CIF roller hockey season ends with a golden rush, State Cup playoffs next up

Five Sweetwater Union High School District roller hockey teams qualified to compete in this year’s CIF-Metro Conference Kiwanis Cup playoffs.

First-round action took place Feb. 22. Twelve of the conference’s 16 teams qualified for the playoffs.

All four teams from the Mesa League — Eastlake, Otay Ranch, Hilltop and Bonita Vista — qualified along with South Bay League champion Castle Park.

Seventh-seeded Eastlake advanced to the quarterfinals Feb. 28 with a 14-1 win over 10th-seeded Hilltop while eighth-seeded Otay Ranch out-lasted ninth-seeded Patrick Henry by a score of 11-8 to also advance to the quarterfinals.

Castle Park, seeded 12th, ended its season with a gritty 7-1 loss to fifth-seeded Escondido Charter to cap the opening triple-header at the Castle Park High School outdoor rink.

Bonita Vista, seeded 11th, saw its season end with a 14-0 loss to sixth-seeded Poway in a game played at the Escondido Sports Center.

Both Eastlake and Otay Ranch ended their seasons in the quarterfinals. The season ended March 6 at the Escondido Sports Center as third-seeded Westview (14-6) successfully defended its conference championship with a 3-2 overtime win over top-seeded Rancho Bernardo (20-2) in the Kiwanis Cup championship game.

Josh Groll scored all three goals for Westview in the championship game, including the game-winner 4:02 into the five-minute sudden-victory overtime period.

Westview head coach Ron Smith called it “an incredible way” to finish the season.

“The kids at Westview continue to amaze us with their composure and focus to finish strong,” he said.

The Kiwanis Cup title was the sixth overall for the Wolverines; the Broncos were bidding for their third title in the last four years.

Second-seeded Cathedral Catholic (16-5) defeated fourth-seeded Scripps Ranch (12-8) by a 4-2 score in the third-place game.

Westview slipped past Cathedral Catholic, 4-3, in an overtime thriller in the semifinals. Laurent Lee had the OT winner.

 

Titanic win
Eastlake finished with the top regular season record among Sweetwater district teams at 16-3. The Titans finished 9-0 in league play and defeated Hilltop (4-5 in league play) during all three regular season league encounters.

The teams’ playoff match-up was no different as Eastlake defeated the Lancers a fourth time on the season.

Freshman standout Braden Mayer, who collected 64 points (39 goals, 25 assists) during the regular season, led Eastlake in scoring in the playoff game with three goals and four assists while older sister Percilla Mayer collected three goals and two assists.

The Mayer siblings racked up six goals and six assists for 12 points to stamp their name firmly on the game.

Will Hamilton also put his stamp on the game by scoring four goals while Seiya Hagiya collected four points on one goal and three assists.

A total of eight Eastlake players recorded at least one goal or one assist in the game.

Jake Powell, who ranked as the Titans’ second-leading scorer during the regular season with 30 goals and 31 assists for 61 points, had three points on one goal and two assists while Karla Navarrete and Sean Layton each scored one goal and Jose Campos picked up one assist.

Trevor Fune scored the lone goal for Hilltop (9-11-1).

Layton ranked third on the Titans in regular season scoring with 40 goals and 52 points.

Fune finished the season as Hilltop’s scoring leader with 26 goals and 39 points.

The Titans powered to a 6-0 lead after the first period and carried a 10-1 lead into the final period.

However, Eastlake ended its season in the next round with an 11-1 loss to Cathedral Catholic. Mayer scored the Titans’ lone goal to end his first varsity season with 72 points on 44 goals and 28 assists.

Eastlake finished 17-3.

 

Horse power
Otay Ranch, the runner-up in the Mesa League standings, took on the Patrick Henry Patriots — a team that finished at the bottom of the North County League standings. However, the Patriots, who finished 1-17 in league play, gave the Mustangs (5-4 in league play) all they could handle.

