SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

Tour Pacific Cup season heading to home stretch

By Phillip Brents
Posted April 7, 2003

Entering the final third of regular season play, a total of 280 teams had placed their names in the 2002-03 Tour Pacific Cup tournament standings. While growth has brought many new names to the forefront, perennial powers still continue to command their share of respect -- and position in the standings.

The Club Tier has offered quality competition for nearly 100 teams throughout the region thus far this season. While midseason favorites may have been established, the division races appear far from over in some cases.

The San Diego Scorpions and Nike OC Blades (95) were separated by one-half point for the lead in the Atom Division standings while the Scorpions had a 13-point lead on the Silicon Valley Quakes in the Mite Club Division.

A total of 19 teams had participated in Mite Club tournaments while 17 teams had competed in Atom Club tournaments.

Dane Miller keyed the Tucson Sandsharks to a runner-up finish behind CCM Team Innovative at the March 8 Mite Club Division qualifier at the Anaheim Hockey Club by earning high scorer honors with 11 points (9 goals, 2 assists). Goaltender Jesse Khorasance sparkled with a .952 save percentage to lead Team Innovative to its 4-0-0 tournament record.

Jonathan Chang (.864 SPCT) led the Scorpions to a 3-0-0 finish at the March 1 Mite Club qualifier at the Upland Gretzky Center.

The Mission Young Guns appeared to have the Squirt Club Division lead in hand with 54 points to the Chula Vista Hawks’ 39 points. The real race now appears for second place with both the Anaheim Hockey Club Bulldogs White team and Team Madness both within two standings points of the Chula Vista squad.

The Hawks, who reaped an early Christmas present by winning the Dec. 21 Tour Pacific Cup qualifier in Corona and following that up with second-place finishes at regional qualifying tournaments Jan. 25 in Huntington Beach and Feb. 8 in Anaheim, finished third behind the Young Guns and the Oregon Hystyk Rampage at the March 1 qualifier at the Upland Gretzky Center. Kelan Stuart earned high scorer honors for the Young Guns with seven goals and four assists while the Oregon goaltending tandem of Jordan Lane and J.T. Lamkin proved nearly unbeatable with a .970 save percentage.

The Chula Vista team took second place at last year’s Tour Pacific Cup Finals in Anaheim, followed by a second-place finish in the California State Games in July and a runner-up finish in the ProJoy Cup in Anaheim in September.

The race in the Pee Wee Club Division appears to be a bit more wide open with the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs (White) and CPH Fusion both trailing the division-leading Eclipse by five points in the standings. Five more teams each had compiled more than 30 standings points. They included the CCM Roller Vipers (Green), Mission Young Guns, Team Excalibur, the Chula Vista Hawks and San Diego Scorpions.

The Hawks have enjoyed more success this year than last year, according to player Andrew Garcia, an eighth grader at Bonita Vista Middle School. “We’ve been practicing more. We’ve been more of a team this year,” he said. “There is more dedication. We kind of know what we’re doing now – working as a team.”

The two divisions have had healthy participation numbers this season, with the Pee Wee Club Division featuring 39 teams in tournament play and the Squirt Club Division boasting 35 teams.

The San Clemente Spiders won the March 8 Pee Wee qualifying tournament at the Corona Inline Sports Center behind tournament high scorer Wes Snyder while Jason Wall, with six goals and two assists, led the CPH Fusion to a runner-up finish behind the Mission Young Guns at the Anaheim Hockey Club Pee Wee qualifier that same weekend.

The VC Vipers Gold claimed first place at the March 1 Pee Wee Upland Gretzky Center qualifier ahead of the Wolfpack, which was keyed by top goaltender Sean Briscoe (.929 SPCT). Matt Deautschamn of Mission Gretzky LBZ won high scorer honors at the tournament with two goals and eight assists.

Team Excalibur held a seven-point lead on the Dry Ice Dragons in the 19-deep Bantam Club Division. Team Excalibur tied the visiting Lanakila Hockey Club from Hawaii for top honors at the March 8 qualifier at the Anaheim Hockey Club as Chad Chapman (Excalibur) and Damon DeMetropolis tied for the high scorer award and the Lanakila duo of Ryan Green and Travis Sung shared top goaltender honors.

The AA Tier featured some close races. The Nike OC Blades (93) led Team Excalibur (Black) by two standings points for the Mite Division lead while the Squirt Division appeared to have four defined front-runners in Team Excalibur (Black), the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs (Gray), CPH Mission Velocity and Mission Gretzky LBZ.

