California teams fall just short at NARCh Varsity Cup

By Phillip Brents

Marina and Temecula Valley high schools entered bids to become this year's NARCh Varsity Cup champion but both teams fell short of achieving that goal with semifinal losses at this year's NARCh Finals in Ohio. Instead, this year's High School Division final proved to be a history-maker as two Missouri teams battled it out for supremacy on the court, with the Parkway South Patriots downing defending Missouri state champion Oakville by a 3-1 score.

In an all-California' championship encounter in 2003, El Dorado defeated Santiago. Neither team returned to defend its finals appearance this season.

The 2004 NARCh title was sweet for the Patriots, who have been a pioneer in developing high school roller hockey in the Show Me State. Joe McGuire gave Parkway South an early 1-0 lead, followed by a goal by teammate Dave Dedman, for a 2-0 advantage. Dedman's goal stood up as the game-winner after Oakville narrowed the game to 2-1 on Dan Langreider's tally.

Temecula Valley, which finished 2-2-0 at the 2002 NARCh Finals, earned the third playoff seed while the Marina Vikings -- the 2003 bronze medalist -- were seeded fourth. Both California teams won first-round playoff contests to advance to the semifinals. Temecula Valley scored an 8-0 win against sixth-seeded Lakota West of Ohio while the Vikings stopped Moeller High, also from Ohio.

Top-seeded Oakville, keyed by standout Pat Maroon throughout the tournament, ended Marina's playoff run with a come-from-behind 5-3 semifinal victory. Temecula Valley fell by that same score against the second-seeded Patriots.

Marina went home with the knowledge that its players had beaten the best despite not medaling (Temecula Valley was awarded the bronze medal as the higher seed). In preliminary play, Marina defeated Parkway South, 1-0, in a tight battle of defense and goaltending.

Marina also played the silver medalists tough after dropping a 4-3 preliminary-round decision to Oakville. The Vikings rallied from an initial 3-0 deficit against the physically more imposing Missourians to tie the match 3-3. However, Marina -- led by Ken, Jared and Jonathan Gibo -- could not get another past Oakville goaltender Luke Venker, who was sensational in holding off a sustained 4-on-2 Viking power play.

Brad Ellis of Marina earned honors as the division High Scorer with four goals and eight assists while Jake Menzel helped guide Parkway South's championship fortunes as the division Top Goaltender (.918 save percentage).