The playoff game was expected to be close after the teams skated to a 6-6 tie in January’s Pam Wiser Classic tournament.  A month later, the rematch lived up to its billing.

The playoff game featured several momentum shifts.

Paul Chavez opened scoring in the game, assisted by Sean Devaney, to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. Team captain Matt Russell, son of Patriots coach Chuck Russell, tied the game at a goal apiece. Chavez then put his team up 2-1 before Patrick Henry’s Ruben Allen tied the game at 2-2, assisted by Matt Russell.

The Mustangs then reeled off five unanswered goals to take a 7-2 lead. Devaney scored three times while David Mendez scored twice during the run.

Patrick Henry started to chip away at the seemingly imposing lead at that point.

Matt Russell scored a power play goal to trim the Patriots’ deficit on the scoreboard to 7-3. The Mustangs advanced the score to 9-3 on a pair of goals by Devaney before the first-year roller hockey team picked up the pace by outscoring Otay Ranch 5-1 to narrow the score to 10-8.

The game exploded in intensity from there.

Patrick Henry pulled its goaltender with two minutes to play to put an extra attacker on the floor and the Mustangs had to endure some nervous moments before Chavez finally put the game out of reach by scoring into the empty net with 1:17 to play.

Matt Russell had a great opportunity to make it a one-goal game, but Mustang goaltender Ryan Strodtman made a clutch save. The puck went the other way and Chavez was able to dump the puck into an empty net to seal the victory for Otay Ranch.

Devaney led the victorious Mustangs with six goals and two assists to up his totals to 87 points on 57 goals and 30 assists — tops among Sweetwater district teams (regular season and playoffs combined). Chavez finished the game with three goals and one assist. Mendez rounded out the scoring for Otay Ranch with two goals and one assist.

Mustang coach John King was complimentary of the Patriots’ strong effort.

“They’re well coached and have a good team,” the Otay Ranch coach explained. “They had more players than we did. I think we started to get tired in the second period. But overall I was happy with the outcome.”

The elder Russell was happy with the outcome as well. “We’ll have to wait until next year to even up with Otay Ranch,” the Patrick Henry coach said. “I can’t tell you how excited our players are for the 2017-18 season.”

Matt Russell led Patrick in scoring in the playoff game with six goals and two assists; he had a hand in all eight of his team’s goals.

Chuck Russell noted that the majority of his players had never picked up a hockey stick before this season, much less have played in a roller hockey game.

The Patriots represented themselves well in taking another step forward in the development of their start-up program.

“We had a blast this year and are looking forward to coming back next year with more experience behind us,” the Patrick Henry coach explained. “We’re looking to continue to grow and this was another step in that direction.”

The Patriots finished their start-up season with a final 3-19-1 overall record.

The playoff game was the icing on the cake. “We knew the matchup with Otay Ranch was going to be a great one,” Russell explained.

Otay Ranch advanced to the quarterfinals against top-seeded Rancho Bernardo and ended its season there with a 13-7-1 record following a loss to the Broncos.

 

Red and Black
Castle Park played a smart defensive game to keep the score within striking distance against Escondido Charter in the evening’s final first-round match-up at the CPHS rink.

Simon Gott scored a shorthanded goal to give the White Tigers a 1-0 lead. Joey Mendoza then doubled the lead. Mendoza later scored another goal to put Escondido Charter up 3-0.

The White Tigers slowly extended their lead to 6-0 on goals by Jacob Grove, Gott and Samuel Stewert.

Castle Park’s Martin Mari made the score 6-1 on a goal scored with 6:31 to play in the third period. But Grove scored in the final minute of play, assisted by Mendoza, to pick up his second goal of the game.

Mendoza led Escondido Charter in scoring with two goals and one assist.

Castle Park head coach Jose Mendoza said he sees where his team needs to improve. “To play at the next level we need to work on our passing,” the Trojan coach explained. “We were giving up the puck too quickly. They were the better team but we know what we need to work on for next year.”

