Miracle on concrete? Certainly, Bonita Vista’s 5-4 win over the top-seeded Eastlake Titans in the dying seconds of this year’s Metro Conference championship game on Feb. 18 proved to be the shocker of the 2024-25 scholastic roller hockey season.
The second-seeded Barons had come up short by scores of 6-3 and 8-1 in two Mesa League encounters this season. The Titans led 5-0 in the first game before BV senior Jacob Hunter rattled off three late goals to make the score cosmetically closer. The rematch belonged to Eastlake throughout. The Titans built another 5-0 lead on the Barons but held Hunter this time around to just one goal while ending the game with three unanswered goals.
At 19-0, Eastlake appeared destined to roll to a magical 20-0 season to join rather elite company in the 25-year history of the conference.
The Scripps Ranch Falcons were the first to accomplish the feat with a 22-0 season in 2004. The Rancho Bernardo Broncos posted a 20-0 record in 2015. The Falcons turned in their second undefeated season in school history in 2019 with an 18-0 mark.
Eastlake rolled to a 24-0 start in 2018 before finishing 24-2 with two setbacks in the Kiwanis Cup playoffs (semifinals and third-place game). The Titans finished 21-5 in 2019.
At 17-3, the Barons were primed to make up ground on the 2024-25 Metro kingpins and they did with a rejuvenated game plan focusing on defense and an absolutely spectacular performance by Hunter, whose two late power play goals erased a 3-2 Eastlake lead to give Bonita Vista renewed life.
After tying the game, 3-3, with 4:30 to play in regulation, Hunter popped in a power play goal with 3:25 remaining to flip the score to 4-3 in the Barons’ favor. But too much time remained for Eastlake’s sharp-shooters as Hunter – the linchpin of the inspired Bonita Vista effort — noticeably began to tire in the game’s waning stages.
To add an incredible twist of drama to an already superb championship game, the Titans knotted the game at 4-4 on sophomore Sidney Jonason’s hat trick goal with a scant 32.8 seconds to play.
Jonason and his mates danced on their skates as they kept their own hopes alive to win the championship. It was an electrifying sight to take in.
Again, just enough time remained on the clock for Hunter to show why coaches voted him the Mesa League Player of the Year. After winning a face-off, he wheeled around center court while looking for a path to the net and, squeezing through a maze of defenders, brazenly broke in alone on EHS goaltender Solana Kitamura. It happened in a flash. Hunter skated across the crease and calmly flipped the puck top shelf for what proved to be the game-winner with 15.6 seconds to play.
But the Titans (19-1) had one last gasp chance to force overtime by forcing a face-off deep in the BV defensive zone with five seconds remaining on the scoreboard. The puck was batted behind the Bonita Vista net with sticks of players from both teams furiously knocking at it.
But the puck remained behind the net as time finally ran out and BV players began celebrating what some might have considered an improbable victory by massing around winning goaltender Aryk Winters.
It was incredible and worthy of a championship game. The game was obviously the best-played contest of the conference’s hastily constructed season and easily its most entertaining and exciting.
“It took the third game to figure it out — we got the one that counted,” said first-year BVHS coach Michael Albright, whose team finished 18-3. “Great defense, a great team effort. We kept moving, keeping back whenever they had the puck. We didn’t want to give them any easy goals. It was a true team effort. It was a great hard-fought game. They have a great team with a lot of players who will be back. They will be a hard team to play against next year.”
Game on
Due to construction of a new stadium on campus, the roller hockey season started a month later than normal with as many as 18 regular season games squeezed into just one month. The shortened season demanded teams play multiple games on some days with games themselves shortened to two periods to accommodate the schedule. Seven mini-games were played late in the season to round out regular season play.
Only a light drizzle forced one game to end early — and that was the final game in the regular season.
The season was made for true ironmen and ironwomen roller warriors.
Eastlake finished league play with a perfect 6-0 record while Bonita Vista was next up in the five-team playing circuit with a 4-2 league record (both losses to the Titans), followed by the Hilltop Lancers at 2-4 in league (all losses to either Eastlake or Bonita Vista) and the Otay Ranch Mustangs bringing up the rear with a 0-6 league mark.
The Titans (17-0 in regular season play) earned the No. 1 seed for the eight-team playoff tournament while the Barons (15-3 in the regular season) were the easy No. 2 seed. Hilltop (14-4 in regular season play) was seeded third while the Metro-Pacific League champion Southwest Raiders (11-5 in the regular season) earned the No. 4 seed ahead of No. 5 Otay Ranch (7-7 in the regular season).
