A combined CalHeat/LA team conquers the Bronze Medal at the winter storm impaired Seattle Holiday Bash tournament

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A combined CalHeat/LA team conquers the Bronze Medal at the winter storm impaired Seattle Holiday Bash tournament

Tue, 12/23/2008 - 01:00 — smayer73

A combined CalHeat/LA team consisting of mostly young players and a few veterans managed to eke out a respectable Bronze Medal in a snow storm battered Seattle.On Saturday during the first game against Vancouver the young team possessed a continuous two goal lead up to the 50 minute. However fatigue and inexperience set in during the last ten minutes and Vancouver pulled away by up to 4 goals. Mobilizing the last reserves the team was able to cut the lead to only one goal and having the chance to tie the game during the last 30 seconds. The last shot missed the goal and Vancouver emerged as the winner with a 27 to 26 victory.

The second game against a shorthanded Portland team, reinforced by veteran players from Vancouver, went very similar. A very comfortable 11 to 3 lead was built in the first 15 minutes. However by half time it was cut to 14 to 10. In the second half the fatigue continued further and the added veteran players from Vancouver started to control the game. Portland pulled away with a 5 goal lead. But this time there was no strength left anymore and Portland cruised to an easy 27 to 22 victory.

The third game on Sunday was against the host team of Seattle for the Bronze Medal. This time the team started slower and therefore was able to contain their strength, focus and stamina longer. During the first 15 minutes the game stayed tied for most of the time. After that the combined team started to pull away slowly and had a comfortable 5 goal lead. The first 15 minutes in the second half continued the same way and the team was able to build a 24 to 16 lead. The last 15 minutes of the second half proofed to be again very difficult. Seattle increased the pressure and was able to cut into the lead. However this time the team managed to defend the lead and came out on top with a 27 to 23 victory.

Vancouver grabed the Gold Medal with a 32 to 22 victory over Portland in the Championship game.

As a side note it has to be mentioned that Seattle was hammered by a snow blizzard not seen for more than a decade. That caused the Seattle and Portland airports to be mainly closed on Sunday December 21^st and only being opened partially on Monday December 22^nd. Since one player of the CalHeat team had to leave to Europe on Monday morning to spend the holidays with his family. He and two other players took upon them a 14 hour overnight drive through ice, snow, wind and cold all the way back to San Francisco. All the time trying to avoid any road closures and accidents. However in the end everybody arrived safely and he was able to make his flight.