SIHA

Four to eight inches of snow, winter storm warnings, and NARCh are here in Colorado Springs this weekend. We managed to get five games played Friday night before the storm got in.

Saturday turned out to be a great day of wind, snow, and hockey here at the CET Inline Hockey Arena. The 12U division saw eight teams battling it out for Narch medals. In the end the Warriors would face off against the Red Hawks. The Red Hawks are one of the top teams here, and were too much for the Warriors to handle. The Red Hawks skated away with the Gold by a score of four to two.

The 17U division started out with a solid six teams, but unfortunately the Eagles from the nearby city of Pueblo could not make the trip due to highway closures. The Rams battled through their division by knocking out the Cyclones, and the Red Hawks bumped off the Black Bears for their shot at Gold. The Red Hawks would jump on the board first, but the Rams would answer right back with two of their own. Colton Davis tied the game at two, but Chris Heitzman would score at the end of the period for the 3 – 2 lead. In the second period the Rams came out on fire and scored just 1:20 in. Ryan Bear notched one in for the Red Hawks and from there both teams battled back and forth ending the game in a 7 – 7 tie. Just 1:16 into overtime Justyn Middlebrook dished it off to Jared Wolf, who would bury it deep in the net for the Red Hawks win.

Eight teams rounded out the 14U division with the Black Bears taking the number one seed with 12 points and eight goals against. The Red Hawks also had 12 points but their goals against ended up at 16, which pushed them into the second seed. The Bandits and the Rams would follow them taking the third and fourth seeds, but they would fall short in the semi finals. The two top teams ended up facing each other in the finals in probably the best game of the tournament. The Black Bears beat the Red Hawks in the first game of the day by a score of 4 – 2, but that didn’t seem to have an effect on the Red Hawks. The Black Bears would get on the board first with a goal by Billy Bostwick at just 1:23 in to the game. At the 9:00 minute mark Jacob Gombos put the Red Hawks on the board and the period would end in a 1 – 1 tie. In the second period Jacob Gombos would get his second followed by a snipe by Oliva Lovato from the Hawks that put them up by two. The Bears would not back down. Max Engle and Rafe White would score just 55 seconds apart and tie the game with just less than eight minutes left . The Red Hawks Caleb Laurence grabbed the puck, side stepped around a Bears defenseman and blasted a shot over Logan Mansfield shoulder for the go ahead goal and sealed Gold for the Red Hawks.

The 10U division only had four teams, but each team played every game to the end. Ultimately the top two teams would find themselves in the Championship. The Grey Wolves would face off against the Warriors in yet another close game. Anthony Solt and Owen Wilson put the Wolves on top first, but Nathan Cote would add one at the end of the Period to pull his team within one. Owen Wilson would find the net at the beginning of the second for the Wolves, but Jace Gamble kept it close when he answered right back keeping his team just one goal behind. With just 2 minutes left Anthony Solt would get his second of the night and put the nail in the coffin pushing his Wolves to Gold.