By Phillip Brents

Posted Feb. 4, 2005

After an 0-8-0 start in inter-league play against teams from the North County League, South County teams appeared to pick up their intensity of play in the second round of eight games but still failed to collect a much-needed victory.

With a 14-0-2 edge through 16 of 48 inter-league contests, the North County League has emphatically established itself as the top league in the Metro Conference’s three division arrangement this season.

But South County teams offered a hint at least that by the time the Kiwanis Cup playoffs roll around that the playing field might be much more level.

Inter-league games resumed Wednesday, Feb. 3 at Skate San Diego in National City. Poway, the leader in the North County League standings, faced off with a 24-0 victory against Castle Park in a game that matched up teams at the extremes of the standings. Stephen Lockwood paced the Titans (14-1-0) on the court with five goals and three assists. In all, goals were credited to 12 players in the Poway lineup. Seth Gritton finished the contest with a hat trick to go with a pair of assists while Danny Barnes, Trevor Cochran, Adam Gould, Josh Higson, Kevin Ingram and Matt Pecenco all scored two goals.

Poway led 10-0 after the first period.

A hint that South County teams had learned a lesson in how to hang with the North County invaders was delivered by Eastlake in its matchup against Scripps Ranch — a team by which all standards in CIF/Metro Conference play have been measured since the Falcons arrived to terrorize their South County foes four years ago. The game was a rematch of last year’s Kiwanis Cup championship game and, in the end, it read pretty much like last year’s 8-4 outcome in the favor of Scripps Ranch: the Titans skated even-up with the Falcons for two periods only to self-destruct in the final period.

Eastlake accomplished what most South County squads had failed to do thus far in the inter-league matchups by taking a 1-0 lead when Kyle Wagner, who continues to impress as one of the conference’s most improved players — regardless of whether in North County or South County — beat Falcons netminder Drew Yamada just 1:25 into the contest. The 1-0 Titan lead held up until 3:45 remained in the opening period when Matt Comrie tallied a power play goal off an assist from Ryan Knight to even the score. To that point, Eastlake had caught Scripps Ranch with a bit of surprise with its aggressive play, forcing turnovers in the Falcon end and generally harassing Scripps Ranch players to play a little off their stride.

That game plan continued to work for the Titans as Chipper Castro wheeled around the Scripps Ranch net unmolested to answer with a power play goal with just 33 seconds left in the period. Castro’s shot went high short side to give Eastlake a 2-1 lead after the opening 15 minutes.

The second period opened with the Titans successfully killing a Falcon power play and the run of play continued about even for both teams — certainly, Scripps Ranch was challenged more than in its 6-2 victory against Bonita Vista to officially open inter-league play the previous Monday. Eastlake could not get out of the period unscathed, however, as Comrie struck with 5:29 left with an unassisted goal to tie the game once more at 2-2.

All the Titans’ hard work, however, evaporated in a 1:49 span to open the third period. Comrie beat Eastlake goaltender Orlando Villela on the first shot of the period to put the Falcons up 3-2. The goal came just 23 seconds into the period. Knight then made it 4-2 Scripps Ranch 1:26 later on another down-court rush.

The Falcons’ breakaway speed started to kick in thereafter. A perfect illustration of this was freshman C.J. Ruhwedel’s goal to increase the Scripps Ranch lead to 5-2 with 6:22 left in the game. The smallest player on the court, Ruhwedel squeezed by an Eastlake defender along the boards and zoomed off from there, scoring on a solo break-in on Villela. It was a heads-up play on the part of Ruhwedel, who likely makes up for his lack of size with determination and tenacity. Also add spunk to those attributes.

Scripps Ranch goals quickly proceeded to fill the Eastlake net. Knight scored his second, Comrie got this fourth of the game and Knight completed his hat trick with tallies in the final 5:57.

Comrie led the Falcon attack with four goals and one assist while Knight contributed three goals and two assists. Ruhwedel also had an assist to go with his one goal while Andrew Woodfine and Josh Lopez each added assists.
Yamada blanked Eastlake over the final two periods.

While Eastlake raised the tempo of its game to frustrate Scripps Ranch early on, it was the Falcons who raised their level of play to score the runaway 8-2 win.

"We had them if it wasn’t for that third period," Eastlake coach Jeff Mechling said while coming off the rink and noting the balance of the game was much closer than the final score would indicate.

The win by Scripps Ranch (13-1-1) raised the North County League’s edge in inter-league matchups to 10-0-0.

That commanding edge became 11-0-0 after La Jolla Country Day’s 10-2 victory against Southwest. The Torreys have welcomed inter-league play after being beaten up on the scoreboard on a regular basis in North County League play. LJCD entered inter-league play with a 3-11-0 record, having been outscored 173-52 in North County League games. The Torreys raised their record to 2-0-0 in as many inter-league games as Oren Siegel scored four goals and one assist, Max Guise had three goals and one assist and Matt Hodgson was credited with a pair of goals. LJCD built a 7-0 lead before Southwest scored its first goal of the contest.

If a South County team was to post its first victory against a North County League team it appeared the best chance would come in Wednesday’s nightcap featuring Bonita Vista (13-2-0) against a short-handed Vista squad (10-4-1). The Panthers defied that logic, however, by taking a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Manny Alvarado and Andrew Peattie. Vista has clearly established itself as a wildcard team in the upcoming playoffs for its ability to punish opponents with just five skaters.

