SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

CIF/Metro Conference

Who needs North County? Eastlake, Hilltop provide roller hockey showcase

By Phillip Brents
Posted Jan. 6, 2006

For those keeping track of inter-league games between teams from the Mesa and South Bay leagues and those from the North County League in pre-winter break play, the results were pretty discouraging for those rooting for area squads. In the 30 inter-league match-ups, the six North County League teams skated away with a dominating 28-2 record.

Many of the scores were lop-sided: Poway 36, Castle Park 0; Poway 25, Bonita Vista 1; Scripps Ranch 27, Castle Park 0; Vista 12, Bonita Vista 1; Westview 28, Castle Park 0; Rancho Bernardo 17, Hilltop 2; Westview 10, Mar Vista 2; Poway 10, Hilltop 0; Rancho Bernardo 18, Bonita Vista 0; Westview 9, Hilltop 1; Poway 15, La Jolla 3.

In short, it didn’t take long to discover where the CIF/Metro Conference’s power base continued to lie this season. Many simply might ask at this point which North County League team will win the 2006 Kiwanis Cup championship: Poway? Scripps Ranch? Westview? Vista? Any would be a good choice, it seems.

But that is something that will be decided at the close of the season, with a handful of the South County’s stronger teams perhaps having a say in which teams advance to the semifinals.

While the disparity in play between North County and South County teams appears to be widening rather than closing, there is something that remains constant: good old-time rivalries. Such was put on display Monday at Skate San Diego in National City as Eastlake defeated Hilltop, 7-6, on the last shot of the game.

The teams, which shared a club league championship title in the San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference prior to the birth of the ground-breaking CIF/Metro Conference six years ago, entered the non-league contest with a combined 3-8 record. But forget about win-loss records, Monday’s midseason match-up had all the drama and excitement of a playoff-caliber game.

If the North County teams are that much more superior, well … that’s fine. Now that inter-league play is over, it’s time for area teams to start playing for South County bragging rights.

“It was one of those games where the last team that scores wins,” said Eastlake coach Jeff Mechling, whose squad dug itself out of an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game on four separate occasions before finally taking the lead with just five seconds remaining.

“We played a great game. Everybody contributed. This was a team win - those are the best type of wins in my book,” Mechling said. “It used to be more of a rivalry in the past. But still every time we play Hilltop, it’s a good game.”
The outcome of the game had to erase a lot of bad memories in the early going of the 2005-06 campaign. It also showed what determination and persistence can accomplish.

With Titan goaltender Zach McElroy waiting until the last minute for his gear to arrive, the entire Eastlake team appeared as if it was still going through warm-ups for the first half of the first period as the Lancers rang off three unanswered goals. Ruben Benavides, assisted by Corey Garvin, gave Hilltop a 1-0 lead. Kevin Mark followed with a pair of goals to bulge the Lancers’ early edge to 3-0.

But that only seemed to inspire Eastlake’s skaters, who replied with three unanswered goals of their own to knot the score at 3-all by the end of the opening period. Kyle Wagner, Justin Craciunescu and Jonathan Williams were credited with the goals, with Andrew Abuyo, Chris Sexton and Williams each picking up assists.

Thereafter, Hilltop took a series of three one-goal leads - 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5 - only to have the Titans notch the equalizer each time. A rapid-fire succession of five goals were scored in the final 5:03 of the game - two by Hilltop and three by Eastlake.

Austin McDonald put away a nice two-on-one feed from Benavides to put the Lancers up 5-4. That lead held up for just over two-and-a-half minutes until Abuyo was credited with an unassisted goal to tie the score. Then McDonald struck again, putting Hilltop ahead 6-5 with 1:56 left on the scoreboard clock.

That lead held up for 1:14 as hard-charging Eastlake slipped a pair of shots past Lancer netminder Alex Penkin in the game’s final 42 seconds. Casey Shotwell, assisted by Craciunescu, knotted the score at 6-6. With time running down, Wagner pounced on a loose puck and ripped a drive from just beyond the face-off circle to Penkin’s left to provide the thril-ling finish to a 7-6 Titan victory.

As time ran out, Wagner thrust his arms high in the air and he was quickly swarmed by teammates. It was a scene usually reserved for championship moments.

