SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

ROLLER HOCKEY WARS
SECOND HALF OF SEASON ROLLS FORWARD, PLAYOFF MINDSET ARRIVES
By Phillip Brents
Posted Jan. 13, 2005

As the second half of the season dawns with next week’s slate of games, each rush down court, each slap shot, each defensive break-up and each goaltender save becomes just a bit more important as the North County invasion nears.

League play in both the Mesa League and South Bay League was scheduled to wrap up Thursday, barring unforeseen inclement weather. Beginning on Tuesday, cross-league play will start with Mesa League teams meeting South Bay League teams. At the conclusion of North County League play, South County teams will finally have the opportunity to see how they stack up against the traditionally stronger northern teams beginning Jan. 31 as positioning for playoff seeding gets underway in advance of the Kiwanis Cup playoffs — now christened as the official conference championship tournament.

The three league champions receive automatic entry into the Kiwanis Cup playoffs, with a fourth spot guaranteed to the best non-league champion. The remaining eight positions will be filled on an at-large status. It will be the job of South County teams to make a statement to see if they measure up to secure that fourth automatic entry berth — and as many of the 12 playoff spots overall.

North County League teams will play six games against their southern rivals. In the meantime, there is plenty of drama yet to be settled among the top South County squads. Mar Vista and Bonita Vista both took conference-best 9-0-0 records into Thursday’s league finales. Mar Vista completed South Bay League play on Tuesday with a 9-0 victory against Castle Park to finish 8-0-0 in league play as this year’s league champion — the first league title in the sport in school history — while Bonita Vista and Eastlake (8-1-0) were scheduled to decided e the Mesa League championship on Thursday. An Eastlake victory would force a co-championship while a Baron win would secure the Mesa League title and an automatic playoff spot.

Mar Vista’s record-setting team will find out what it is made of when it rolls out for highly anticipated matchups against Bonita Vista (Jan. 24) and Eastlake (Jan. 27). The Mariners will also play Montgomery, Chula Vista and Sweetwater from the Mesa League before closing out regular season play with contests against Westview (Feb. 3), Rancho Bernardo (Feb. 7), La Jolla (Feb. 16) and Scripps Ranch (Feb. 17).

Bonita Vista’s season-ending schedule looks to get tougher with matchups against Hilltop (Jan. 27), Scripps Ranch (Jan. 31), Vista (Feb. 2), Poway (Feb. 8), Rancho Bernardo (Feb. 9), Westview (Feb. 15) and La Jolla Country Day (Feb. 16).

Eastlake’s cross-league schedule is rounded out with games against Rancho Bernardo (Feb. 1), Scripps Ranch (Feb. 2), Vista (Feb. 8), Westview (Feb. 10), Poway (Feb. 15) and the San Diego Jewish Academy (Feb. 16).
Which teams will shake out as the proverbial teams to beat? Players, coaches and fans can hardly wait to find out as anticipation builds to a fever pitch.

Playoff worthy games have already started, in fact. That was admirably displayed in Tuesday’s battle for second place in the South Bay League standings between first-year Otay Ranch and Hilltop, which owns an illustrious history dating back to club league play prior to the history-making formation of the CIF/Metro Conference. The action was fast and furious at times, with forwards ripping off speeding slap shots and each goaltender making heroic saves.

The game ended in a 6-6 tie as Hilltop (4-4-1 overall) fought back from a 6-4 deficit with a pair of unanswered goals in the final 4:32 by Brian Mark and Ruben Benavides. While some Otay Ranch supporters may have viewed the tie more as a loss than a victory, the deadlock on the scoreboard did position the fledgling Mustangs (6-2-1 overall) to secure sole possession of second place in the league standings with a win against Southwest on Thursday.

First-year heroes
In the teams’ first meeting, Otay Ranch had pulled off a 7-5 victory, then considered an upset. However, the Mustangs were in the rematch from the start, taking a 2-0 lead before later fighting back from a 3-2 deficit to lead by scores of 5-3 and 6-4 in the final period. Matt Nafarrete led Otay Ranch in the game with a hat trick while Adrian Rodriguez, a member of the under-16 youth national team, added two goals and one assist.

The Mustangs are not playing like a first-year team, with credit going to head coach Lyn Dyer, trainer Mike Duffey and goaltending coach Mark Holland for molding the team into a cohesive unit.

"We’ve used defensive play and playing positions to our advantage. Our power play has worked better, too," said Dyer, who has led Grossmont College to a pair of playoff championships in the National City-based San Diego Collegiate League and guided the West Coast Panthers to a fourth-place copper medal at last summer’s Junior Olympic championships in St. Louis.

If the Mustangs can become more aggressive on the power play, the team’s cross-league matchups could become quite interesting.

Otay Ranch will pair up against Bonita Vista (Jan. 20), Eastlake (Jan. 25), Vista (Feb. 1), Scripps Ranch (Feb. 9), the San Diego Jewish Academy (Feb. 15) and Westview (Feb. 16).

Besides the game against Bonita Vista, Hilltop has upcoming high profile games against Poway (Jan. 31), Rancho Bernardo (Feb. 3), Westview (Feb. 8), Vista (Feb. 10), Scripps Ranch (Feb. 15) and La Jolla (Feb. 17).
"I was so proud of our kids. We were down 6-4 and tied it up. Cory Garvin, who is one of our top offensive players, was ill. It was a good team win," Hilltop coach Dan Vaccaro said.

Travis Tampueco matched Mark with a pair of goals while adding an assist to lead the Lancers on the scoresheet.
"We played better than the first time we played them. We hustled more," said Nick Donahue, who had one assist in the game for the Lancers. "We have lots of room still to improve. We’re working better as a team. Obviously in this game we played better. We’d like to get some momentum going."

Ruben Gomez had a goal and assist for Otay Ranch, which also received a pair of assists form Angelo Seganti.
"These were two evenly-matched teams," Dyer said in reference to the game against Hilltop.
The Kiwanis Cup playoffs start Feb. 21.