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Barons give best effort but it's not enough in Mesa League showdown

 

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, Jan. 16, 2002 -- Bonita Vista senior Doug Lentz and Baron junior Joey “The Punisher” Galeno both knew they had given it their all, as had all their teammates. But their collective dream of capturing a share of this year’s Mesa League roller hockey title likely ended Jan. 10, not necessarily in defeat but in a draw for respect on the court.

The Barons’ defensive captain and fifth-leading scorer, Lentz had voluntarily put himself between the pipes in an effort to give his team a better edge against once-beaten Scripps Ranch in the key Mesa League matchup. Lentz had played the position in the past, though sparingly. But his heart was as big as the entire rink on this night. Sheer exhaustion, meanwhile, defined Galeno’s face after the two juggernaut teams’ highlight reel 5-5 tie.

The draw was a huge step forward taken by Scripps Ranch in wrapping up the regular season league championship. The Falcons had defeated the Barons 7-4 in the first game of the season, meaning that a win or draw in the rematch against Bonita Vista would keep their prime challenger at bay. The Barons needed a victory in order to force a co-championship.

“The team was working a lot harder. We knew what we had to do,” said Lentz. “Everyone showed their best game out there. We had some bad breaks but we came back to salvage a tie.”

Lentz had tuned up for the Jan. 10 showdown contest by backstopping Bonita Vista to a 10-1 victory against Eastlake two days beforehand. He made 30 saves in the game against the Falcons. Galeno had four goals and an assist to have a hand in all his team’s scoring.

“I was tired. It was draining on me. Everyone was tired,” said Galeno, whose goal with 46 seconds to play in regulation time capped a ferocious Baron comeback.

The game bristled with playoff atmosphere from the opening whistle. The Barons took an early 3-1 lead but Scripps Ranch rallied to go up 5-4 on a power play goal in the third period.

“You won’t see a better game from two teams,” said Don Cerone, an assistant coach with Scripps Ranch and longtime commissioner for the ground-breaking club-based San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference. “The top four or five teams in this conference are just as good or better than the top teams in North County.”

Sophomore Jennings Brieck led Scripps Ranch (10-1-1) in its showdown game with Bonita Vista (7-3-2) with a hat trick that included a short-handed and power play goal. Sophomore Dan Comrie scored the other two critical goals for the Falcons, including what proved to be the game-winner on a breakaway, while older brother Rick Comrie contributed three assists.

Some regard Dan Comrie as the best player currently in San Diego County. Lentz took pride in stopping him more times than he scored.

The Barons trailed 1-0 on Brieck’s short-handed goal before Galeno fed Austin “Big Daddy” Ballow for the equalizer and the first of three unanswered BV scores. Galeno added a pair of goals 35 seconds apart and the Barons appeared to be breezing.

But Dan Comrie quickly put his stamp on the game with a steal and breakaway goals and the momentum shifted noticeably thereafter. The Falcons tied the game, 3-3, early in the second period on a shot through a congested crease area that saw the puck bounce off a Baron player past Lentz. Galeno gave Bonita Vista back the lead at 4-3 by converting on a breakaway with five minutes left in the period but Brieck drew the Falcons even with a power play goal before the start of the final period.

Scripps Ranch dominated the final 15-minute stanza with an all-around team effort that kept the puck inside the Baron zone for all but a few minutes of play. Comrie banged his breakaway drive off the post for a 5-4 Falcon lead and the goal appeared to stand up as the game-winner before the Barons, surviving a severe test of adversity, sucked it up to deliver a final blow for respect.

“What we wanted to do was to keep them from scoring. We kept telling each other to keep it up and keep them from going into our zone,” explained Brieck, who entered the contest as his team’s fourth-leading scorer. “It was all for each other. Everyone out there gave 100 percent to keep them from winning.”

Those same sentiments were easily shared by anyone on the Bonita Vista bench.

 

Castle Park 7, Eastlake 4

In a game also bristling with playoff atmosphere, the South Bay League-leading Trojans rallied from a 4-3 deficit with four unanswered goals, including three goals in a three-minute span late in the third period, to top the hard-skating Titans in a game played Tuesday at Skate San Diego. Don McGraw keyed Castle Park (10-2-0) with three goals and one assist while Richard Garcia added two goals and one assist and Arturo Garcia scored two goals. Royce Leomo and Chad McElroy both had a goal and assist for Eastlake (5-5-0), which also received two assists from Mike Cerwonka.

The Trojans took a 2-1 first period lead on goals by McGraw and Richard Garcia offset by a single marker by the Titans’ Reese Larson, assisted by Leomo. Erick Gallardo tied the score at 2-2 early in the second period on a slapshot but Castle Park regained the lead at 3-2 on a breakaway goal by McGraw. Eastlake responded with a pair of unanswered goals — the first, scored by Leomo and assisted by Cerwonka, which tied the game at 3-3, and the second, scored by McElory and also assisted by Cerwonka, which gave the Titans the lead at 4-3.

However, Castle Park tied the game at 4-4 before the period expired when McGraw, set up by Richard Garcia, slid a puck under Eastlake goaltender Azuma Franklin, who subsequently spent most of the third period swatting away pucks in what looked like a shooting gallery directed at his cage. Richard Garcia netted what proved to be the game-winner with 4:18 left in the game. Arturo Garcia, set up by McGraw, scored on the five-hole with 2:00 remaining in the contest and tacked on another one-on-one tally with 1:20 left. The game was highlighted by skilled stick-handling by both teams and solid play by both goaltenders in the face of tremendous offensive pressure.

“It was tough,” Trojan coach Gene Garcia said of the fast-skating game. “All tough games, these next ones.”

Castle Park faces Scripps Ranch in a 5 p.m. marquee cross-league matchup Jan. 24 at Chula Vista RollerSkateLand.

 

Scripps Ranch 14, Sweetwater 0

Jan. 15 at Skate San Diego

The Falcons recorded their fifth shutout victory in 12 games behind the play of sophomore goaltender Brandon George. Emil Tsaturov (4 goals, 3 assists) led the offense. Dan Comrie (3 goals, 3 assists), Andrew Berrier (2 goals, 2 assists) and Rick Comrie (1 goal, 3 assists) also posted productive performances. Scripps Ranch, which improved its Mesa League record to 6-0-1, also received two goals from sophomore Jennings Brieck and a goal and assist from classmate Greg Best. Cameron Cerone, a recent addition to the team, added a goal. Sweetwater netminder Louie Valentine had 40 saves in the loss.

 

La Jolla Country Day 8, Mar Vista 1

Jan. 15 at Skate San Diego

Nathan Sigmund paced the offense with three goals and two assists. The Torres, who evened their South Bay League record at 2-2, also received two goals apiece from Chris Bartlett and Garrett Iaco and a goal and assist from Jordan Simkin. Max Guise and Frankie Warren both contributed an assist. LJCD goalie Ben Bartlett lost what would have been his third shutout of the season with just six seconds to play when Mar Vista’s Clint Jones finally knocked in the puck off a pass from Allen Lamb.

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