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DI Semi-finals: Garfield No Match for Bainbridge Juggernaut
Submitted by walax on Thu, 2007-05-17 06:27.
Tonight the two losers of last year’s semifinals find themselves squaring off under the lights on Bainbridge Island. The visiting Garfield Bulldogs have the daunting task of dethroning this year’s favorite to take the Cup.
There is much tension in the air as the game begins, and nerves are noticeable as both clubs are trying to feel each other out. Bainbridge seems to have gotten comfortable first as Evan Wright fakes a roll dodge for an easy goal on top of the crease. Bainbridge draws first blood.
Weisner and the Gilbreath brothers are all over the field wreaking havoc on the Garfield offense. Traditionally under Coach Visco and Hush’s defense the long poles dictate their offender, and tonight is no exception. However, Garfield is hanging in and getting many good looks from Hoffman and Rohrbach, but cannot get anything to fall.
Bainbridge clears, and moves it back down to the offensive end. After they get it around the horn a couple of times Fiore Alailima takes a dodge and scores a nice righty shot at the 4:21 mark.
Immediately after the face off Garfield’s Caldwell Rohrbach makes a perfect dish to Jason Travis, but in an act of robbery, Bainbridge goalie Bryce Stevenson denies the shot. Bainbridge clears and moves the ball down on offense. Bainbridge’s Evan Wright wastes no time as he hits Casey Skelton for the easy crease dunk. Down 3-0 Coach Kelly decides his team needs to regroup and calls a timeout.
The rest of the quarter bares witness to dumb penalties committed by Bainbridge players, and an inability for Garfield to capitalize. Bainbridge also has an opportunity to start with the ball in the 2nd quarter as they are man down and in possession, but decide to pass the ball as time expires. At the end of one the score is 3-0 Bainbridge.
The first action of the second quarter saw some interesting quirks. Danny Hoffman splits from up top and burns his man cleanly. He fires a picturesque bounce shot that catches net right under the cross bar and makes the score 3-1. However, the Bainbridge coaching staff asks for a stick check, and the referees deem Hoffman’s stick to be illegally altered. This gives him a three-minute non-releasable penalty, and his stick was barred from the game, but most importantly, it waived his goal. On the Ferry back to Seattle Coach Hush noted “we had his stick upside down and he still held on to the ball, so [the coaches] just waited for him to score, and called for the stick check then.” The smart coaching move pays off big for the Spartans.
Bainbridge does little with the three-minute extra-man opportunity, but manages to stick a nice time and room shot at top center from Sam Snow. The next few minutes see many penalties and poor shooting from both teams, but Matt Callaghan scores an easy goal for Garfield and officially puts his team on the board. Jordan Foster responds by throwing a nice fake pass that fools the entire Garfield defense, and then rips the shot on the unprepared Simon Hudson. At half the score is 5-1 Bainbridge.
In the beginning of the third, Bainbridge is in the driver’s seat. Wright rips a shot that Hudson cannot follow, but luckily bounces off of his foot. However, his luck doesn’t last long as the All-American Masi dishes it back to Wright and he does not miss the second time. The score is now 6-1 Bainbridge with 8:45 remaining in the quarter.
The sophomore goalie Stevenson is playing a great game, snuffing anything that is on cage. After two quick saves he is feeling jacked up and lets the big crowd know it. Rohrbach decides to cool him down, as he sticks an inside shot dished from John Yersley. Bainbridge not wanting this game to get interesting nets an easy lay up from Snow’s stick. As the third quarter is winding down, Masi picks off a poor clearing pass and shoots the easy dump on an open goal, but somehow manages to hit pipe and miss the shot. It was Bainbridge’s night though, as the rebound lands in Foster’s stick and he unleashes a nice behind the back shot for the goal. To close scoring for the third quarter Snow takes a shot that Hudson gets a huge piece of, but somehow trickles in giving Bainbridge their 9th goal of the evening. After thirty-six minutes of play, the score is Bainbridge 9 Garfield 2.
Just a minute into the 4th quarter Callaghan sticks a textbook fast break goal after some crisp ball movement from the Garfield offense. Jordan Foster adds the next Bainbridge tally as he fakes out his defenseman, dips inside and sticks a well-placed shot. Garfield answers with a little luck as a failed feed to the crease lands directly in Ben King’s stick, and he burns one past Stevenson.
Dylan Masi is up to his usual tricks as he snags a nifty ground ball and sweeps to put the Spartan’s 11th goal on the board. Soon after, Dayton Gilbreath pushes the ball on the offensive end and rips one past Hudson’s stick. Not giving up, Hoffman dips and dodges to give Garfield’s 5th goal of the game with 2:59 remaining. In scrub time Garfield lands one last goal to make the final score 12-6.
Congratulations to Garfield on a great season once again. Bainbridge returns to play this Saturday at Memorial Field in Seattle for the WHSBLA Division I State Championship. Their play will need to be much crisper if they hope to hold the Cup high this Saturday.
**Special thanks to the hard working Moms on the Island who strive to make their games more enjoyable for everyone.
By Mason Smith
The illegal stick was 1/16th
The illegal stick was 1/16th of an inch off across the top.