TEAM COLORADO UPSETS BALTIMORE FOR SECOND TITLE IN THREE YEARS
By Alex Smith

Despite a Herculean effort from the Baltimore Crabs’ starting attack, Team Colorado scored the first goal of the game and never looked back to win the Dr. Tom Watts Memorial Tournament in the U-19 Boys High School division of the Vail Shootout. Colorado was paced by attackman Shane Anderson (Mullen HS – Bellarmine University), who tallied three goals and one assist in Colorado’s 13-12 win.

Anderson had a hand in the first two goals of the game for Colorado, who played with an intensity and singularity that they lacked in 2004 when they were bounced from the tournament by New England. After Baltimore’s Gibbs Fogarty (Landon HS – Duke University) scored a goal with 2:20 remaining in the first to give the Crabs their first lead, Colorado’s Josh Secora (Golden HS) answered with a wicked lefty ripper to tie the game. Team Colorado never trailed after that.

Baltimore’s attack was simply stellar all tournament, especially in the finals. With the two midfields being fairly evenly matched, Gavin Gill (St. Pauls HS – University of Virginia) put it upon himself to lead his team. Gill repeatedly dodged from behind the goal and found open cutters. Out of his game-high six points, five were assists and all five went to fellow attackmen Bart Wagner (St. Pauls HS – University of North Carolina) and Fogarty. Wagner finished with four goals and one assist while Fogarty got three goals and two assists.

Team Colorado found some surprising success at the face-off ‘x’ as Tim Lindsley (Green Mountain HS) and Ryan Walter (Ponderosa HS) stayed relatively even with Baltimore’s Shane Walterhoefer (Boys Latin HS – University of North Carolina).

For Colorado, the story of the first half was spreading the offense. Nine different players scored their first nine goals. Team Colorado was having success driving from the midfield against Baltimore. Secora and Joey Murray (Regis HS – Denver University) were able to run the Crabs’ short stick midfielders into scoring position and generate lots of opportunities. Meanwhile, Team Colorado’s defense seemed to adjust well to the dangerous Baltimore middies.

At half, the score was 9-7 in favor of Team Colorado and could have been worse if not for the goaltending of Baltimore’s Riley Clark (St. Johns HS – Salisbury University), who turned away eight shots to keep his team close. But the second half of the game belonged to Team Colorado goaltender Austin Konkel (Regis HS – Denver University). Konkel was spectacular in the third quarter, making ten saves, several of which left the Baltimore shooters dumbfounded. Konkel finished with 17 saves and atoned for taking a bad penalty that led to a goal in the third quarter that led to a Baltimore goal.

At the start of the fourth, Baltimore called for a stick check on Team Colorado’s Tim Lindsley. After the officials determined that the crosse was illegal, Baltimore got a man-up goal to make it 12-11 early in the fourth. But the key moment came when Anderson finished a shot man-down that pushed the lead back to two. Even though Jimmy Daly (McDonough HS – Loyola University) scored a second goal on the three minute penalty just 14 seconds later, Colorado was able to salt the win away with some solid defense in the end. Wagner and Fogarty combined for one more goal with 4:51 left, but Konkel and the Colorado defense held strong down the stretch.

It marks the second time in as many years that Baltimore has come up short in the championship game. Last year, it was New England who knocked off the Crabs in the finals. Austin Konkel was named game MVP for his performance in the nets. It is Team Colorado’s second U-19 championship in three years coming off their win in 2003 over Team Ohio.

Score by Quarter: 1 2 3 4 - F
Team Colorado – 3 6 3 1 - 13
Baltimore Crabs – 3 4 2 3 - 12

Goals:
CO – Anderson (3), Cooperman (2), Hild, Secora, Jestes, Murray, Tedeschi, Tilton, Walter, Gilliand
Balt. – Wagner (4), Fogarty (3), Daly (2), Gill, Kovler

Assists:
CO – Secora (2), Anderson, Cooperman, Hild
Balt. – Gill (5), Fogarty (2), Wagner, Kovler

Goaltenders:
CO – Konkel (48:00 min, 17 saves, 12 goals against)
Balt. – Clark (24:00 min, 8 saves, 9 goals against), Blevins (24:00 min, 3 saves, 4 goals against)

Penalties:
CO – 7 for 8:00
Balt. – 1 for 1:00

Baltimore Holds off New England in U-19 Semifinal

In a rematch of last year’s U-19 championship game, the Baltimore Crabs never trailed and slowly distanced themselves from a pesky New England team en route to an 11-9 victory. Baltimore’s Gibbs Fogarty scored seven points on the day, including the first three goals of the game to lead all scorers. The game was marked by patient and controlled offensive sets. Baltimore’s ability to find open cutters on the crease ended up being the deciding factor as eight of their eleven goals were assisted.

