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Broncos overcome early Granite Hills lead, win in overtime

Gulls stick boy Derek Dawson profile

By Phillip Brents

David Drasin’s goal at the 6:11 mark of sudden-death overtime gave top-seeded Rancho Bernardo a 7-6 victory over second-seeded Granite Hills in the championship game of the 2002 San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference playoffs March 1 at the Escondido Sports Center. The championship game setback came after Granite Hills had taken an early 4-1 lead in the game but saw a deeper Broncos squad rally in the third period to force the extra period.

"It was the two teams expected to be there — the No. 1 seeded team against the No. 2 seeded team," said conference commissioner Don Cerone. "It was a wide-open, offensive game, very fun to watch. It had the ebb and flow that all games do. Granite Hills dominated early. Rancho Bernardo fought back. The Rancho Bernardo team has a little deeper bench. That was very important in their third period comeback. It’s hard to match a team goal for goal in the third period without two good lines of players."

Drasin drew the assist on the game-tying goal scored by teammate Jared Goodrich at the 9:18 mark of the third period to cap a three-goal third period explosion by Rancho Bernardo that erased a 5-3 Granite Hills lead through two periods. Goodrich led the Broncos (11-1-2) with three goals and two assists in the title game. Matt Wick also notched a hat trick for Rancho Bernardo while adding an assist. Kevin Melsner chipped in with two assists for the first-time county club champions.

Granite Hills, which scored four unanswered goals after surrendering the game’s jump goal to the Broncos, was paced in the championship contest by Aaron Torres’s three goals and one assist and teammate Matt Cornelius’ two goals. Tommy Near collected a goal and two assists for Granite Hills (11-3-0) while Will Charland aided the Granite Hills’ effort with three assists.

The San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference began seven years ago as a club league wherein players could represent their school in the sport of their choice even though roller hockey was not yet officially sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation. Since the emergence of CIF-sanctioned play within the two-year old Metro Conference in South County, the county club circuit has continued to provide its pioneering service for club teams that have not yet gained a release from their respective school districts to play at the CIF level.

The Metro Conference, which added Scripps Ranch and La Jolla Country Day this season from the more established county club circuit, wrapped up its season with two-tiered championship playoffs Feb. 26 at Skate San Diego in National City. Bonita Vista defeated regular season Mesa League champion Scripps Ranch, 3-2, in sudden-death overtime to capture the CIF-Metro Division I title while Sweetwater skated past Montgomery, 6-4, to win the CIF-Metro Division II title. A total of 11 teams competed in the Metro Conference’s second season.

Eighteen teams participated in the just completed San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference season, with 12 teams advancing to playoff competition. Both Rancho Bernardo (the regular season Inland League champions) and Granite Hills (the regular season Eastern League champions) received byes in the opening round of the playoffs. Granite Hills defeated fifth-seeded San Pasqual, 8-5, in semifinal action on Feb. 27 at the La Mesa Sports Center to advance to the championship game while Rancho Bernardo defeated fourth-seeded Poway, 6-3.

In second-round play Feb. 20 at the Escondido Sports Center, Granite Hills defeated eighth-seeded San Marcos, 8-5, while Rancho Bernardo edged seventh-seeded Mt. Carmel, 3-2.

Granite Hills earned honors as the conference’s highest-scoring team in regular season play with 89 goals while Rancho Bernardo, which scored 57 goals during regular season play, was the conference’s second-rated defensive team with 27 goals allowed (top-rated San Pasqual allowed 26 goals).

The championship game pitted top-flight offense against top-flight defense with the accent on offense.

In the title game, Wick gave Rancho Bernardo a quick 1-0 lead just 29 seconds into the game when he scored off a pass from Melsner. However, Granite Hills responded with unanswered goals in the opening period by Torres, Neer and Cornelius. Granite Hills took its largest lead of the game – 4-1 – when Cornelius notched his second goal of the game just 15 seconds into the second period. Rancho Bernardo came back with a pair of unanswered goals scored less than two minutes apart by Goodrich to trim the Granite Hills lead to 4-3 but the Eastern League champions ended the period with a two-goal lead when Torres scored off a pass from Charland.

The Broncos narrowed the Granite Hills lead to a single goal, 5-4, when Wick scored his second goal of the game 1:47 into the final period but Granite Hills then went ahead 6-4 less than a minute later on another goal by Torres. Rancho Bernardo then closed out regulation play with the last two goals. Wick brought the Broncos to within one goal, 6-5, when he scored with 10:59 to play, assisted by Goodrich. Capitalizing on the momentum, Rancho Bernardo tied the game, 6-6, just under two minutes later.

In the overtime period, Broncos goaltender Ryan Bracamonte stopped all Granite Hills shots he faced while Dustin Coyle was charged with the loss.

