Roller Hockey

San Diego Hosers strike Junior Pacific Cup Gold

by Phillip Brents

The CCM San Diego Hosers, comprised of some of the top players from the five-year-old San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference, helped raise both the level of play and visibility of amateur inline hockey in the southernmost region of California after capturing the 2000 Tour Pacific Cup’s Junior Gold Division championship title before going on to represent the region at the NARCh Finals in Toronto.

The Hosers edged the Northern California Mustangs, 3-2, in the Pacific Cup division title game in late June. The Hosers finished 5-0 in the six-team playoff bracket and outscored opponents by a cumulative 30-11 margin despite playing with a short bench throughout the tournament (including playing one game without any substitutes).

The Hosers had finished three slots down from the Mustangs in the regular season division standings.

Players suiting up for the Hosers, who had began playing under the simple nickname of "Team San Diego" a year ago, included goaltenders Jesse Lents and Nate Higson, forwards Fabian Mueller, Evan Jones, Andy McDaniel and Joel Sadenwasser and defensemen Nate Jones, Paul Newell and David Brassfield. Lents held the Mustangs to two goals in the championship game while Mueller, Lents’ teammate on the San Diego conference champion Rancho Buena Vista High Longhorns, scored the game-winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in the championship game.

The team’s coaching staff singled out the performances of several players who were instrumental in the breakthrough showing at the Pacific Cup Finals, though the overall team effort helped key the squad’s fortunes. Mueller was outstanding throughout the tournament with his intense fore-checking while Evan Jones, playing in the 18 & under division despite being only being 16, was a leading scorer for the Hosers, notched a hat-trick against the Mission OC Blades team which finishing fourth in the playoff tournament. Andy McDaniel, who helped key the fortunes this season for the San Marcos Knights’ high school team, doubled as a defenseman and scored timely goals while Sadenwasser also doubled as a defenseman after recently returning to the floor from a broken shoulder.

Hosers co-captains Nate Jones (another leader for San Marcos during the 2000 prep season) and Newell (a two-time South Bay League Player of the Year for Hilltop High School) provided important leadership roles for the team. Jones scored a hat-trick against the Tour EPH Kings while Newell, the team’s floor general, was outstanding as a passing artist. Scripps Ranch High’s David Brassfield, despite recently returning from meniscus surgery, performed duties of top point defender admirably, according to the team’s coaching staff. Both goaltenders were steady and, at times, outstanding.

Lents held RBV’s four playoff opponents to 10 goals while posting one shutout in helping the Longhorns claim the 2000 San Diego conference championship, which ended with RBV defeating San Pasqual 6-5 on the strength of two goals and as assist each from Mueller and Brian Gorda. The Longhorns rode to the roundup by defeating the two 1999 finalists — runner-up Scripps Ranch and three-time defending champion Monte Vista — in successive rounds of this season’s playoff tourney.

The Hosers bolstered their roster for the 2000 NARCh Finals by adding prolific local talent in Brian Comrie, a mover and shaker for the Scripps Ranch Falcons (runners-up in the 1998 USA Hockey InLine High School National Championships), and Mike and Jim Siebenthal, catalysts for the 2000 San Diego conference playoff finalist San Pasqual Golden Eagles. Mike Siebenthal led the conference in playoff scoring with 10 goals and six assists.

The Hosers battled tough in several close games at the NARCh finals to display their character.