Team Arizona Vail Blog

Now that everyone is home and either suffering through 110 degrees plus, or enjoying a beautiful BC summer, here is how the final three games went for Team AZ/BC:

AZ/BC v. New England

The tournament quarterfinals were played on Sunday June 26th. Team AZ/BC’s opponent was defending champion Team New England. The winner of this game would face the vaunted Baltimore Crabs team in the semi-finals.

AZ/BC sleepwalked throughout much of the game, trailing by 2 to 4 goals at all times. After a 45 minute lightning delay, and trailing 11 - 7 with a little over 8 minutes to play, team AZ/BC erupted scoring 4 goals to make the score 12 - 11 with 40 seconds to play. After another face off win by Brent Miele Team AZ/BC had a good chance to tie the score but, alas, a well timed check by an exhausted New England defender sent Team AZ/BC’s last shot harmlessly off target.

Team AZ/BC scared the hell out of Team New England. Down the stretch Brent Miele was dominant at the face off circle and the offense scored at will. Ifthe game had lasted another five minutes, Team AZ/BC would have won by at least five goals.

The roster of Team New England is dominated by members of The Loomis Chaffee School and Deerfield Academy. To give us all in Arizona a little perspective, Team New England is coached by Loomis Chaffee head coach Jim Wilson. Jim Wilson has been the head varsity lacrosse coach at Loomis Chaffee since 1959!! Paul and John Dionne’s mother wasn’t even alive when Mr. Wilson started coaching.

AZ/BC v. NorCal

This game started with five starters and two other regulars on the bench because of curfew violations the night before. The excuse given by the offenders was that the offenders were caught in a constuction related traffic jam. The coaches elected to bench the offenders for the first half of the game because the excuse, even if true, was too lame for consideration.

The NorCal team had to be feeling pretty good about themselves at halftime. The score was tied 3 - 3 and the AZ/BC players looked to be a little tired. The AZ/BC bench looked thin.

NorCal was not prepared for the 13 - 7 second half onslaught that resulted in the 16 - 10 final score. This victory completed the Arizona sweep over the Laxscout sponsored NorCal (U-17 and U-19).

AZ/BC v. Ohio All Stars

This game was moved to 8:00 a.m. in order to accomodate AZ/BC’s flight arrangements. The Ohio coaching staff was very accomodating and gracious in agreeing to change the game to 8:00 a.m. from its original 2:00 p.m. start time. Accomodating, gracious and definitely looking for revenge in the rematch between the two teams.

In the previous meeting on Saturday the 25th, the Ohio parents (most of whom are from Upper Arlington) complained about the one-sided refereeing that apparently went against them. If they have any manners, whatsoever, they should be composing their thank you notes to the referees of this game. AZ/BC had three times as many penalties as Ohio. AZ/BC was two men down on two different occasions.

The Ohio All Stars, whose roster includes 10 members of this year’s State Champion Upper Arlington High School, played their usual solid game and when the Ohio goalie saved John Dionne’s 15 footer with 10 seconds to go, Ohio got their revenge and hung on for a 9 - 8 victory to take 5th place in the tournament. AZ/BC finished 6th overall out of 18 teams.

The U-17 team had 5 one goal games and won four of them. The U-19 team had 4 one goal games and only won one of them (albeit over Ohio). That is the difference between 3rd overall and 6th overall.

Other items of note include:

In the second half of the Ohio game, Kris Saunders took three consecutive face off draws from two time all american, all Ohio and UVA bound Joe Dewey. I GUARANTEE that Joe Dewey has not lost three consecutive face offs ANYTIME, ANYWHERE to ANYONE.

Not surprisingly, AZ/BC goalie Alex Peaty was named to the all tournament team. Alex is now trying out for the Canadian national team that will be competing in the World Championships next summer.

Ironically, on a team with unbelievable offensive firepower, the leading scorer on the U-19 team was back up goalie Kevin Rattigan. Kevin, the eyes of Texas are smiling upon you!!

After a one-goal loss, AZ~BC finished 6th in the U-19 tourney. The top six looked like this:

1. Colorado
2. Baltimore
3. New England
4. Deleware
5. Ohio
6. AZ~BC

For more info, you can go to VailLacrosse.com.

Dave …

I guess it was 16-10. They will play the winner of Ohio-Missouri for 5th place tomorrow.

I’m no longer in Vail (uggh.) but I know that yesterday the U-19’s were defeated 11-10 by the defending champs , New England. They trailed the whole game and made a 3-goal run at the end. The loss put them in the second bracket of four battling for 5th place with Team Ohio, NorCal and Gateway (MO).

They played NorCal this morning at 8am PHX time. I’m waiting for an update from Jule.

VailLacrosse.com has pictures and some scores.

I don’t know exactly what happened in other brackets, but here’s what I do know:

On our side:
AZ plays NE
NorCal plays winner of Conference B (Baltimore?)

On the other:
OH plays CO
DE plays #2 from Conference B (Gateway?)

You can probably scour the web or lacrosseforums.com for more info.

Dave …

Well, it wasn’t a perfect day, but it was pretty darn good. The U-19’s knocked of Long Island and a scrappy Saskatoon Scorpions team setting up a 2pm power matchup vs. Team Ohio, which was 50% Upper Arlington players. For our Western Reserve kids, this was a last shot to one-up their UA rivals.

Before the game Dave Barr’s dad organized and paid for lunch for the team. The boys ate while watching the rest of their bracket play some games. The day was not as sunny as most of them in vail as partly sunny skies provided relief from the oppressive sun.

Against Team Ohio, AZ~BC built up a 5-2 lead but ended the game in a battle, with Team Ohio playing offense most of the way down the stretch. The game went 5-2 to 5-3 to 6-3 and then 6-4. Team Ohio made it 6-5 with 7 seconds left, but couldn’t pull of the miracle at the end leaving the UA parents screaming about the officiating.

