SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Falcons stave off Trojans with exciting finish

Scripps Ranch refuses to lose; extends unbeaten record to 16-0-0

By Phillip Brents

NATIONAL CITY, Feb. 3, 2004 -- Proverbial "go-to" players rise to the occasion repeatedly in clutch situations, and Scripps Ranch senior Dan Comrie did just that to help rescue his team in Tuesday's climactic 8-7 victory against Castle Park at Skate San Diego.

With the top two teams in the 12-team Metro Conference embroiled in a 6-6 standoff, a determined Comrie stole the puck deep in the Castle Park defensive zone and whipped a shot past Trojan netminder Matt Goodnight to put his team up 7-6 with 2:43 left in regulation play.

Just over two minutes later -- this time with the teams deadlocked in a 7-7 tie -- he supplied the game-winner in dramatic fashion to cap a four-goal performance after seeing his team cough up an early 5-1 lead.

But what else is new for this extraordinary player who wasn't even supposed to be playing in Southern California this season?

The Falcons, in extending their unbeaten conference record to 16-0-0, have to feel fortunate to have him wearing their colors in what could turn out to be a season filled with

unparalleled achievement.

"It was good for us. We've had too many easy games. We got up 5-1. We thought

we were going to kill them. That's what usually happens. We get up and we usually bury them (opponents). But they kept coming back. They didn't fold. We kept thinking that one more goal and they'd fold. But they sucked it up," Scripps Ranch coach Greg Friedman said in complimentary fashion of the Trojans' effort.

The Falcons had previously defeated Castle Park 16-2.

Comrie's game-winning goal came after a third-period Trojan flurry that nearly buried Scripps Ranch in an avalanche of goals. Castle Park outscored the Falcons 5-2 in a stretch of 30 heart-stopping minutes that started in the final minute of the first period and twice had the opportunity to take an improbable lead before the Falcons finally stood up and collectively said "no more."

Castle Park senior Everett Hinojosa scored on a power play with 1:11 to play to tie the game at 7-7 to set up the entertaining game's thrilling finish. Trojan scoring leader Donny McGraw flew in on a breakaway with 45 seconds to play but his potential game-winning shot went wide to set up Comrie's dramatic end-to-end rush.

The Falcon captain skated down court with seemingly nerves of steel and, in textbook fashion, calmly put the puck past Goodnight with 30 seconds left. The goal was Comrie's 21st in 10 games since rejoining the team and his 42nd point.

Thus the magical season continued.

In winning 16 consecutive games, Scripps Ranch has gone where no San Diego County high school roller hockey team has ever gone before. The Falcons have surpassed any perfect start turned in by a team in either the four-year-old Metro Conference or nine-year-old San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference (where six current Metro teams actually saw their birth).

Scripps Ranch has four Mesa League games remaining on its schedule -- one against Bonita Vista on Feb. 5, one against Chula Vista on Feb. 10, one against Eastlake on Feb. 12 and one against Montgomery on Feb. 17. The four games stand between the Falcons recording the first-ever 20-0-0 campaign -- and possibly more.

The Trojans (11-4-0) will be among the teams looking to play streak-busters, if only in the postseason playoffs.

"It was a great game. I'm happy," said Castle Park coach Gene Garcia, gushing over with superlatives for his team and pondering all the what-could-have-beens in the contest. "We had a chance to win it. We could easily have got a tie. We gave it a good game."

It appeared to be a one-sided affair to start the game as Scripps Ranch piled up an early 3-0 advantage on goals by freshman sensation Ryan Knight, solid sophomore Andrew Woodfine and superstar Comrie.

Houston Fry put the Trojans on the scoreboard after finding space to briefly park in front of Falcon senior netminder Brandon George. But Castle Park could not maintain the momentum and David Welch put Scripps Ranch back in front by three goals two minutes later and Comrie added a goal off the ensuing face-off to give the Falcons a 5-1 flying start.

McGraw had entered the game with 50 goals to his credit and keeping him off the scoreboard was an obvious key to Scripps Ranch building its sizable lead. However, McGraw finally got unleashed in the middle period and got the only goal of the stanza as the Trojans narrowed their deficit to 5-2.

Castle Park got the first two goals of the third period -- both scored by McGraw -- to trim the Falcon lead to 5-4 with more than 12 minutes to play. But freshman Matt Comrie stormed back less than two minutes later to enable Scripps Ranch to up its lead to 6-4.

A slapshot by the Trojans' Richard Garcia made it a 6-5 game with 9:30 to go and McGraw nearly tied it shortly thereafter on a set-up play in front of the Falcon net. But Castle Park refused to fold its game and netted the equalizer off the stick of Hinojosa with 4:32 remaining in regulation play.

Dan Comrie illuminated the court with his brilliance from then on, scoring clutch go-ahead goals at 7-6 and 8-7.

"Our younger kids got to see what pressure was like," Friedman said.

Finally.

Eastlake 8, Bonita Vista 5

The Barons were playing for second place in the Mesa League standings and came out firing with a 3-1 lead. However, a Titan team playing possessed came out in the final period and seized control of the contest. Senior Scott Powers stole a puck and scored on a breakaway to put Eastlake (12-3-0) up 6-5 and added another goal, set up by fellow four-year senior Chad McElory, to stake the Titans to a 7-5 edge. Bonita Vista (10-5-1) had a chance to get back into the game when James Arakaki was awarded a penalty shot with 32 seconds to play but Titan netminder Dustin Tewilliager made a last-second stick save to thwart the Barons. Daniel Nafarrette scored an empty net goal with eight seconds to go to seal the victory for Eastlake.

"It was a wake-up call. We were going down. We had to turn it on," Titan senior Scott Powers said.

La Jolla 14, Sweetwater 4

Jacob Glover led the Vikings with five goals and one assist and Jamie Huntley added five goals in the win. Chris Granillo had five points on two goals and three assists for La Jolla, which is bidding to grab one of three South Bay League playoff berths. The Vikings (7-6-1) have six games left -- four of them in league play (two against Mar Vista, one against Southwest and one against defending Kiwanis Cup champion La Jolla Country Day). La Jolla is expected to receive a forfeit from Southwest on Feb. 5 -- leaving the contests against Mar Vista (Feb. 17 and TBA) and LJCD (Feb. 12) as deciding the Vikings' playoff fortunes.

Marvey Ferrer, who left the game late in the third period with a leg injury, paced the Red Devils (2-13-0)with four goals.