions -- defeated Mission AKS San Clemente, 5-4, in overtime in the gold medal game. The Anaheim Mission Bulldogs White (the Pacific Cup A Select Tier champions) skated off the floor with the bronze medal.

The Patriots finished 3-0 in the playoffs, first defeating the ProJoy Cincinnati Storm, 7-3, and then slipping past the Skatetown Swords, also from Ohio, by a 6-4 score in the semifinals. San Clemente eliminated the Bulldogs, 6-4, in the semifinals.

Mission Primal was the fourth California team among the seven playoff entrants but did not advanced past the first round, losing 8-5 in an upset to the lower-seeded Swords.

Scott Savage of San Clemente scored 11 goals and eight assists as the division High Scorer.

Squirt Division

Mission Excalibur entered the playoff field seeded second to the Mission Patriots from California but took home the gold medal after scoring a 4-1 victory against fourth-seeded St. Louis Flex. The Excalibur program took a bold move up after placing third in the division at the 2003 NARCh Finals.

The Patriots defeated Delaware’s Blue Diamond Blades, 3-1, in the semifinals but fell victim to the Flex in the semis, losing a tight contest, 4-3, to earn the bronze medal.

The Anaheim Mission Bulldogs Red were the third Pacific Region team to qualify for the playoff round but lost 5-4 to the Blades in the opening round. Excalibur finished 3-0 in the playoffs.

Pee Wee Division

Top-seeded Mission Excalibur Black from Arizona turned back the second-seeded York Mission Triumph 90 by a 5-3 score to capture the program’s second consecutive NARCh Finals title in the division. The Arizonans advanced to the finals with a 5-2 win against Kentucky’s Snake Eyes while the third-seeded Mission Patriots dropped a 4-2 semifinal matchup against York in a bid to forge an all-Pacific Region championship game.

Eric Hernandez paced Excalibur to the tournament championship as the division Top Goaltender (.874 save percentage).

Bantam Division

The Anaheim Mission Bulldogs placed second in the division following a 5-2 loss to Michigan’s Dragonmead Radiation. The Knights of Corona won the bronze medal with a 6-2 defeat of Team Ohio in the third-place game.