The CP coach said winning this year’s South Bay League title and qualifying for the playoffs represented a big boost in confidence for his team.

“It was beyond our expectation,” Jose Mendoza said. “I’m very pleased with what we accomplished. To see the development from the beginning of the season was awesome. As much as we’ve grown, there’s still room for improvement. The future is bright.”

Castle Park ended the season 14-8 after finishing 10-2 in league play.

The White Tigers improved to 9-10 on the season after finishing 7-10 in North County League play. Scripps Ranch topped Escondido Charter, 12-3, in the ensuing quarterfinals.

Bonita Vista(0-9 in Mesa League play)finished 7-13 overall following its shutout loss to Poway, which ended its season at 4-16 overall with an ensuing 4-1 loss to Westview in the quarterfinals.

Despite the setback, BVHS head coach Keith Quigley lauded his team’s selection to the playoff field.

“I was real excited to hear that this team was awarded a playoff game,” he said. “I have an amazing group of players who have worked hard all season and have never given up. Definitely psyched that my seniors got to play at least one more game.”

 

Honor roll
Otay Ranch’s Devaney and Eastlake’s Mayer were represented on the All-Mesa League First Team alongside Otay Ranch’s Mendez, Hilltop’s Danny Godinez and Eastlake goaltender Aryn Gregory.

Chula Vista High’s Hector Garcia, who won the regular season individual scoring title by one point over Devaney, earned honors as this year’s South Bay League Player of the Year. Garcia tallied 80 points on 73 goals and seven assists. The 73 goals led all scorers in the Mesa and South Bay leagues by a wide margin.

Castle Park’s Mari and Eleazar Cruz, along with Sweetwater’s Phillip Brandon and Chula Vista goaltender Giovanni Cimmino, also were named to the All-South Bay League First Team.

Garcia, Mendez and Cimmino each earned recognition on the all-conference second team while CP’s Mendoza earned honors as the conference’s coach of the year.

 

Kiwanis Cup Finals
Westview rallied from an initial 2-0 deficit to win in overtime to repeat as conference champions and, in the process, snap Rancho Bernardo’s 12-game winning streak.

The Wolverines had lost all three regular season meetings against the Broncos (20-2).

It was the second consecutive overtime playoff win for the Wolverines, who upset second-seeded Cathedral Catholic, 4-3, on an extra-period goal by Laurent Lee.

“To upset and win tight games against disciplined teams like Catholic Cathedral and Rancho Bernardo displayed determination and consistent effort by the entire Westview varsity team,” WVHS coach Ron Smith said. “We respect the skaters, families and coaches over in the RBHS and CCHS programs and appreciate them playing with so much class and dignity.”

The Kiwanis Cup championship was the sixth in school history for the Wolverines, who defeated Cathedral Catholic in last year’s conference championship game.

It was the second conference championship for Smith during his six years behind the bench.

The Wolverines appeared to peak at the right time of the season suffering numerous key injuries during the course of regular season play. Westview finished in the middle of the North County League standings with a 10-6 record. However, the Wolverines were perfect in winning their three playoff games.

“It hasn’t been easy this season,” Smith admitted. “We had five broken arms in our program to make the season very interesting. It gave opportunities for entire team to pick up the slack and support each other. We had at least four games this season where everyone in the lineup scored.”

Westview received two goals from Lee and single goals from senior captain Keisi Takaya and assistant captain Jacob Groll in posting a 4-1 win over sixth-seeded Poway (4-16) in the quarterfinals. Smith credited “solid net keep” by goaltender Grigory Oleynichenko as a contributing factor in the victory against what Smith called a “much improved” Poway team.

Cathedral Catholic was bidding to qualify for its third consecutive championship game appearance in its semifinal match-up against the Wolverines. Josh Groll scored two goals while older brother Jacob Groll scored once to give Westview a 3-2 lead late in the game.

