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Vail Shootout Day 5 – 9:30 am
It’s early morning on the last day of the high school tournament for both girls and boys. The boys teams will get the privilege of playing at Ford Field today for the championship. The staff has already turned the field around so that it is ready for the Elite Division to start tomorrow so the U19 will be on the big stage this afternoon. Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the longest and most difficult in tournament history with four fields – two of which are going literally all day long. It will be a test.
The big story of today will be the Colorado Favorites taking on the Baltimore Crabs in the Boys U19 Finals. The Favorites are also known as Victorious Secret, though I must admit that the Grandmasters team named Nacho Mamas is still in the lead as far as creative naming goes.
In my opinion, the game today could well be decided at the face-off ‘x.’ Justin Radebaugh for the Crabs is a graduated senior from Boy’s Latin heading to UMBC next year while Chase Calkin of the Favorites is a rising senior at Mullen High School in Denver. Both were instrumental in their teams’ success yesterday and they will have an intriguing match-up. Radebaugh is fast and athletic while Calkin is big and smart with the ball. Since both teams have such stingy defenses, face-offs will be a key in this game.
I was very impressed with both of our finalists’ ability to play team defense. There were little to no holes for dodgers as the slide and recover game was in full effect in both semifinal victories. When you are playing a summer tournament like this one where most players on the teams are very good one on one guys, having a team defense that can shut down the dodge and dump is paramount.
Alex Demopoulos may be one of the best attackmen in the tournament for the Favorites. The crafty player from Avon Old Farms HS in Connecticut has fit in well with the Favorites’ team-first philosophy and is a catalyst on the offensive side of the ball. He will be headed to the University of Denver in the fall. For the Crabs, I was particularly impressed with Cliff Larkin, a senior from St. Paul’s who is headed to Princeton. He didn’t net much in the way of points yesterday against Team Colorado, but I think he is what makes the Crabs’ offense go. And after a short conversation with him yesterday at the field, he is a nice kid who plays the game hard.
If I were forced to make a prediction, it would be hard not to expect the Crabs to come out on top with their third straight championship. I could see a score in the 10-6 range for them, but the Favorites have proven that they can play with anyone and with a solid defensive effort, they could be right in this thing. The Favorites have a tendency to get on a roll and score goals in bunches, so a little emotion could go a long way for them. It will be interesting to see if they play this game with the same looseness that they approached the semifinal game because that’s what’s been working for them so far.
Vail Shootout Day 5 – 4:10 pm
Just a quick update. The Crabs won their third title in a row with a 13-6 win over the Colorado Favorites. The game was close throughout until the fourth quarter when the Crabs just pulled away. I will have more on this game and other stuff later, but for now I have to run.
Vail Shootout Day 5 – 7:30 pm
Okay, back in the groove now after attending Team Rock-it Pocket’s practice and the coaches’ meeting at Ford Field. First off, let me say, “GET WELL SOON, JOEY SORAN!” Some up here may think you are faking sick to get out of work here in Vail, but I know better. See you up here next year. Today was a nice break after several days of wall-to-wall action. There was just Boys and Girls High School today, so not a huge workload for most of us. I say that with tongue in cheek because I think Kale just got finished swinging a sledgehammer for three hours. That’s what he gets for becoming an official tournament grunt.
I watched the Boys Championship game between the Baltimore Crabs and the Colorado Favorites which was won by the Crabs 13-6. I thought that for much of the game, the Favorites played the Crabs better than Team Colorado did yesterday, but in the end, there was simply too much skill, depth and intelligence from the Baltimore squad and they pulled away for the victory.
The face-off battle was indeed a story as Chase Calkins and Justin Radebaugh went head to head all day in the most entertaining part of the game. Calkins had his way early on and the possessions were key in keeping the Favorites in the game. But towards the end, Radebaugh finally got on track at won 4 of 5 in the fourth quarter to salt away the win. The Favorites’ effort was valiant and I give them credit for hanging in there, but Baltimore was simply better today.
Elite starts tomorrow and I am pretty excited to see how it’s going to shake out. We were short some goalies for practice, so I jumped in the nets for a few minutes, feeling very good and partly wishing that I could suit up tomorrow. But, as many people informed me, it would be stupid to even entertain the idea and a quick way to get kicked out of the MLL. I would obviously love to play, but I have bigger obligations coming on Friday night when the Outlaws host San Francisco on July 4.
It may get a little scattered in the ol’ blog over the next two days. I will be going to Denver for Outlaws’ practice tomorrow evening and we play Friday night, so please excuse me if I don’t update as often over the next few days. I will do my best to keep everyone up to speed and will still have my trusty laptop, so hopefully we don’t lose too much in the way of info getting out there.
I’ll try to post an update before I head down tomorrow, but be sure to stay tuned to the home page. Our stats system should be up and running for the Men’s Elite, so keep your fingers crossed for that. If everything goes as planned, we will have some very detailed and organized stats for years to come.
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