Wednesday — February 25, 2004

The Wood River Suns state champions. Back row, from left, coach Andrew Hebert, Jason Heiner, Jeff Emerick, captain Tate Mills, Carl Jablonski, Danny Gariepy, Matt Ward, Michael Connor, Sinjin Thomas, captain Taylor Rothgeb, Tyson Reynoso and assistant coach Cruger Thomas. Middle row, from left, Danny Ward, Spencer Brendel, Travis Amick, Brandon Brocklebank, Jeff Conover, Max Kwok and Chad Levitan. Front row goalies, from left, Hunter Campbell and Regan O’Reilly. Express photo by Willy Cook

 

High school Suns
earn state title

Mills leads an explosive offense

---

By MICHAEL AMES
Express Staff Writer

Winning five games without a loss, and outscoring opponents 25-12, the Wood River Suns high school hockey team won the Idaho High School Skate Championship tournament Sunday in Sun Valley.

There were eight teams in the three-day tournament sponsored by Sun Valley Junior Hockey—and Wood River was the best at the end, beating Eagle 4-3 in the finale.

The first victory for the Wood River Suns came Friday by a 3-1 score against Eagle—the team they would eventually face, and beat, in Sunday’s championship match.

In fact, Wood River dominated the Eagle Mustangs in both games, pummeling the goalie with shot after shot only to be robbed of goals time and time again. Tony Davenport, the outstanding Eagle net minder kept both games tight and would eventually be named tournament MVP despite his team’s second-place finish.

The tournament’s first and last games were similar in one way: Wood River played as a team, evenly distributing the scoring amongst its many potent offensive weapons. The overall Suns philosophy was that in the face of non-stop offense, any team will crack.

Coach Andrew Hebert’s Wood River team was nothing if not persistent all weekend as they outshot opponents 244-100.

In their 5-3 semifinal win over the Centennial Patriots, the Suns outshot the opponent 72-13; the game was kept reasonable only by the Centennial goalie’s Herculean effort for 67 saves.

To put together such a constant volley of shots from beginning to end of each game, Wood River spread the wealth amongst its roster. Cool headed passing and a team-first attitude launched this team to the Idaho state championship.

The championship game, though offensively dominated by Wood River, was no cakewalk. Going into the third with a scoreless tie, Michael Connor broke the stalemate with a smooth goal through a screen from the top of the circle.

Six minutes later, Danny Gariepy put one in from the point to give the Suns what seemed like a comfortable two goal lead with eight minutes remaining.

In the next minute, Eagle scored two goals within 11 seconds. The game was once again deadlocked, 2-2. The home rooters were shocked and quiet until Tyson Reynoso scored the go-ahead goal from the point with 3:56 remaining.

Co-captain Taylor Rothgeb added another off of a Gariepy rebound at 2:32 for a 4-2 lead.

When Eagle came back 20 seconds later to make the game 4-3, the momentum once again seemed to swing their way. The Suns buckled down for the final couplet, though, and held off any more chances for Eagle to tie it up.

"We let them back in twice, but we pulled out the victory," said coach Hebert. "Their goalie played a tremendous game; our guys deserved the win though."

The leading scorer on the weekend was Suns co-captain Tate Mills with 4 goals and 3 assists. Mills is looking forward to taking his team to Midget States and then regional competition after that.

"We’re playing well," Mills said. "This was a great last game in Sun Valley for our seniors and now we’ve gotta keep the streak alive."

State scoring wrap-up: Mills 4 goals/3 assists; Spencer Brendel 2/3; Connor 1/4; Rothgeb 2/3; Matt Ward 0/5; Max Kwok 3/1; Chad Levitan 1/3; Reynoso 2/2; Sinjin Thomas 2/2; Danny Ward 0/5; Gariepy 2/1; Jeff Conover 2/0; Jeff Emerick 0/2; Carl Jablonski 0/1.

Goalies: Regan O’Reilly—64 saves on 71 shots for .90 gaa. Hunter Campbell—24 saves on 29 shots for .83 gaa.

State tournament results:

Friday’s games: WR 3-1 over Eagle; Idaho Falls 10-2 over Moscow; Centennial 2-1 over Salmon; and Skyline 8-0 over Hillcrest.

Saturday’s games: Moscow 2-2 tie with Centennial; Idaho Falls 6-2 over Salmon; WR 8-3 over Hillcrest; Eagle 5-4 over Skyline; Salmon 6-0 over Moscow; Idaho Falls 5-1 over Centennial; WR 5-3 over Skyline; and Eagle 7-1 over Hillcrest.

Sunday’s games: Semi-finals—Eagle 6-4 over Idaho Falls and WR 5-2 over Centennial. Championship—WR 4-3 over Eagle. Tournament MVP—Eagle goalie Tony Davenport.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.