The Broncos earned a berth in the championship game on the strength of three goals and an assist by Jared Goodrich in the semifinal win against Poway. Melsner, Drasin and Wes Jones all chipped in with goals as Rancho Bernardo skated to a 4-1 first-period lead. Kyle Broderick had a goal and two assists for Poway, which also received goals from Todd Lindsay and Brent Ozaki.

Jared Goodrich had two goals to lead the Broncos past Mt. Carmel in the quarterfinals but it was Jordan Goodrich’s goal with 5:45 to play in regulation time that stood up as the game-winner. Michael Baumker had both goals for Mt. Carmel.

In the semifinals, Torres, Neer, Charland and Johnny Opsal all had two goals to lead Granite Hills to a first-time appearance in the championship game. Neer also contributed two assists along with Cornelius. Granite Hills built up a 4-1 first-period advantage and added four more goals in the second period. San Pasqual received a goal and three assists from Nick Popoff while Scott Yeomans added a goal and assist. Steve Collier, Andy Yeomans and Tait Campbell all scored single goals for San Pasqual, which claimed a 34-20 shot advantage in the loss.

Cornelius had three goals and one assist to key Granite Hills to its quarterfinal-round playoff win but it took goals by Charland and Torres in the final 39 seconds to break a 5-5 deadlock against San Marcos. Granite Hills led 2-0 on goals 1:03 apart by Cornelius and Torres. Granite Hills increased its lead to 3-1 by scoring the only goal in the second period. Cornelius got that goal, assisted by Opsal. Cornelius gave Granite Hills a 5-4 lead on an unassisted goal with 3:07 to play in regulation but the Knights stormed back with the equalizing goal with just 1:58 left in the third period. Neer set up Charland’s 6-5 go-ahead goal with 39 seconds to play and Torres clinched the advancement win on an unassisted goal with five seconds left. San Marcos received two goals each from Evan Jones and Brandon Ashley in the loss.

Granite Hills captured the Eastern League title with a 3-1-0 league record, topping runners-up Patrick Henry (2-1-1 in league, 5-5-1 overall) and St. Augustine (2-1-1, 6-3-2). Rancho Bernardo won the Inland League title with a 4-0-1 league record ahead of runner-up Poway (4-1-0).

The only other East County teams to participate in this year’s conference play were Monte Vista and Valhalla, both of which failed to qualify for post-season competition. Monte Vista, which won three consecutive conference titles from 1997 to 1999, finished regular season play 4-5-2 (2-2-0 in Eastern League play). Valhalla, which won the conference’s first-ever championship in 1996, finished 0-4 in Eastern League play, 1-10-0 overall.

Carlsbad claimed the conference’s North County League title with a 5-1-0 league mark and finished 7-3-1 overall to earn the third seed in the 12-team single-elimination playoff bracket. The Lancers defeated Scripps Ranch for last year’s conference title.

Other 2002 playoff qualifiers included club teams representing Fallbrook, Torrey Pines, Vista, Patrick Henry and St. Augustine high schools. In first-round action, fifth-seeded San Pasqual topped 12th-seeded Torrey Pines, 3-1; eighth-seeded San Marcos edged ninth-seeded St. Augustine, 6-5; 11th-seeded Vista upset sixth-seeded Fallbrook, 6-5 in overtime; and seventh-seeded Mt. Carmel shut out 10th-seeded Patrick Henry, 3-0.

In other quarterfinal matchups, Poway defeated Vista by a 7-1 score while San Pasqual eliminated 2001 conference champion Carlsbad by a 7-3 score.

Besides Monte Vista and Valhalla, other playoff non-qualifiers this season included La Costa Canyon (4-7-0), Rancho Buena Vista (2-8-1), Escondido (2-8-1) and Valley Center (0-10-1).

With the expected growth in the coming years of official CIF-sanctioned league, some might doubt the long-term viability of the county’s club-based conference. The San Diego County conference started with 16 teams its first season, then expanded to 24 teams and eventually topped the 30-team plateau during its years of largest membership. The club circuit began to shrink with the breakaway of the CIF-sanctioned Metro Conference teams last season and dropped to 18 teams this past season with additional defections.

However, Cerone — who is involved in both the CIF league as an assistant coach with Scripps Ranch and the county club circuit as its commissioner — said any such fears may be greatly exaggerated.

"There will always be a club league because there will always be some school districts that won’t release their teams to participate in the CIF league," Cerone explained. "But it needs to be in the schools for consistency and long-term building with the programs rather than a coach putting a team in the club league for a year or a few years and then leaving it. For that reason, it needs to be CIF. We’re getting there. At some point it may even out with an equal number of teams in both leagues. I hope more move to CIF. (But) there will always be a club league and a need for it. There will be some good teams."

Cerone is among many who would like to see the top teams from both the county club circuit and the CIF-sanctioned league come together in an off-season "super" high school hockey tournament.