NARCh 2008, Saturday, July 26

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

Alex Morrison and Alex Dodt are a couple of the NARCh bloggers who are writing tournament updates. Here are two of the most recent offerings:

NARCh Blogs

July 26, 2008
By Alex Morrison

In Da Club..... Division
These playas are worth more than 50-Cent, ya know? Saturday morning starts out rockin' at the Finals.

3 Pee Wee Club games featuring 6 closely matched up teams. This is what it is all about. The atmosphere in the building is rivaling that of some of the games in the 28 team divisions.

We are nearing the end of round robin play in the 4 Club divisions... this is going to be a great day! Team Hawaii is looking great in the Pee Wee Division. The Skills Competitions are later today.

I personally am glad to see these players out here giving their all. Quite a few of them are first year players. This experience should be one for them to cherish, win or lose, and hopefully keep them going in this great sport that we all love.

Keep checking the scores to see how your team is progressing here at the Finals.

**

By Alex Dodt
Friday night update

California reigns supreme; OC Blades win PeeWee, Kryptonics win Bantam.

PeeWee Platinum
Tour OC Blades and Black Ice faced off in this championship game. OCB absolutely dominated much of this game early on, Garrett Haar had 2 goals and an assist in leading the Blades to a 3-0 lead halfway through the game. Black Ice started their comeback with just over 3 minutes left in the game, 2 goals in the span of a minute turned the final seconds of the game into a frenzy. OCB wasn't able to clinch it with an empty net and Black Ice tied it up on a rebound goal with 8 seconds left.

OCB looked rattled but did not play like that in overtime. They controlled the play, got a few chances, and finally buried one a few minutes into the extra session to win the PeeWee Platinum title. OC's Haar was high scorer for the division and Nick Church was top goalie for them as well. A great NARCh return for OCB, they made it to the championship game of Atom, Mite, Squirt, and PeeWee Platinum. Not bad.

Bantam Platinum
Rich Graham already wrapped this game up well in his blog so look there for the play by play. But, I just want to point out Andrew Barletta. He's an Arizona kid and he backstopped Kryptonics to the Bantam Platinum title. He also won Midget Platinum and High School, taking top goalie honors in both divisions.

Junior Platinum
Revision Vanquish finished up round robin with a 4-0 record, 25 goals for, and 0 goals against. I still don't think anyone can beat them. I bet someone will prove me wrong and I'll look dumb. We'll see...

PRO
The matchups for tomorrow are Tour St. Louis vs. Mission Snipers and Pama Cyclones vs. Tour Mudcats in the first round. Mission Syndicate and Revision Vanquish both received byes to the semifinals. This will be the focus of tomorrow culminating with the PRO final tomorrow night.

There's more going on, Men's Platinum has started, several club divisions going, and 35 & over too but no time to write anymore, I'll cover that tomorrow. Goodnight.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

And for NARCh photos and video, please don't forget to check out the NARCh Gallery:

http://www.narch.com/gallery/

[alex]

Pro final preview to be on the website soon...


This year's NARCh PRO Final matches up Mission Syndicate Black and Revision Vanquish. These same two teams met in the PRO Final last year with Syndicate winning by a score of 7-2. That game was close for much of the game until Syndicate blew it away. Vanquish has already played 2 games that day, an overtime semifinal in PRO and an overtime Junior Platinum championship game that ended only a few hours before the PRO Final. Fatigue certainly played a part in Vanquish falling short against Syndicate but who knows how close it may have been.

This year, Syndicate is looking to prove that last year was no fluke and that they are just that good. They'll also be looking to accomplish a rare PRO championship repeat.
To do so, they have returned nearly their entire roster from last year's championship run. Jamie Buffalino is still in net and as dominant as ever. Last year's PRO high scorer Pat Lee leads the offense along with NHL draft pick Nigel Williams. The strong defense on Syndicate returns from last year with the same crew: Kirk French, Raf Rodriguez, Stephen Campbell, and Jon Massey leading the way. The only players not returning from last year's championship squad are Tommy Neer (playing for AKS) and Ernie Hartleib. New additions include Matt White, Lee Sweatt, and backup goalie Chris Wills.

For Vanquish, this year has brought a name change but few roster changes. Tyler Svoboda is the only new player and is also the only player on Vanquish's PRO team who is not also on their Junior Platinum team. 2 players, Brock Bookwalter and Junior Cadiz, return to Vanquish after not playing for the team last year. The rest of Vanquish has been together for at least a few years, some of them for many more than that. The core of this team has now won 5 NARCh championships together dating back to when they were called Tour Mudcats ('04 and '05 Midget champs and '05 DI champs), Mission Militia ('06 Junior champs), and now Revision Vanquish ('08 Junior champs).

This year they are as strong as ever and have not lost a game this tournament. As I write this they are on the rink celebrating their Junior Platinum championship, 2-0 over AKS. They went 6-0 in Juniors this year, allowing only 3 goals the whole tournament. In PRO, they are 5-0 heading into their championship duel with Syndicate. Vanquish is an incredibly deep that can get scoring from every player on the roster. Josh Laricchia, Nathan Sigmund, Charlie Middleton, and Junior Cadiz are the biggest weapons for the offense. Defensively, Vance Wilson, Chris Ellis, and Shayne Carrol are huge. They are more players on this roster and they could all be mentioned as major contributors.

So, tonight at 7:30pm we'll get to see the long-awaited rematch. So far, it appears to go a lot like last year. Both teams cruised to the Final, unbeaten. Vanquish is coming off of even more games than they played last year and that will play a factor. But their roster is deeper than ever and more suited to handle so many games. They also lost Juniors last year but won it this year, so they may be ready to continue that winning trend. Syndicate, however, has still not lost in their past 11 PRO games and are certainly the favorite tonight. This place will be packed that's for sure and it'll be a great game. There's no doubt these are the 2 best teams here.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Alex,

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing it with IHC's readers. I appreciate it.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

In the Junior Platinum Final, the Revision Vanquish defeated AKS Mission, 2-0. Vanquish goals were scored by UC Irvine stars Charlie Middleton and Mike Tasch.

In the Mens' Pro Final, the Revision Vanquish defeated the Mission Syndicate Black, 5-4, in a thrilling overtime game. I hope to have a wrap-up article done tonight... no telling when I'll get it finished, so I thought I'd post this now to update you on the scores.

Needless to say, Revision is a very happy company right now.