Both teams were very concerned with giving up transition opportunities and the majority of the game was spent in half-field sets. Baltimore excelled in driving the ball from behind the goal and feeding shooters on the crease. Fogarty in particular was able to find space for himself on the doorstep and put feeds away with methodic accuracy. Most of his shots were in and out of his stick before a cradle, giving New England goaltender Tom Hollingsworth little chance to make saves.

New England got an unlucky break late in the first quarter when one of their defensemen flipped a groundball towards their goaltender on a loose ball scrum. The ball seemed to change direction on Hollingsworth on the bounce and it trickled into the net to give the Crabs a 4-3 lead after one quarter. Baltimore proceeded to score three more goals in the second quarter while holding New England to only one to take a 7-4 lead into the halftime break. They were then able to hold onto that advantage throughout the second half to preserve the victory.

Baltimore is improved on the defensive end from last year. Defender Chris Tkac led the charge for the Crabs by swallowing up any loose balls in his vicinity. He also got in on the act offensively and picked up two assists. First half goaltender Riley Clark made nine saves, including three on one sequence to pick up his team.

New England was led by attackman Steve Giannone, who pumped in three goals in the third quarter alone. Anthony Jonas also picked up two goals and two assists to give him a team leading four points. But perhaps New England’s most impressive player was face-off midfielder Matt Kellman, who won the majority of his draws. Hollingsworth finished with 16 saves in a solid effort.

While New England put together a nice run in the second half, they could never get closer than two. Fogarty sandwiched two goals within forty seconds around a Giannone tally to keep the lead at three heading into the final frame. New England scored two man-down goals in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough as the Crabs avenged their loss to New England in last year’s championship game.

In their second year of competition in Vail, the Baltimore Crabs move to their second consecutive championship game. If they play with a sense of urgency, they will be tough to beat in the finals tomorrow.

Score By Quarter: 1 2 3 4 F
Baltimore 4 3 3 1 11
New England 3 1 3 2 9

Goals:
Balt. – Fogarty (6), Daly, Tompkins, Samperton
NE – Giannone (3), Jonas and Orr (2), Kellman, Sussman

Assists:
Balt. – Gill and Tkac (2), Fogarty, Wagner, Daly, Crotty
NE – Sussman and Jonas (2), Lesko

Goaltenders:
Balt. – Clark (24:00 min, 9 saves, 4 goals against), Blevins (24:00 min, 7 saves, 5 goals against)
NE – Hollingsworth (48:00 min, 16 saves, 11 goals against)

Penalties:
Balt. – 8 for 7:30
NE – 7 for 5:30

Colorado Returns to U-19 Championship Game with 9-6 Victory Over Delaware

It took Team Colorado over half the game to finally take the lead against the Delaware Eagles in the second semifinal of the day. But once they finally did with 6:19 left in the third quarter, they were able to use their depth and skill at the midfield to run away with a 9-6 win.

Delaware came out fired up and gave Colorado a little bit more than they were expecting in the first half. The action during the first five minutes of the game was played at a far more frenetic pace than the previous semifinal. In general, the game was a little sloppier than either team would have liked, but both teams played with a great amount of heart and hustle.

Despite being the decided underdogs, Delaware controlled most of the first half. Livadas scored the first two goals of the game for the Eagles and prompted Team Colorado to shut him off for most of the rest of the game. Colorado was not having any trouble getting to the net, but they simply could not finish in the first half. Larson made eight first half saves for Delaware to keep his team in the game. What Delaware lacked in quantity of chances, they made up for in quality. Throughout the game, Colorado goaltenders made only four total saves on ten shots on goal.

After playing to a 4-4 halftime tie, Team Colorado got on track in the third quarter with four goals. Jestes scored with 7:28 remaining in the third to tie the game at five and Cooperman followed that up with two goals of his own to give Colorado their first lead of the game. Cooperman’s second goal during the decisive three goal run was a spectacular behind the back finish off a feed from Lindberg.

Team Colorado finally took control of the game in the third quarter as Delaware seemed to wear down. The Delaware Eagles were very spirited throughout the game, but simply couldn’t match the legs on the other sideline.

Delaware’s defense was anchored by Moyer, who displayed surgeon-like precision on his stick checks and constantly ran the ball up the field on the clear. For Colorado, Swarsen was similarly dominant on the defensive end.