The Metro-South Bay League champion Mar Vista Mariners (9-8 in regular season play) received the No. 6 seed while the Metro-Pacific League runner-up Castle Park Trojans (4-11-1 in the regular season) and the Metro-South Bay League runner-up Sweetwater Red Devils (3-13-1 in regular season play) were seeded seventh and eighth, respectively.
The Chula Vista Spartans (2-15 in the regular season after returning from a six-year hiatus) and the San Ysidro Cougars (0-16 in regular season play) were the two teams that did not qualify for postseason play in the 10-team loop that was comprised exclusively of Sweetwater Union High School District teams this season.
This year’s playoff tournament was split into three rounds. All eight qualifiers played in the opening round on Feb. 10, followed by semifinals on Feb. 11. The championship finals were originally scheduled for Feb. 12 but postponed to Feb. 18 because of rain.
In playoff openers, Eastlake eliminated Sweetwater by a score of 15-0 while Bonita Vista overcame a determined defensive effort by Castle Park to post a 6-2 win. Hilltop rolled past Mar Vista, 7-4, on the strength of six goals by senior wonder woman Aariel Nichols, the top female skater in the conference. Otay Ranch recorded the lone upset with a 5-4 overtime win over Southwest as senior Diego Falomir scored all five goals for the Mustangs, including the OT winner after Southwest’s Prince Corpus (another late bloomer) had forced overtime with a late goal.
Regular season district scoring leader Chris Rollbusch (114 points on 77 goals and 37 assists) led the Titan scoring parade in the opener with seven goals and four assists while freshman sensation Aaron Odvina chipped in with four goals and one assist to lift Bonita Vista.
Eastlake was not challenged by Otay Ranch in a 20-2 semifinal win as Rollbusch collected 14 points, Sam Chavez tacked on 10 points and Jonason had nine points. Bonita Vista took care of business with a 13-7 victory against Hilltop as Hunter racked up 10 points and Odvina contributed nine points as the conference’s top scoring duo. In defeat, Nichols (third in regular season scoring with 68 points and second overall with 62 goals) amassed seven points.
That left the Titans and Barons as the only two teams remaining in this year’s playoff bracket.
The game was almost a complete opposite of the teams’ regular season matchups.
The emphasis was on defense on the part of Bonita Vista, and that was admittedly the only course the Barons could take in a bid to slay the conference’s Goliath.
The first period ended scoreless as Nicole Alvarez started in place of Kitamura for Eastlake. Each team had one super chance to score but was denied by a point-blank save by each netminder.
Kitamura opened the second period in the Titan net and was caught out of position on a rush by Odvina, the conference’s top impact newcomer.
The third period opened with a 2-0 BV lead on a quick goal by Hunter, assisted by Ethan Quillen, just 50 seconds into the frame. But the talent-heavy Titans could only be held off the scoreboard for so long.
Eastlake began to pick up the pace and pick apart the BV defense over a span of several minutes. The Titans reeled off three consecutive goals — two by Jonason and another by Chavez (assisted by Jonason) — to push ahead 3-2 on the scoreboard. It appeared the Titans were on a rush to break the game wide open.
But Winters (12 saves on 16 shots) managed to stop the potential blood bath to allow his team to get back the lead. After being denied twice on two previous power play opportunities, Hunter finally cashed in with back-to-back power play tallies to tie the score, 3-3, and push his team in front, 4-3.
There was much celebrating among Bonita Vista fans ringing the rink. But Eastlake fans quickly got the chance to air out their lungs when the Barons, attempting to protect their precarious one-goal lead, failed to clear the puck from their defensive zone
The Titans crashed the net in force as Jonason was credited with the dramatic game-tying goal.
4-4. It couldn’t have gotten any better than this.
But the game was not destined to end in an extra period.
Hunter was determined not to let the Barons’ greatest effort of the season go for naught.
He sucked it up, played through the pain and, summoning every bit of energy he had left in his legs, and then some, propelled his team to the championship with one last amazing play to cap a four-goal performance.
“My legs were like jelly after the first period,” said Hunter, who finished as the district’s second-leading scorer in the regular season with 78 points (59 goals, 19 assists). “I had to conserve energy when I could. I wasn’t going to let it end in overtime or a shootout. I was going to leave it all on the playing court.”