The Barons, who came out gunning from the opening whistle in their second inter-league game, got on the scoreboard on a Kelly Nash slapshot with 3:45 elapsed in the second period. But Vista promptly shredded the BV defense with back-to-back unanswered goals by Lukas Smith and Peattie to hike its lead to 4-1.

But the quick pace of the game only seemed to play into the fortunes of Bonita Vista. The Panthers, with only one bench player, would have to eventually tire. Along those lines, the Barons got a huge goal from team scoring leader James Arakaki, assisted by Nash, with 1:57 left in the second period to pull to within two goals on the score board at 4-2. During the intermission, BV coach Keith Quigley implored his team to suck it up and skate its collective wheels off. "We can take this team," he told his squad.

Arakaki led the Barons’ spirited comeback by scoring just 37 seconds into the third period to make the score 4-3. Peattie scored on a scramble at the other end of the floor 3:08 later to give the Panthers back a two-goal lead at 5-3 but the Bonita Vista skaters — taking a page from the play book of the North County League — kept coming. Nash scored on a breakaway with 9:51 to play to bring the Barons to within one goal at 5-4 and tied the game on her hat trick goal with 4:32 left.

All that was left, it seemed, was another BV goal to notch that history-making first win. The hearts had to be pounding and adrenaline rushing for the players on both teams as the clock ticked under 2:00.

Nash, who continues to amaze with her uncanny ability to gain control of the puck, got the golden chance the Barons were looking for when she took off on another breakaway, firing just wide with 24 seconds to go. That left it up to Vista to decide the outcome of the game. Though out-played the final period, the Panthers got the final two shots in the game. The best came point-blank in front of the BV net with 12 seconds to play in regulation but Baron netminder Cody Mazzarella, clearly raising the bar on his own game after absorbing a 6-2 drubbing two days earlier by Scripps Ranch, was up to the challenge with a lightning-quick pad save on the rising shot.

A second Vista attempt to win the game was blocked by a defenseman’s skate in front of the net. The furious finish left fans in the rink buzzing.

Some game by the Barons but still no win.

Round 2, Part 4: The hurt continues

The second round of inter-league play wrapped up on Thursday with four more games. Score it 3-0-1 for the North County League.

The opening game proved to be an eyebrow raiser as the San Diego Jewish Academy, the worst team in the North County League, defeated Montgomery, a middle of the pack South County team, by a 10-7 score. Does this mean the SDJA is worthy of a playoff berth? If the Lions continue their march through their inter-league schedule with as much moxy as they obviously had to show in this game, it is going to present the playoff seeding council with a dilemma -- do all eight North County League teams get in, even if the SDJA's record (2-14-0) is decidedly inferior to teams it has beaten such as the Aztecs (6-10-0)?

Good question to ask -- and one to potentially prompt some headaches. The next four games will obviously tell.

Johnny Simkin led the Lions -- losers of 14 straight games to open the season -- to their second consecutive win with five goals and two assists while teammate Josh Shinoff contributed three goals and an assist for the SDJA, which rallied from a 6-3 deficit with seven third-period goals. Mike Mortensen led Montgomery, which dropped to 0-2-0 in inter-league play, with six goals.

Rancho Bernardo improved to 2-0-0 in inter-league play by defeating Hilltop 8-2. The Broncos led 2-1 after one period but piled up six second-period goals to take a commanding lead. Justin Michitsch keyed RB with five goals and one assist.

Jamie "Bam Bam" Huntley made a triumphant return to former stomping grounds by scoring six goals and adding an assist in La Jolla's 17-1 victory against Sweetwater. The Vikings, who qualified for last year's Kiwanis Cup playoffs, also received five goals and three assists from John Noris in running their inter-league record to 2-0-0. La Jolla received points from eight players and goals from seven.

North County League tab: 14-0-1.

Westview took on Mar Vista in the evening's marquee game finale and the matchup lived up to that billing as the South Bay League champion Mariners got it in gear with three third-period goals to force a 6-6 standoff after the Wolverines (9-4-2) had led 4-1 after the first period. Leo Scheiler scored twice in the opening period and Drew Ness scored Westview's lone goal in the second period to hand the North County visitors a 5-3 lead heading into the final frame. The Wolverines got one goal amid a late Mar Vista flurry but the Mariners kept coming until finally tying the game on a goal by Adrian Avalos with just 27 seconds left. Ian Nicklen, who assisted on the game-tying goal, led Mar Vista with three goals and two assists. Mar Vista (13-1-1) also received one goal and three assists from Jeremy Tanaka while Avalos scored twice in the contest. 

“I think some of the North County teams and South County teams are starting to develop a rivalry,” Mar Vista coach Ron Cole said. “It took us until the middle of the second period for us to adapt to their game. Once we did, the momentum seemed to shift to our side in the third period. It was the most exciting game I’ve ever seen in this rink.”

The Kiwanis Cup playoffs start Feb. 21. The bulk of the eight North County League teams are expected to comprise the 12 teams that qualify for postseason action (including all three league champions). The championship game is scheduled March 2.

“The playoffs should prove very interesting,” Sweetwater district athletic facilitator Don Cerone said.