But the Dons’ relentless pressure resulted in a game-tying goal by Charlie Paape with just two seconds to play in regulation to send the game into overtime.

The overtime period lasted just past one minute when Lee sealed the OT victory with what Smith termed “a beautiful snipe off the faceoff.”

Rancho Bernardo, meanwhile, had been bidding for its third Kiwanis Cup championship in the last four years.

The Broncos rolled to a perfect 20-0 season to win their second consecutive conference championship in 2015. Rancho Bernardo previously won back-to-back Kiwanis Cup titles in 2002-03 and 2007-08.

Rancho Bernardo had posted the conference’s top regular season record at 18-1 this season and entered this year’s Kiwanis Cup title game with a 20-1 record after eliminating eighth-seeded Otay Ranch by a score of 20-1 in the quarterfinals and fourth-seeded Scripps Ranch by a score of 6-3 in the semifinals.

Bailey Ridout and Brad Larson each scored goals for the Broncos in the championship game loss.

RB head coach Joey Gelsomino said the 2016-17 season had been “a great test” on the team’s student-athletes.

“We’ve played games with our regular roster of eight skaters and a goalie to games with five skaters due to ice hockey commitments,” Gelsomino explained. “The team didn’t have one bad thought about it, no negativity with this group. They all supported each other game in game out. Everyone had a job and pulled their weight evenly.

“This team wasn’t about individual goals; they had one team goal and that was to win the CIF title.”

Ridout, the North County League Co-Player of the Year and all-conference first-team selection, led the Broncos along with all-league second team goaltender Jakob Ogan.

Cathedral Catholic (16-5) defeated Scripps Ranch (12-8) by a score of 4-2 to win this year’s Kiwanis Cup third-place game that was held prior to the conference championship game at the Escondido Sports Center.

CIF-Metro Conference Player of the Year (and Co-North County League Player of the Year) Drew Jones paced Cathedral Catholic his season. Sam Angeles also earned first team all-league honors for the Dons, who finished runner-up to Rancho Bernardo in the North County League standings.

Angeles, Jones and goaltender Patrick Henson also earned first team berths on the all-conference team.

Scripps Ranch eliminated fifth-seeded Escondido Charter, 12-3, in the quarterfinal round. Cody Sherman (three goals, one assist) and Liam Baird (two goals, two assists) led the Falcons with four points each while Justin Nakagawa (two goals, one assist) and Gauthier (one goal, two assisted) chipped in with three points each.

Scripps Ranch got a 6-2 jump on the White Tigers in the first period.

Stewart Pond, Gauthier and Cody Ayers each scored goals in the semifinal loss to Rancho Bernardo.

This season’s North County League honor roll also included Westview’s Takaya, who earned first team all-league honors, while Escondido Charter’s Joey Mendoza and Gunnar Gott were second team all-league selections along with Scripps Ranch’s Gauthier and Patrick Henry’s Matt Russell.

Takaya (first team), Mendoza (second team) and Gott (second team) were also named to the all-conference squad.

 

State Cup preview

The annual California State Cup is set to roll March 18-19 at The Rinks-Irvine Inline with nine participating teams from three geographically-based leagues throughout the Golden State. The Anaheim Ducks Inline Scholastic League (ADISL), Central Coast High School Hockey League (based in the Santa Maria region) and San Diego/ CIF-Metro Conference are each fielding three teams in the event.

Playoff champions will be crowned in three divisions: Varsity, JV-1 and JV-2.

The five teams in the varsity bracket will each play four games in a round-robin format before being divided into final Varsity (top two teams) and JV-1 playoff brackets (bottom three teams).

The Marina Vikings and Laguna Hills Hawks represent the ADISL in this division while Metropolitan 1 and Escondido Charter represent the Metro Conference. San Luis Obispo is representing the Central Coast High School Hockey League.

