Toronto Lions, USA Women and University Of Maryland reign supreme at International Indoor Hockey Championships in Pennsylvania
By Jawwad Qamar
Toronto Lions, Team USA and University Of Maryland took the honors in the men, women and University / Collegiate divisions at the 2011 International Indoor Hockey Championships hosted in a joint venture by Big Apple Hockey (BAHF, Inc.) and Field Hockey America (FHA) in Feasterville, Pennsylvania on February 19 – 20, 2011.
The spectators witnessed two contrasting finals: In the men’s final, the Toronto Lions edged out Rye 4-3 in a thrilling finish while the young legs of Team USA proved too much for the veteran Cougars as they eased to a 6-2 win in the women’s title match.
After taking a 2-0 lead on two easy goals by tournament MVP Stefan Mouttet, the Lions had to work hard for their come from behind win as the cagey veteran Patrick Stutz finally prevailed for Rye before the end of first half getting a goal back after being denied on a number of occasions by Canada’s indoor team captain, the outstanding Shankar Premakanthan in goal for Toronto. David Geerts leveled the score for Rye at 2-2 three minutes into the second period and the aggressiveness of Randy Christie six minutes later resulted in a top of the circle shot giving Rye a 2-3 lead. Toronto quickly gained a penalty corner on the other end but Micha Tiexeira was thwarted on the initial and follow-up shots as Steve Wagner, the 1996 USA Olympian and 1-on-1 master stood his ground. However, the 2010 Big Apple indoor champs, the Lions were not done yet as they scored two quick goals in the dying minutes. Gurjot Singh’s goal tied the score at 3-3 and Jeewanjot Bath followed with his winning tally seconds later. Rye got one last chance to even things up on a penalty corner and send the match into golden goal overtime, but Chris Cheetham, the Rye captain, went wide right with his attempt thus ending a great championship match.
Earlier in the semifinals, both teams overcame a two goal deficit to win 4-2. Rye moved passed Charlestown Chiefs thanks to the last two goals by Cheetham in one semifinal and Bath’s two goals in the second half allowed the Lions to defeat their hometown rivals the Toronto Titans in the other.
Toronto Lions: Shanker Premakanthan, Jeewanjot Bath, Bikram Kandola, Satnam Dosanjh, Gurjot Singh, Arminder Singh, Sunny Singh, Micah Teixeira, Gagan Dhanju, Stefan Mouttet, Jagtar Dosanjh
Rye FHC: Steve Wagner, Chris Cheetham, Steven van Der Voort, Lennart Cherifi, Alex Anich, Danny Haydon, Patrick Stutz, Randy Christie, David Geerts, Matt Trischler
Umpires: Stefan Behrens (Germany), Constantine Soteriades (USA)
In the women’s final, Cougars’ Katie Grant opened and closed the scoring, but, the story of the match was the other Katie, Katie Gerzabek of Team USA, scoring a natural three-goal hat trick and after teammate Dana Allaband netted first of her two goals, Gerzabek added her fourth goal on a penalty stroke as the young USA women dominated the proceeding against a veteran but tired Cougars, wining 6-2. Things were not as easy for Team USA in the very exciting semifinal against GOA Reds of Canada where GOA had the upper hand earlier and led 3-1 in a game that turned into a see saw battle later. However, USA kept at it as Allaband and Gerzabek scored two goals each and tournament MVP Rachael Bloemker helped in controlling things for a great comeback victory and a chance to play to play in the finals. Cougars had a much easier time in the other semifinal as they shut out Toronto Titans 4-0.
Team USA: Megan Botteri, Rachael Bloemker, Colleen Boyce, Erin Marihung, Sarah Reinprecht, Dana Allaband, Katie Gerzabek, Echo Bretz, Corrine McConville
Cougars: Sandra Cook, Tina McDavitt, Kimmie Susko, Denise Zelenak, Jamie Whitten, Katie Grant, Mria Keesling, Amanda Janney, Knita Winn Holmes
Umpires: Ayanna McClean (Trinidad & Tobago), Stephanie Judefind (USA)
52 teams competed at the first annual International Indoor Hockey Championships. In addition to the men and women divisions, competition was also held in University, U-19, U-16, and U-14 divisions.
One of the many benefits of the partnership formed with FHA, we are able to expand the tournament and created a separate University / Collegiate Division as well as U-19, U-16 and U-14 Girl’s Divisions.
In the University / Collegiate Division, after watching two highly competitive semi-finals between University Of Maryland – Black over Drexel University by a score of 4 – 3, and the University Of Maryland – Red over Albany Great Danes 7 – 4, the finals was an all University of Maryland affair with the Red team beating the Black 7-3. Jemma Buckley from the Red team took the Dita MVP honors.
The U-19 Girl’s Division saw X-Caliber Justice blanking Jersey Intensity Black 4-0 with Maura Keith of X-Caliber Justice taking the Dita MVP award.
The U-16 Girl’s final went to Spark-16 over Spirit of USA 3-2 and no one was declared the MVP in this close contest.
X-Caliber FHC beat The Gaels 5-3 for the U-14 Girls title and Annie Himsworth was the Dita MVP from the winners.
For complete results and standings please visit www.bigapplehockey.com.