Ryan Flores (high scorer) and Jeff Sanneback (top goaltender) helped lead the Bulldogs to a 3-0-0 performance at the March 8 Anaheim Hockey Club qualifier. Sannebeck excelled with a .951 save percentage as the Bulldogs finished ahead of a field that also included the CPH Quest, Team Excalibur (Black) and the Mission Young Guns.

The Anaheim Mission Bulldogs (Gray) topped the Pee Wee Division but 10 teams were bunched within eight points of one another for second place: CPH Canadiens, Marvel Vision, Northern California Extreme, Mission Patriots, CPH Mayhem, Silicon Valley Quakes (Black), Twisted Wristers, VC Vipers (Blue), Gretzky AKS Empire (88) and Lathrop Thunderblades.

The Mission Water City Serpents (Black) finished ahead of the Lathrop Thunderblades at the March 16 qualifier at the Water City complex. Chelsea Stevens won the top goaltender award for Water City while the Thunderblades were led by high scorer Rodney Daniels. The Marvel Vision won the March 8 qualifier in Corona behind high scorer Danny Cruz and top goaltender Nick Maricic. That same weekend at the Anaheim Hockey Club, top goaltender Grant Lyon led the CCM Outcasts past the Twisted Wristers, who were led by high scorer Matthew Kim in the tournament.

The Northern California Extreme paced the Bantam AA Division, the largest division in the AA Tier with 29 teams, while trailing the division leaders in a hotly contested battle for second place were the CCSA Rage, Team Anarchy and CCM Devil Dogs. The top three teams in the Junior AA Division included CPH Black, the Redding Roadrunners and Mission Patriots (Blue).

Water City hosted two Bantam AA qualifying tournaments on March 15. The host Mission Water City Serpents won the first tournament behind top goaltender Alex O’Neal (.890 SPCT) while Miguel Macias of the runner-up Mission Patriots finished with high scorer honors. The CCSA Rage won the second tournament behind high scorer Nate Sapikowski and top goaltenders Devin McKinne and Chris Thomas.

Steven Rockwell earned high scorer honors to lead the AHC Mission Bulldogs Blue team to a first-place finish at the March 8 Bantam qualifier in Corona while Albert Flores and Ryan Watt earned top goaltender award for the runner-up Marvel Gambit (the two teams tied with 2-0-2 records but the Bulldogs earned the extra standing point on better goal-differential).

Top goaltender Kyle Quinlan helped lead the Nor Cal Extreme to its first-place showing at the March 16 Junior qualifier at Water City while the runner-up Mission Patriots Blue team was keyed by high scorer Michael Villalobos.

More than 130 teams had competed in AA Tier tournaments, with both the Squirt and Pee Wee Divisions topping the 25-team plateau.

The balance of power could be shifting somewhat in the AAA Tier. While the Corona Edge had opened a 10-point lead on the Nike OC Blades (94) in the Atom Division, the Blades (92) team appeared to have firm control of the Mite Division with a 28-point lead on the LaVerne Marvel Silver Surfers. However, the LaVerne Marvel Silver Surfers (90) team topped both the NIke OC Blades (90) and (91) teams for the top spot in the Squirt Division. The LaVerne Marvel Gambit keyed the Pee Wee Division standings ahead of the Nike OC Blades (88) squad.

A slew of new names at the top continued in the 17-team strong Bantam AAA Division, paced by the Castle Arizona Stars, Tour Mudcats, Mission Patriots, Mission Raiders, Nike OC Blades and Tour Mavericks -- all with 20 or more standings points.

Preston Chang (high scorer) and Sean Hosseinzadeh and Danny Ellis (top goaltenders) led the Mudcats past the Raiders at the Feb. 22 qualifier in Huntington Beach.

Familiar faces continued atop the Junior AAA Division, however, with the Armadillos leading the Pama Cyclones.

The Rec Tier has gotten off the ground with some encouraging participation numbers. A total of six teams had competed in Mite play, with the Pacific View Thunder leading CCM Team Innovative and San Diego Scorpions. Ten teams had participated in the Squirt Rec Division with the San Diego Gulls (Blue), Tucson Team Unleashed, Silicon Valley Quakes and Thousand Oaks Thunder all recording double digit standing points.

The Water City Serpents (Blue) captured the first Pee Wee Rec Division tournament on March 15 ahead of the Mission Water City Serpents (90), CCM Roller Vipers (Blue), Paso Predators, CCM Roller Vipers (90) and Merced Patriots. Goaltender Matt Brundage helped lead the Serpents Blue squad to first place with a .889 save percentage while Anthony Harney scored four goals and six assist to earn the high scorer award for the runner-up Serpents 90 team.