SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Falcons win -- without DC

By Phillip Brents

NATIONAL CITY, Feb. 20, 2003 -- The question has finally been answered, it seems, to everyone satisfaction: Scripps Ranch can win without its reigning superstar player.

On a night during which 2001-02 Metro Conference Player of the Year Dan Comrie was once again missing from the Falcons lineup, Scripps Ranch turned back a stiff challenge from Castle Park to claim a 4-2 victory -- and the top-seeded position in the upcoming Division I playoffs in the process.

"I guess this means we can win without Dan Comrie in the lineup," Falcon head coach Greg Friedman said with a well-meaning smile. "Good 'D' today."

Solid positional defense once again thwarted the Trojans' upset bid. Castle Park trailed 2-1 after the first period and valiantly fought back after going down 3-1 but could not break through the towering Scripps Ranch defense in the final stages of the contest after narrowing the score once again to two goals.

Even a late spurt -- a Trojan trademark -- could not get it done.

Comrie, who some are picking to one day play in the NHL, was absent -- along with teammates Brandon George and Grant Chinda -- in the Falcons' 10-8 loss to Bonita Vista on Feb. 13. The standout trio were involved in a conflicting ice hockey tournament.

Jennings Brieck led Scripps Ranch (16-2-1) with three goals in Thursday's win against Castle Park while Lance Jeremiah also scored once. The Falcons received assists from Rick Comrie, Andrew Woodfine, Zac Walters and Andrew Reinhold.

The Trojans (11-7-1) received single goals from Art Garcia and Donny McGraw.

The win assured the Falcons of the top seed in the Division I Kiwanis Cup playoff that start Feb. 25. Castle Park needs a win in its final game on Friday against Hilltop (8-10-1) to clinch the No. 3 seed.

Eastlake (11-8-0) goes into its final regular season game with a chance of still earning the third seed with a victory and a Castle Park loss. But in order to do so, the Titans would have to knock off Scripps Ranch -- with or without the celebrated DC in the lineup.

Eastlake 10, La Jolla Country Day 6

The Titans matched last year's win total with a key win against a Torres squad missing its top scorer, Nathan Sigmund. Scott Powers had his second consecutive four-goal game and Patrick Johnson scored twice, Chad McElory had two goals and an assist and Daniel Valle added a goal and three assists to lead Eastlake offensively.

LJCD, which saw its chances of overtaking Scripps Ranch for the top seeded position end with the loss, received four goals from Frankie Warren and a pair of goals from Chris Bartlett. Besides Sigmund, also missing from the Torres' lineup was standout Max Guise -- leaving the team with just half its "Fab Four" (Sigmund, Warren, Guise and Bartlett) on the playing court.

Matt Hodgson split time between the pipes with incumbent Ben Bartlett, who earned an assist during his time in the field.

The victory by the Titans was believed to be the first in two year's against LJCD.

"We' accomplished our goals we set at the beginning of the season. We made the playoffs. We wanted to improve as the season went on and we did that," said Eastlake coach Jeff Mechling, whose team suffered elimination last year in the first playoff round against neighborhood rival Bonita Vista.

In the single-elimination bracket format, Titans assistant coach Frank Lopez noted that injuries and illness can play important roles in the fate of any team (as Castle Park found out last year with an untimely injury to standout scorer Donny McGraw).

Mike Cerwonka also scored one goal for Eastlake.

Bonita Vista 8, Hilltop 6

The Barons improved to 4-1-1 in their last six games by sending the Lancers to 0-7-1 in second-half play. Hilltop started the final 10 games of the season 8-2 but injuries and suspensions to key players have dealt the team some poor results of late.

Carl Horten, who led the conference in scoring after 10 games, was absent from the Hilltop lineup once again as the team rests him for next Tuesday's first-round playoff game.

Even without their marquee player in the lineup, the Lancers still gave their oldest roller hockey rival a run as Brian Mark scored three goals and Eric Morgan contributed two goals and two assists.

James Arakaki keyed the Barons with two goals and four assists. Bonita Vista also got two goals from Reuben Felizardo and a goal and assist each from Martin Magdanz, Austin Ballow and Chi Hom.

For Hilltop, Joe Casillas had a pair of assists while Nick Donahue scored once and Cory Cavanah had one assist.