“It was a phenomenal game by both teams,” Eastlake coach Chris Rollbusch Sr. said. “We saw changes they made from the first two games. I was impressed. For the kids, regardless of the score, they had fun.”
The emphasis was just on that — fun — as the conference closed out season play with a series of all-star games on Thursday, including an all-girls game for the second consecutive year.
Third place game
Hilltop defeated Otay Ranch, 7-3, in the consolation game pitting semifinal losers. Nichols scored all seven Lancer goals (all unassisted) while Nick Bernal scored twice for the Mustangs. Falomir tacked on one goal for Otay Ranch while Kaitlyn Caldwell and Isaac Alvarez each chipped in with one assist.
Hilltop (16-5) led 2-1 after the first period before having its lead cut to 3-2. Nichols scored twice to give the Lancers some breathing room at 5-2 but Bernal made it a 5-3 game with his second goal of the match-up for Otay Ranch (8-9). Nichols closed out the contest with two more goals.
Nichols finished the playoffs with 20 points — six behind Eastlake’s Rollbusch, the playoff leader. Hunter was third with 17 points, followed by Odvina with 15 points and Jonason and Chavez each with 14 points.
“It was fast and tiring because of how we had to get everything going,” Hilltop coach Paul Tesner said. “But next year will be all right. It will be a lot of fun.”
Falomir, a four-year participant, was among nine Otay Ranch seniors. He finished the regular season with 20 points (16 goals, four assists) as the Mustangs’ second-leading scorer to Bernal (23 points, 21 goals).
“It’s been so much fun to be with my teammates,” Falomir said. “I felt free and happy to out there, helping my team trying to get wins.”
Metro Conference Scoring Leaders
(Final Regular Season)
Chris Rollbusch (Eastlake) 77 goals, 37 assists – 114 points
Jacob Hunter (Bonita Vista) 59 goals, 19 assists – 78 points
Aariel Nichols (Hilltop) 62 goals, 6 assists – 68 points
Aaron Odvina (Bonita Vista) 27 goals, 28 assists – 55 points
Sid Jonason (Eastlake) 26 goals, 22 assist – 48 points
Desi Garcia (Eastlake) 22 goals, 13 assists – 35 points
Fernando Corona (Mar Vista) 23 goals, 10 assists – 33 points
Nick Bernal (Otay Ranch) 21 goals, 2 assists – 23 points
Sam Chavez (Eastlake) 12 goals, 11 assists – 23 points
Ryan Lopez (Sweetwater) 17 goals, 4 assists – 21 points
Riley McElroy (Eastlake) 15 goals, 6 assists – 21 points
Diego Falomir (Otay Ranch) 16 goals, 4 assists – 20 points
Angelica Cantu (Southwest) 15 goals, 3 assists – 18 points
Caleb Quintero (Castle Park) 14 goals, 3 assists – 17 points
Prince Corpus (Southwest 11 goals, 6 assists – 17 points
Adam Ibarra (Eastlake) 10 goals, 7 assists – 17 points
Riley Owen (Mar Vista) 8 goals, 7 assists – 15 points
Achilles Tan (Sweetwater) 12 goals, 0 assists – 12 points
Nicholas Battillo (Eastlake) 8 goals, 4 assists – 12 points
Marston Malfori (Mar Vista) 8 goals, 2 assists – 10 points
Iris Miranda (Castle Park) 6 goals, 4 assists – 10 points
AHL REPORT:
FORCE IS WITH GULLS IN 4-2 WIN OVER BARRACUDA IN FRONT OF 11,823 FANS ON STAR WARS NIGHT
The San Diego Gulls appear to have achieved the goal head coach Matt McIlvane set for the season – that is to be a hard team to play against.
Now the question begs: is it too late for the Gulls to make the Calder Cup playoffs?
That question will not likely be answered until the final weeks of regular season play. If the season ended today, the Gulls would not be one of the seven qualifiers from the Pacific Division. But with 26 games remaining on their regular season slate, there’s still plenty of room to maneuver into playoff position.
In fact, the Gulls have already started to move up. The Gulls stood 14 points arrears of the division’s seventh place team just prior to the AHL All-Star break. The Gulls entered Sunday’s Star Wars Night contest against the San Jose Barracuda at Pechanga Arena San Diego 10 points behind the Bakersfield Condors.
