Hyper Crusade Recap from Joe Dumars Fieldhouse

HYPER Crusade takes over the Fieldhouse
St Patty?s Day Underdogs find luck of the Irish

March Madness carried over into the Joe Dumars? Fieldhouse this past weekend as upsets were a plenty in the Hyper Crusade Inline Hockey tournament. This years St. Patricks' Weekend tournament attracted over 60 teams who competed for prizes and trophies in nine divisions.
The Tour Venom won the Atom division while the Nexed Dragons took 2nd and Team Force took 3rd. The young Tour Venom featured a balanced attack all weekend and the final was no exception as six different players scored goals. Andrew Saunders led the way with two goals and three assists and Tony Fanola chipped in with two as well. Brandon Hawkins, Cory Szarnik, Kyle Horn, and Connor Schmidt also lit the lamp for the Venom as they skated away with a set of Hyper jerseys and pants. Chris McCausland from the Nexed Dragons led the division in scoring and the Venom?s Matt Mahalak won top goalie honors.
The heavily favored Team Hyper took the Mite division, which had eight teams, as they posted an 11-5 victory over Team Nexed. While Hyper seems to have a different hero every game this time it was Shane Berschbach who literally took over the game as he scored seven goals and added two assists. Shane Murphy had five points (3 goals and 2 assists) and Evan Crank added a goal to go along with his three assists. Jimmy Giordano (2), Drew Demarti, Tim Berent, and Steve Degrande scored the goals for Team Nexed.
The Squirt division saw ten teams battle it out and in the end it was the Tour Flames and The Nexed Snipers who took to the floor for the championship. The Nexed Snipers would give the Flames all they could handle as the teams were tied at the end of regulation 2-2. Currey Dearmitt and Andrew Binkowski scored for Nexed while Anthony Miani and Shane Sluka scored for the Flames. It was a bad bounce in overtime that put the Snipers hope for an upset to rest when a loose puck caromed in off their defenseman. Miani would get credit for the game winner.
Ten teams fought it out in the Peewee division and to no surprise the Tour Venom would be the number one seed going into the final to face the Hyper Falcons.
But to everyone?s surprise the Falcons would come out firing on all cylinders recording the games? first four goals of the first period. Matt Crubaugh got the first two just 40 seconds apart and minutes later it was Mike Rourke and Dan Nutt lighting the lamp. Four straight penalties would keep the Venom from ever getting close and when Dan Nutt scored his second of the game it was all over for the Venom. Hyper Falcons net minder, Eric Green, was sensational between the pipes for the orange and black and he also won top goalie honors for the tournament.
It was GT Jerseys in the Bantam division who caught everybody off guard as they stormed through round robin play undefeated and turned the heads of many with an easy 4-0 victory over Team Nexed Fieldhouse. They continued their fine play with a 3-1 win over the Canucks in the semi-final and would now face the Metro Storm in the final. Again they would impress everyone as the two teams were tied at 2-2 with just 13 minutes to go in the contest. Finally Nino Musitelli and Derek Danowski came through for the Storm as they each netted two goals in the second half of the period. The final score would be 7-2 in favor of the Metro Storm.
The High School division would come down to the Eisenhower Eagles going up against the Stevenson Titans for the championship. These schools beat out Chippewa Valley and Rochester High School to get to the final. In a low scoring affair it was the Eagles posting a 3-1 win on goals by Will Ireland, Tim Sullivan, and Ryan Herzog. Ryan Glover, who won the top goalie award, turned aside all but one of Stevenson?s? shots.
The Women?s? championship came down once again to the experienced Team Nexed versus the young Nexed Girls. These two teams were both tested throughout the tournament by Kury?s Kaos and Twisted Sisters as just about every game in this division could have gone either way. Team Nexed would get a goal with just 43 seconds on the clock to notch another tournament by a score of 3-2. Asley Cottrell would score both goals for the Nexed Girls with both assists going to Jill Szandzik. Amanda Kalesavich, Theresa Fulgenzi, and Jenna Donnely scored for Team Nexed.
The Men?s Bronze division was a fierce competition all weekend and all 12 teams that were in the field had legitimate chances of taking first place. It would be the Spiders and the House League Heroes who would survive and get into the finals. The Heroes were unable to recover from three quick goals by the Spiders who went on to win the game 5-2. Rob Spinnazola figured in on all five Spider goals as he recorded 2 goals and had 3 assists. Bobby Soper also had 2 goals and Andy Lane contributed one.
The Adult Silver division saw two great local teams go toe to toe as the Devil Dogs and Team Tour traded goals throughout the game. The final score would be 5-4 in favor of Team Tour. Marcus Hughes (2), Phil Saunders (2), and Frank Scarpaci would score for Team Tour while Jamie Graskewicz (2), John Osack, and Andy Skomski scored for the Devil Dogs. Team Tour?s Dennis Dolinar known throughout the Fieldhouse as simply ?the old man? would win top goalie for the division.
Hyper Hockey ?Top Dog? and NARCh Pro player, Boyd Sutton, was on hand for the tournament and thought this years? Hyper Crusade was a huge success. ?This years tournament seemed to have a lot more competitive teams that all had a legitimate chance of winning it all; especially in the kids divisions? said Sutton. ?Detroit is definitely one of the premier roller hockey cities in North America and this is due in large part to the contribution from DRHA and the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse.? The DRHA would like to thank Boyd and HYPER for their contributions to another successful tournament weekend at the Joe.
The Fieldhouse will host the Mission Cup on March 29th and 30th. This will be the last tournament at the Joe prior to the Midwest NARCh Regional May 23rd ? May 27th. The NARCh Varsity Cup (High School) will run from May 23rd ? May 25th. For more information check out www.DRHA.com or contact Joe Hawkins/Matt Koleski at the DRHA office (586) 731-3080 ext.26.