“If you want, you can say that I looked at the clock before I shot,” Wagner said, smiling afterward.

In the least, the game had to be a confidence-builder for Eastlake, which had been rocked 44-5 on the scoreboard in four losses to North County League foes. The Titans, along with Bonita Vista and league newcomer La Jolla, appear to be contenders for this year’s Mesa League title.

Eastlake engages defending league champion Bonita Vista on Monday, Jan. 9, at 4:30 p.m. at Skate San Diego.
“Coming back from 3-0, we showed some character. This was definitely a big win, a morale booster for us,” Mechling said.

Hilltop, meanwhile, finds itself lodged in the stronger South Bay League this season, needing to pump up its intensity level in order to compete with the cream of this year’s local roller hockey crop: Otay Ranch (7-1) and Mar Vista (4-4).
“We have a young team but I think we still have a good team,” said Hilltop coach Dan Vaccaro, who hasn’t yet conceded this season’s South Bay League title to either the Mustangs or the defending league champion Mariners.
With the loss to Eastlake, the Lancers dropped to 2-4.

“I had been watching Hilltop in some of the other games, and even though it looked like they have a young team this year, they still looked like they had a good team. I knew this game would be tough for us,” Mechling said.
Spurred on by Monday’s win, Eastlake came back the next day to blitz Castle Park, 25-0, as eight players registered multi-goal games. Shotwell keyed the Titans (3-4) with five goals and one assist.

CIF/Metro Conference Roller Hockey Standings

(Games through Jan. 5, 2006)

Mesa League Standings
League Overall
School W-L W-L-T
Eastlake 0-0 3-4-0
Sweetwater 0-0 3-5-0
La Jolla 0-0 2-5-0
Bonita Vista 0-0 1-8-0
Chula Vista 0-0 0-7-1
Montgomery 0-0 0-7-0

South Bay League Standings
League Overall
School W-L W-L-T
Otay Ranch 1-0 7-1-0
Mar Vista 1-1 5-4-0
SDJA 0-0 3-4-0
Southwest 0-0 2-5-1
Hilltop 0-0 3-5-0Castle Park 0-0 2-5-0
LJCD 0-1 4-1-0

North County League Standings
League Overall
School W-L W-L
Poway 3-0 8-0
Scripps Ranch 2-0-1 7-0-1
Westview 1-1-1 6-1-1
Vista 1-2 5-3
Rancho Bernardo 1-2 6-2
West Hills 0-3 4-4

Castle Park 7, Chula Vista 2
Jan. 3 at Skate San Diego: The Trojans ended the game with five unanswered goals to snap a 2-2 tie. Three Castle Park players finished with two goals apiece: Ryan Ponce, Pablo Urbina and Ernest Munoz. Ramsey Romero contributed one goal and two assists to the victory. The Trojans (2-5) nursed a 1-0 first-period lead before the Spartans scored a tying goal by Anthony Laezza. Chula Vista (0-6-1) tied the game at 2-2 on a goal by Daniel Breon with 6:48 to play in the second period before the Trojans, who were playing without any substitutions, got their offense in high gear.

Mar Vista 10, LJCD 0
Jan. 3 at Skate San Diego: Ian Nicklen led the Mariners offense with four goals while Trevin Touvenin tallied two goals and two assists and teammates Adrian Avalos and Jeremy Tanaka each scored two goals. Mike Gisi recorded the shutout for Mar Vista, which improved to 4-4 as the Torreys (3-1) suffered their first loss of the season.

Otay Ranch 17, La Jolla 1
Jan. 4 at Skate San Diego: Matt Nafarrete (four goals, two assissts), Jonthan Reyes (four goals, one assists) and Zack Johnson (three goals, two assists) led the Mustangs (7-1) against the Vikings (2-4). Four Otay Ranch players recorded hat tricks in the game, including a three-goal effort by Ricky Gutierrez.

LJCD 4, Bonita Vista 1
Jan. 4 at Skate San Diego: Ben Sweeney was credited with three goals and Wynne Taylor with one goal as the Torreys (4-1) recorded a rare victory against the Barons (1-8), who were led on the scoreboard by Willy Anderson.