Dr. Tom Watts Memorial U-19 Boys High School

Colorado Holds Off the Baltimore Crabs in U-19 Championship 13-12


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

Bethesda Holds Off Long Island in Divsion II Championship

More information to be posted later this evening on Tuesday's games.

Tuesday's U-19 Boy’s Schedule

Division I Championship:

Team Colorado 13, Baltimore Crabs 12 (See story above)

3rd Place Game

Delaware 14, New England 6
New England was outmanned and outgunned as Delaware jumped to an early 4-1 lead. New England showed class throughout the tourney and displayed it here while Delawares stick's prevailed. Both teams were even as far as shots, with B. Larson in goal making the difference with 13 saves compared to NE's 5. Delaware was led by attackman #9 J. Lovadas who finished with 3 goals and 1 assist.

5th Place Game

Team Ohio 9, Arizona 8
AZBC & Ohio went back & forth trading off blowes and goals with Ohio winning 9-8. AZBC took shots with lazer-like precision, with 23 shots weilding 8 goals @ almost 25% against all three of the Ohio goalies. Ohio took the #'s approach with 50 shots against the great goalkeeping of the #18 for AZBC with 19 saves. Ohio took face-offs in the 1st half & AZBC in the 2nd. However Ohio's 6 penalties, 75% clearing & 30 ground balls gave them the game over AZBC's 9 penalties, 55% clearing, & 19 ground balls. Little known rivalry was strong in this game because the BC players all go to a boarding school in Cleveland. The BC half of the AZBC team battled hard next to their new teammates, but it was not enough for the united Ohio team. #12 Turner led the way for Ohio with 3 goals and 1 assist, while the standout for AZBC was #8 Broch Armour who finished with 3 goals on 4 shots.

7th Place Game

Gateway 7, NorCal 9
Gateway kept it close in the 1st, bt NorCal pulled away in the 2nd. Gateway made a run in the 2nd half, while NorCal rested on its laurels, but couldn't quite get the job done as NorCal held on for a 9-7 win in this 7th place game.

Division II Championship:

Long Island 13, Bethesda 14 (OT)
It was a very close game, however the scoring was not spread around. Lav and Winkoff each had 5 goals for Long Island. Masur had 7 goals, leading Bethesda to a win. Bethesda also controlled the ball well with Leachman winning the majority of the fae-offs.

3rd Place Game

Amherst 8, Utah 15
This game was quite long because of the broken-up play cause by the two teams' total of 21 penalties. Utah and Amherst battled for a lot of ground balls. Utah won this battle and their possession of the ball led to their offensive success against Amherst's strong defenders, such as David Choo. Overal it ended in a fury of turnovers on ground balls. The score was tied at halftime, but Utah took control of the game in the second half with 10 goals.

5th Place Game

Moosejaw 12, Double Stixx 9
From the beginning of the game Moosejaw controlled the face-offs, although DoubleStixx's score the first 2 goals, however Moosejaw held strong and kept the score close and at the half the score was tied. Starting the second half Moosejaw came out strong and stayed strong the rest of the game. Davis from Moosejaw was the key to their win, winning all face-offs and scoring 3 goals. Other key players were Eldstrom from Moosejaw with 3 goals, a defenseman Anderson from Moosejaw, also from that squad Jave got a ground ball and went down and scored. Schulze from Double Stixx had 3 goals.

Other Consolation Games:

Vail 7,Florida Lacrosse Club 8
In a competitive (albeit sloppy) game, FLC had too many reserves for a badly under-manned Vail team. Vail let at halftime and went up by two in the fourth quarter. However, FLC wore down the local boys in the final period, tieing the game with a minute to play and netting the winner with 10 seconds left.

Saskatoon 5, Idaho 4 (2 OT)
Big defensive game. The game started out with Idaho scoring 3 unanswered goals. Saskatoon came back and tied it up at 3. Idao score again, however they managed to lose the lead to a Saskatoon goal. In the second overtime, Saskatoon won with a goal by Jeffers.