Four teams are grouped in the JV-2 division: the Edison Chargers from the event-host ADISL, San Luis Obispo and the Central Coast Chiefs from the Central Coast prep league and Metropolitan 2 from the San Diego CIF league.

Teams will play three round-robin games before advancing to the playoffs based on seeding.

The Metropolitan 1 team’s line-up includes players from five Sweetwater district teams: Giovanni Cimmino (Chula Vista), Ariel Briones (Castle Park), Hector Garcia (Chula Vista), Braden Mayer (Eastlake), Jake Powell (Eastlake), Sean Layton (Eastlake), Aaron Marientes (Otay Ranch), Sean Devaney (Otay Ranch), Will Hamilton (Eastlake), David Mendez (Otay Ranch), Trevor Fune (Hilltop), Eleazar Cruz (Castle Park) and Kristen Lambertson (Hilltop).

Adrian Rodriguez (head official) serves as head coach and is assisted by George Godinez (Hilltop) and Caroline Talavera (Chula Vista).

The Metropolitan 2 team’s lineup features players from Castle Park, Southwest, Sweetwater, Hilltop and Chula Vista high schools. The include Jacob Lopez, Kayleigh Andrew, Armando Rivera, Marco Salazar, Marco Salazar, Allison Smith, Martin Mari, Jared Fuentes, Victoria Zuniga, Adrian Kercher, Phillip Brandon and Briones.

Matt Diaz (Chula Vista) serves as head coach and is assisted by Jerry Nestlerode (Southwest) and Talavares.

Castle Park coach Jose Mendoza serves as team manager for both squads.

The event is slated to face off March 18 at 4:20 p.m. and will resume play March 19 at 1 p.m.

Irvine Inline is located at 3150 Barranca Parkway in Irvine.

State Cup Scoreboard

Varsity/JV-1 Division
Saturday, March 18
Round-robin

San Diego Metro (1) 5, San Luis Obispo (A) 3
Marina Vikings 5, Escondido Charter 2
Laguna Hills Hawks 9, San Diego Metro (1) 1
Marina Vikings 3, San Luis Obispo (A) 2
Marina Vikings 5, San Diego Metro (1) 0
Laguna Hills Hawks 8, Escondido Charter 0
Laguna Hills Hawks 4, Marina Vikings 1
Escondido Charter 4, San Luis Obispo (A) 3

Sunday, March 19
Round-robin
Laguna HilllsHawks 6, San Luis Obispo (A) 1
San Diego Metro (1) 6, Escondido Charter 4

Final round-robin standings: Laguna Hills 4-0, Marina 3-1, San Diego Metro (1) 2-2, Escondido Charter 1-3, San Luis Obispo 0-4

Playoff rounds
JV-1 semifinal 1: 
San Luis Obispo (A) 7, Escondido Charter 5
JV-1 semifinal 2: San Diego Metro (1) 5, Escondido Charter 4

JV-1 championship game: San Diego Metro (1) 6, San Luis Obispo (A) 3

Varsity championship game: Laguna Hils Hawks 5, Marina Vikings 1

JV-2 Division
Saturday, March 18
Round-robin

Edison Chargers 8, San Luis Obispo (B) 0
Central Coast Chiefs 7, San Diego Metro (B) 0
Central Coast Chiefs 3, Edison Chargers 2
San Diego Metro (2) 3, San Luis Obipso (B) 2
Edison Chargers 8, San Diego Metro (2) 0
Central Coast Chiefs 8, San Luis Obispo (B) 0

Sunday, March 19
Playoff rounds
Semifinal: Central Coast Chiefs 6, San Luis Obispo (B) 0
Semifinal: Edison Chargers 8, San Diego Metro (2) 0

Championship game: Central Coast Chiefs 1, Edison Chargers 0

Final round-robin standings: Central Coast Chiefs 3-0, Edison Chargers 2-1, San Diego Metro (2) 1-2, San Luis Obispo (B) 0-3