October 22, 2005 - “You Had
To Be There”
On
Saturday the road weary Super Squirt Ventura Mariners made yet another trip to
Riverside to take on the Inland Valley Wild 2. If a fortuneteller had told me
in advance how this game would play out I wouldn’t have believed it. Despite
all of the bizarre events, it’s better to focus on the positive. This is a game
played by kids and for kids. Let me tell you, our boys did an awesome job of
rising above all of the nonsense.
Early
on, it was apparent that much like last week, the Mariners would be tripped
every time they touched the puck. Thomas Graves had a step on a breakaway when
his feet were taken out from under him. Instead of a penalty shot, all he got
was a trip to the ice. Danny O’Donnell got submarined. No Call. Killian
Anderson was hooked, mauled and boarded and he’s the one that went to the box.
Tom Dobrokhot got the same treatment. Every time Jared Turcott or Chad DiLauro
made a run the lazy Wild defensemen swept their feet out. Goalie Dylan Levy
took a beating, literally. Anyone that tried to defend him was rewarded with a
trip to the sin bin.
Things
were bad, and could have gotten worse. The boys were down by three goals and
nothing was going their way. That’s when Matt Johnson stepped up and told his
team not to give up. He took a nice pass from Kyle Mc Neil and buried in the
net. Suddenly things didn’t seem so bad. The boys responded. They fought
through the horrible calls and dirty play. They started taking it to the Wild,
dominating zone possession. Justin Janik and Luke Tickle clamped down on
defense. On sheer will Danny scored a couple of goals and made this a game.
That’s
when the hometown officiating crew decided enough was enough. Their Wild team
was getting outplayed and was in danger of losing so they applied a whole new
set of rules and absolutely robbed the Mariners of a chance at victory. The
boys got their first loss of the season, but they handled themselves with
class. They didn’t sink to the level of their competition and should be commended
for it.
As
weird as this game got, there were quite a few positives. The Killian, Corey
Pelone, Nick Cerezo line played some great defense, allowing very few chances
and no goals. Nick Guttenkunst threatened the net on more than a few occasions.
Long-time defenseman Mitchell Nash played up front and did some nice things on
offense. Kyle had an assist. Thomas G. not only got an assist, he made two
saves with the goalie pulled.
As
the team wore out their welcome at Don Jose’s Mexican restaurant, Coach Paddy
pointed out how much fun the kids were having and how unconcerned they were
about the loss. It’s just a game. They have another one next week. Word may get
out that we had some parental ejections and a coach that got a game misconduct.
People might think we’re a bunch of psycho moms and dads. I love the passion we
have for our boys. I am grateful that we have a head coach that will stick up
for his team. For all the people that are going to judge us I say: you wouldn’t
understand. You had to be there