That’s four standings points – four precious standings points – to close the gap somewhat. But more will be needed if the Gulls have designs on moving up further.
While the Gulls are moving closer to a playoff berth, they will need to leap-frog over two other teams in the division to claim that No. 7 slot. The ninth place Henderson Silver Knights entered Sunday’s game three standings points in front of the10th place Gulls while the eighth place Tucson Roadrunners were nine points in front of the San Diego team.
The Gulls (15-24-5-2) are skating on a fine line at the moment.
Shark attack
The Barracuda (25-16-2-3) entered Sunday’s game 18 standings ahead of San Diego positioned in fifth place — one point behind Coachella Valley and one point ahead of Abbotsford. The Pacific Division playoff race appears intense with eight teams boasting 0.500 records of better.
The Calgary Wranglers (29-15-3-1) continue to lead the division, though the gap has closed with the Colorado Eagles now positioned just two points behind and the Ontario Reign three points back. Coachella Valley stood in fourth place six points behind.
The Gulls have won three of five games since coming off the All-Star break while generating points in four games. They scored three times in the first period in Saturday’s 5-3 win in Coachella Valley. The Firebirds tied the game, 3-3, with the only goals in the second period but the Gulls responded with the only two goals in the the third period.
Judd Caulfield scored what proved to be the game-winner just 38 seconds into the final stanza, assisted by Nathan Gaucher and Tristan Luneau. Nikita Nesterenko sealed the win with an empty net goal at 18:21, assisted by Jan Mysak and Roland McKeown. Gaucher was first star with a goal and assist.
Oscar Dansk stopped 22 of 25 shots to pick up the goaltender victory.
Less than 24 hours later, the Gulls were back on the ice, though in their own barn.
San Jose took a 1-0 lead as both a Cuda player and the puck made it into the San Diego net. Scott Sabourin was credited with his sixth goal of the season, his 16th point, at 4:20. Filip Bystedt and Pavol Regenda both picked up their 16th assists of the season.
Regenda was making a return to San Diego after being traded to Sam Jose for Justin Bailey on Jan. 22.
The Gulls tied the game, 1-1, at 12:22 on a goal by McKeown, assisted by Dillon Heatherington and Carpenter. It was McKeown’s ninth goal of the season and the assist the 18th for Carpenter.
The Barracuda showed the Force was with them, however, as they took a 2-1 lead at 14:05 on a shot by Thomas Bordeleau, his 10th goal of the season, off a pass from Collin Graf (his 24th assist) and former Gull Andrew Poturalski (his 29th assist).
The first period ended with the Gulls holding a 10-9 edge in shots.
The second period went the Gulls way with a 10-6 edge in shots.
Bailey netted the equalizer at 16:15 on a power play after several flurries in front of the San Jose net. Sam Colangelo and Carpenter each picked up assists, the 16th for Colangelo, who represented the Gulls at the All-Star Classic earlier this month, and the 19th for Carpenter, the Gulls’ captain.
The hosts killed three Cuda power plays in the period.
Bailey tacked on another power play goal at 3:56 of the third period to push the Gulls to a 3-2 lead. It was his 12th goal, 23rdpoint of the season, assisted by Carpenter and Luneau.
Dansk made two rapid-fire saves to keep his team in the lead while San Jose starter Gabriel Carriere stopped a clean breakaway by Bailey, bidding for his hat trick goal.
The Gulls had started to take control with a 9-3 advantage in shots to start the third period (29-18 in the game).
Dansk made a whipping glove save in heavy traffic in front of the San Diego net but the Gulls were whistled for a roughing call during the pileup. Dansk made another save on a close-in shot as the penalty expired.
Carriere then made a glove save of his own at the other end of the ice, plucking the puck out of the air.
The Cuda applied pressure from two minutes left on but couldn’t get Carriere out of the net until 30 seconds remained n regulation. San Jose forced a sprawling save by Dansk but the puck went back up the ice with Dansk receiving the secondary assist on an empty net goal by Gaucher with 2.4 seconds to play. Colangelo received credit for the primary assist.
4-2 San Diego.
The Gulls proved on this night to be tough enough.
San Diego out-shot the Bay Area visitors 32-27 in what proved to be an exciting finish in front of 11,823 fans. Dansk was named third star with 25 saves and one assist while Carpenter received second star billing with three assists, First-star honors were reserved for Bailey with two power play goals.