Colorado moves on to play Baltimore in the U-19 championship game. The two teams have not met before and will be fairly well matched. Baltimore should have an edge in the face-off department, but Colorado should be able to match up well in the midfield. The key to the game will be whether or not Team Colorado’s defense can withstand the pressure of Baltimore’s relentless half-field sets. Colorado will also have to execute on their own offensive end to be successful.

Score By Quarter: 1 2 3 4 F
Colorado 2 2 4 1 9
Delaware 3 1 1 1 6

Goals:
CO – Lindberg, Anderson and Cooperman (2), Jestes, Cantwell, Tedeschi
Del - Livadas (3), Jacobs (2), Tieste

Assists:
CO – Lindberg (2), Hild, Jestes, Tilton, Anderson
Del – Crowell, Greene, Smith

Goaltenders:
CO – Brown (24:00 min, 1 save, 4 goals against), Konkel (24:00 min, 3 saves, 2 goals against)
Del – Larson (48:00 min, 11 saves, 9 goals against)

Penalties:
CO – 5 for 4:30
Del – 2 for 2:00

While the Dr. Tom Watts Memorial Tournament completed quarterfinal play on Sunday, the Masters and Super Masters tournaments got underway as well. The Vail Valley battled an afternoon rain and thunderstorm that delayed games on certain fields by a half an hour or more.

In the U19 boys’ tournament, all but one top seed moved on to the semifinals. Arizona was the lone #1 to fall as defending champion New England bested the conglomerate group from Arizona and British Columbia by one goal. The team is known as AZBC and played the New Englanders tough before falling. Talk around the U19 tournament has been that the AZBC goalie could be the best in Vail so far.

In other high school action, Team Colorado rolled over Team Ohio 11-1. Colorado continues to impress with a solid midfield unit and an impressive defense that has allowed a total of only 6 goals through its first four games. Colorado will move on to play a Delaware team that dispatched of Gateway 9-5 on Sunday. Colorado appears to be the favorites, but they will have to avoid a mental letdown if they are to reach the finals for the first time since 2003.

NorCal put together a tough effort against tournament favorite Baltimore, but the Crabs simply had too much in the tank and put the game away in the second half. Baltimore continues to play on cruise control, watching with half-amusement while other teams run through line drills and do jumping jacks before games. NorCal had the decided advantage in the fan department as most of the observers chose to cheer for the boys from California. While much improved from last year, the Grizzlies didn’t have many answers on the defensive side of the field against Baltimore. The Crabs scored 15 goals as they slowly paced themselves from NorCal. Baltimore will look to exact revenge on New England in the semifinals Monday. New England shocked the tournament last year by coming back against the Crabs and winning the championship game going away. It will be a little tougher this year, but New England has a way of rising to the occasion and will not roll over for Baltimore Monday.

Arizona was a bit of an enigma on day one. After rolling through Long Island and Saskatoon relatively easily, Arizona pulled the upset of the tournament by beating Team Ohio 6-5. But then, the first year team from the Southwest followed that up with a head-scratching loss to Double Stixx from the Southeast. However, Arizona's win over Ohio was good enough to take first place in the conference. Their reward is a match-up against defending champion New England, who finished second in Conference A to Team Colorado.

Colorado's 8-5 victory over New England was sweet revenge for the "home" team after being dismantled by New England in the quarterfinals last year. Team Colorado ran the table in pool play, shutting out the first two teams they played. They face an intriguing quarterfinal game against Team Ohio on Sunday.

Out in Avon, Arizona's overtime loss to Double Stixx was one of three games that went to extra time. Double Stixx also went to overtime against Saskatoon in Conference D. Long Island's young team wasn't quite up to task in moving into Division I play and they will match up against Idaho in the Division II bracket.

In Conference C, Delaware took care of business by sweeping through the bracket. Their biggest competition was NorCal, who played the Eagles team to one goal. NorCal also bested Bethesda by one in the fourth overtime game of the day to take second place in the conference and move themselves into the Division I quarterfinals.

In Conference B, Baltimore did not leave a whole lot of doubt as they cruised through Day 1. The team of MIAA All-Stars was not seriously challenged all day while rolling to first place in the conference. Gateway finished second to move on to Division I.

All four quarterfinal games are fairly interesting. The first one of the day features Delaware and Gateway at 9:00am. That game is followed up by Baltimore against NorCal at 11:00am, Arizona vs. New England at 1:00pm and Colorado vs. Ohio at 3:00pm.