Dan Gerbarg made the play of the game forcing a turnover in the defensive end and immediately generating a goal in the other which put AZ~BC up 4-2.

Once again, the Canadians dominated the scoring, while the Arizonians played most of the defense. While Kyle Kapron scored his obligatory goal, the Canadians scored the other five (avoiding any violations of Canadian Content legislation). Alex Peaty was nutty in net as usual.

When the game ended, the Jule and WRA players were estatic to give their UA rivals a loss, while the Arizona kids were pretty happy. What the win basically meant is that unless a strange afternoon happened, Team AZ~BC had won their pool.

In between these games, we watched Team Ohio and Long Island fight for their Winners’ Bracket Lives. As it turned out, Team Ohio won in overtime, saving the 5-time champions from day one elimination.

The final game of the day saw our undefeated Team AZ~BC team face Double Stixx, an all-star team based out of Georgia. While the GA team was not having success, it was clear that this pool was fairly closely matched.

Our team got ahead 2-0, but never looked in control. As the game continued, Double Stixx kept scrapping but couldn’t quite solve goaltender Kevin “Ratty” Rattigan who made a wicked off-hip save to keep Double Stixx of the board. However, a goal with 1-second to go in the first half tied the game 2-2 and had Double Stixx believing that the ultimate upset was possible. As the game progressed, it was clear that AZ~BC was not at its best. Forced offense and inconsistent defense kept Double Stixx in it.

The game moved to 3-3 and with only a couple minutes to go, Joel Dalgarno put AZ~BC up 4-3. However, Double Stixx fought back with a last-minute goal and a pulled the game out in OT.

We can hope that the loss will serve as wake-up call because the boys will have their hands full tomorrow at 1pm vs. the defending champions, New England in the quarterfinals. New England lost to Colorado today by four goals. If that game and the U-17 tourney were any sort of indicators, Colorado might be the team to beat.

Dave Knapp will probably be taking over this blog as I am heading home. Thanks to everyone who followed along and thanks to Jule for this great trip.

Try www.sweetshots.net. You’re welcome to check out www.sweetshots.com, but you won’t find any of our pictures of our kids as far as I know.

Dave …

A professional photographer has been taking pictures at the tourney all weekend. Check it out at www.sweetshots.com

This might be quicker.

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/album.jsp?aid=768a5498cf4bb3ccef29

Gotta Run.

How beautiful the sound of that is. It’s like Beethoven’s Sixth or Stairway to Heaven. That’s right by the time I showed up, the backups were in and the game was no longer in doubt. Apparently ground ball domination and the riding and clearing game fueled the win. Jule said that the prettiest of goals were scored Joel Burgess, Kyle Kapron and Brock Armour who showed up last night with a hand-written full-scholarship letter from Tony Seamon at Towson.

The boys hit it again at 11:30 vs. Saskatoon. As I was leaving I saw Team Ohio take the field. They are going to be tough. Saskatoon didn’t look bad either.

Two more thank yous go out to Keith Beachamp and Keith Rusin. Keith Rusin did a lot of heavy lifting, or at least what would be heavy lifting for the rest of us. At this kind of event, there is a lot of moving of coolers and water jugs that has to happen. Having a guy like Keith Rusin around is good. Keith Beauchamp also did a bunch of that kind of work and I believe picked up the tab on one of the lunches.

For you AYLL vets, I ran into former Chandler Head Coach, Mick Lewchuk, who is coaching a team from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Moose Jaw, that’s a great name for a town, eh?

Dave …

I have to admit I didn’t spend a lot of time directly with the U-19 boys except for a white water rafting trip organized and majorly funded by Allison Dionne. It was a short trip (about 90 minutes) that had pretty dense Class 3 rapids and peaked out at Class 4. Still, it was a good for team bonding and it was something most of the boys had never done.

They had dinner at Pazzo’s where the U-17’s ate the first night. The kids had an 11am practice that seemed to go pretty well, but I think the boys are pretty much ready to compete.

They will start tomorrow with a 9am game vs. Long Island at the nearby fields in Avon. This is the same place that the 17’s played their first round games. In Coach Stevens’s system, this equates to a 6:30am breakfast and 10:30pm lights out. Don’t expect an update after breakfast from me. If I make it to the 9am start vs. Long Island on time, that will be a bit of a surprise. The are five teams in the AZ~BC bracket. They are:

1. Long Island Metro Pilots
2. Team Ohio
3. Double Stixx (Southeast US All-stars)
4. Saskatoon
5. AZ~BC

Once again, Arizona gets a bottom seed. In this case, there are 4 pools, 2 with 4 teams and 2 with 5. Our boys will play at 9, 11:30, 2:00 and 4:30. As in the U-17’s they will need to finish first or second to play for the title. If they finish 3rd or 4th, they compete for the Division II title. If they finish 5th, it’s consolation city.

Long Island and Ohio will likely be tough tests. For the guys from Reserve, there could be some familiar faces from other Midwest League juggernauts like Upper Arlington and the other Columbus powers. The SE All-star team is a bit of an unknown. There is also a Florida team, which could drain some quality kids away. Saskatoon is not really expected to be that good, but than again neither was our U-17 team. So tomorrow looks like this:

9am Long Island
11:30am Saskatoon
2:00pm Ohio
4:30pm Double Stixx

Some other teams that could likely be very good from other brackets:

Baltimore Crabs
Team Colorado
Bethesda Blazers
New England

If someone new is here who would like to take over the blog on Sunday, please speak up. Also, let me know if someone has a U-17 team picture, please send it to me or put a comment up with the link.

Dave …