The Gulls improved to 4-1-1 since the All-Star break with points in five of their last six games.
The Gulls gained two points on Henderson (7-4 losers to Tucson) and one point on Bakersfield (3-2 loss in a shootout to Coachella Valley).
That’s now a five-point climb up the standings. But the abrupt turnaround needs to continue.
The new-found momentum came on the heels of four games in six days.
“What I’m the most proud of is the way we finished,” McIlvane said. “You think about everything that we put into these last four games, all the travel, etc, and then to be able to finish that strong, that’s the big deal. And the truth is, I think that a little bit of fatigue showed early in the game, and I think that our ability to respond and bounce back and show a really strong version of ourselves was impressive today.
Four teams appear battling for that final seventh playoff berth in the division and only one will come out with it.
“It’s going to be tight games from here on out,” Ryan Carpenter said.
In a playoff race, teams have to start fast. There is no other option.
“These games down the stretch are super important for us, and we’ve been trying to take them one day at a time,” Carpenter said. “And so, we weren’t happy with our start, I thought we gave up too many chances to a really good offensive team, and sometimes you have to give the other team credit. But I thought we responded in the second and third, and special teams came up big too, and Dansk. He made some really big time and saves, and we needed them too, and so, I think all year we’ve been getting good crowds, and you want them to get behind us. And so it was nice to respond and come out of the win.
“Those are, those are big kills. I mean, you want your penalty kill the best percentage possible. But then there’s also the kills and the special teams, even power plays, where it’s a close game that you need to come up with either momentum or find a way to block shots and I thought guys were bought in and even to, again, making timely saves, Dansk. Sometimes when you’re penalty kill is good, it’s because your goalie is making good saves.
“There’s a lot of hockey to be played, and sometimes when you get a break like that, you’re able to reset a little bit mentally. And I think that’s what we’ve done so far as a group. But again, it’s only really been six games since break, and it’s the time of the year where you play a lot of games, and usually about now three games a week, sometimes four. And so hopefully we can just keep building off this momentum, but this is also when other teams are going to keep getting better and games are going to get tighter. It’s nice to play with the lead and learn how to win those kinds of games, and hopefully it translates to some more success for us on the structure.”
The game pitted Bailey against his old team, and a chance to make a statement.
“I know that Bailey takes a lot of pride in his game, and it’s never easy when you move teams and going back and playing them again,” McIlvane said. “What a cool storyline. You know that he’s able to bury two on the power play and be a hero in the game today. Really, really happy for him.
“That’s hard playing the (former) team so quickly,” Carpenter said. “And so, there can be so many nerves but for him to have two goals like that, that goal especially, was huge for us. And yeah, the crowd behind you on a back-to-back like that, it definitely gives you energy. We appreciate their support, you know, through the through the bad and the good and so it was nice to get a win for them tonight.”
“I think the first one, (Ryan Carpenter) did a really good job of going and winning a battle and popping it to the middle,” Bailey said. “And the second one, (Tristan Luneau) did a great job of holding it and they put me in the bumper spot in the middle of the ice there. And both of those goals, the middle was wide open. I wasn’t going to miss either of those two.
“I learned early in the season when I was over there with San Jose that San Diego plays it hard every night. They’re not going to give you anything. It’s going to be a hard game for 60 minutes. We have an emphasis on we’re in a playoff push right now. We’ve been in those tight games in the third period, up one in the third period, down in the third period. The resilience in this group is pretty special. Anytime you have a team that doesn’t quit, everybody’s playing for each other, that’s the kind of result you get.
“Anytime you’re playing a home game with these kinds of fans, you know, it’s a Sunday, the atmosphere is electric. I know there’s not a lot of sports teams here in San Diego. So, for us, the emphasis is like I said, making the playoffs so do what we can to support these fans who support us.”
Face-offs
Carpenter extended his points streak to six games (two goals, seven assists, nine points while Colangelo registered his second consecutive two-assist night to co-lead the Gulls with 33 points (18 goals, 15 assists) and rank tied for 10th among AHL rookies.
Luneau recorded his team-leading 24th assist of the season to lead all AHL rookie defensemen.
Gaucher scored a goal for the third game in a row
Dansk recorded his third consecutive win and seventh of the season.
The Gulls host Abbotsford on Wednesday in their next outing, then pair up with Bakersfield for two critical games in the division standings Feb. 21-22 in Condorstown.
