Meehan leading Lancers' fortunes

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, Dec. 11, 2001 -- If there has been one constant to the Hilltop High roller hockey team’s perfect 5-0-1 start to the Metro Conference season, it has been the play of senior goaltender Adam Meehan.

A member of the Lancers’ pioneering club team, Meehan had taken a sabbatical from the high school game to concentrate on playing ice hockey the past few seasons along with competing for elite travel team club roller hockey teams. His senior season, he’s back between the pipes playing for his school.

When his name was noticed on the team roster, more than one player in the league familiar with his career wrinkled his nose at the prospect of playing against him.

Meehan has certainly laid a foundation to those worst fears. In six games, Meehan and the Hilltop defense had allowed just seven goals while recording two shutouts and allowing just one goal on two other occasions. His goals-against average shrank to 1.17 following Tuesday’s 11-0 shutout victory against Chula Vista at Skate San Diego. The miniscule number leads the 11 teams in the conference.

"I like ice hockey more but playing at the AAA level, you practice three times a week and play three games on the weekend. I like ice hockey but all that got me burned out on ice," explained Meehan, who played four years of ice hockey, reaching the Midget AAA level, while continuing his roller hockey career on the side.

Last season, Meehan opted to forgo the Lancers’ first season of official CIF-sanctioned play by instead playing in the North American Roller Hockey Series Championship qualifying tournament series with the A-team, a Junior Division AAA Tier travel team based in North County. He said he has tentative plans to return to NARCh play on Jan. 3, which would make him ineligible under CIF rules to continue to play for Hilltop High.

In the meantime, he’s helped position the Lancers to a strong start.

"We can beat any of these teams," Meehan said following Tuesday’s game. "There might not be as much talent in this league compared to when all the North County teams were playing but it’s nice to be able to play for your school. A lot of people at school would say how cool it was that I played hockey but I would be playing games up in Los Angeles. By playing here, some of my friends have got to see me play."

Hilltop defeated La Jolla Country Day, 5-2, on Dec. 6 in a crucial South Bay League contest. Sophomore Erick Morgan had four goals to lead the Lancers while junior Joe Casillas added two assists. Sophomore Everett Hinojosa had the other Hilltop goal.

The secret to the Lancers’ start has been sparkling play at both ends of the floor. In six games, Hilltop had outscored its opponents 52-7. In conference statistics tabulated through Dec. 6, Morgan paced the Lancers with 13 goals and three assists to rank fifth in conference scoring, followed by freshman Trevor Stutzman (8 goals, 3 assists), Casillas (3 goals, 6 assists) and sophomore Steven Monroe (2 goals, 4 assists).

Morgan had four assists in Tuesday’s game while Meehan made 11 saves. Ben Nixon led a collection of goalscorers with two goals.

At the other end of the floor in Tuesday’s game, Chula Vista junior Kristina Villanueva continued to make rapid improvement as the Spartans’ starting goaltender. Though it’s not uncommon to find female netminders at the youth club level, especially in the younger age divisions, female goaltenders are not as common at the high school ranks where slap shots can approach speeds of 80 miles per hour or more.

Villanueva hasn’t come into this season cold — she was the backup goalie on last season’s Chula Vista squad to former South Bay League Player of the Year Oscar Mendoza, Villanueva’s boyfriend.

"It’s really a challenge. You have a new challenge every game," Villan-ueva said.

Mendoza, who is presently attending San Diego State University, comes out to support Villanueva on game days. Tuesday, he saw her hold the potent Lancers to a modest 2-0 lead through the opening 15-minute period. Dressed out in the bulky goaltending gear, an uninformed bystander would never have suspected her gender, not that it mattered. Her positional play was fundamentally solid with only her reaction speed giving way to any weakness. However, her progression has been quick by all accounts and with three quarters of the season yet remaining, better fortunes for the team could be in the offering.

Villanueva opened the season by allowing 20 goals in a game against Castle Park that was later awarded to the Spartans as a forfeit win because of an ineligible player used by the Trojans. In her next start, she allowed 15 goals in a loss to another high-powered squad, Bonita Vista, and gave up seven goals in a 7-5 loss on Dec. 4 to Sweetwater and eight goals in an 8-1 loss to Eastlake on Dec. 6.

"I think I’ve improved a lot. I’ve gotten a lot of encouraging comments from people on how well I’ve been doing. I’m proud of myself," Villanueva said.

Chula Vista coach Korry Belmon-tez concurred with that assessment. "She’s made vast improvement. She’s a different goalie from the first game," Belmontez said.

The Spartans are still in the process of establishing a foundation on which to build and wins and losses aren’t a major issue at this point, according to Belmontez. "We’re working on developing the program. We’re not at the point yet where we can contend with teams like Hilltop or Eastlake," Belmontez said.

This season’s Chula Vista team is led offensively by top scorer Thomas Doran, who has played roller hockey for nine years. The Spartans’ overall lack of experience is another telling factor in the team’s 1-4 start to the season. Belmontez said of the eight players on the team’s first two lines, five have one year or less of roller hockey experience.

Trojans prove terrific