Wednesday — February 18, 2004

Three teams earn Winter Games gold

Wells Fargo meet

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It was a weekend custom-made for Advil.

At the Wells Fargo Winter Games adult hockey tourney in Boise, 58 matches were played between 33 teams. It equaled a whole lot of sore for players on the Idaho Ice World sheets.

And it also added up to some medals for local teams.

Whitehead Landscaping, the Sun Valley Fury and Sun Valley Sunsets were all victorious.

The Landscapers won the Advanced Men’s division with both a gritty and pretty 3-2 victory over Idaho Pizza.

It was a furious final in the women’s B division with the Sun Valley Fury edging the Fury Too, 3-2. And the Sun Valley Sunsets beat the Boise Blades twice to capture the women’s A title.

In other games involving Sun Valley teams, the Silver Blades (1-3) finished in fourth place out of six teams in the Intermediate A class.

It was an unlucky weekend for the Sawtooth Rangers (0-3). They suffered three one-goal losses. In Men’s B, the Vipers were 1-1-1, the Sawtooth Wolfpack 1-2-1 and the Chiefs 0-3.

Tournament organizer Marco Pietroniro said the tournament went "very well," and chalked it up to some evenly matched teams.

He said, "It was a lot more level. We had a lot of ties and one-goal games. In the past we saw a lot of 7-2 scores."

For a full report, check this week’s Express Web site. Here are the highlights for last weekend’s winning teams.

 

Gold medalists

Thanks to a lot of hard work by Kris Josey, the Sun Valley Fury had two entrants in the women’s B division, the Fury and Fury Too.

In the championship, Bege Reynolds, Jini Griffith and Dotty Sarchett scored giving the Fury a hard-fought 3-2 triumph over Fury Two.

In a two-game set, the Sun Valley Sunsets beat the Boise Blades 4-0 and 4-1. Goalie Karen Morrison notched the shutout. Michele Hampton scored two goals. Liza Weekes, Wendy Speth, Christl Holzl, Christine Gould, Jennifer Embree and Tizz Miller netted singles.

 

Men’s Advanced

It was a show of hands a surgeon would envy for Whitehead Landscaping in the title game against Idaho Pizza.

In a display of finesse, speed and power Whitehead Landscaping battled out of a 2-0 hole and claimed the Advanced Men’s title 3-2 over the team formerly known as Ice Hawks.

The winning goalie appreciated the effort up front. "It was nice having these guys beat the team and me not standing on my head to do it," goalie Dave Stone (14 saves) told his wife Lara after the win.

Whitehead Landscaping put the pressure on the Pizza boys from the outset, but the Boise-based sextet cracked the scoreboard first, finding twine on a goal-mouth scramble with 7:15 remaining in the opening period. It was only the third time the team had the puck in Whitehead’s defensive zone.

Midway through the second, Idaho Pizza converted on a power play for 2-0 advantage, but it would not hold up.

The Sun Valley sextet capitalized on back-to-back power plays to tie the game. The first goal came with 4:45 left in the second when Gunnar Whitehead stuffed a rebound by Phil Hebert. Dale Johnson did most of the work on the game-tying goal, going coast-to-coast deftly deking two defenders to take a shot. A perfectly positioned Phil Hebert put in the rebound on the post for a 2-2 score with 12:19 left in the game.

Goalie Stone also notched an assist on the play for the original pass to Johnson.

Then Dave Hennessy, an All-American in lacrosse at Middlebury College, showed his deft touch, corralling a pass from John Stevens (Tim Jeneson) to bury the game-winner with 8:10 on the clock.

Whitehead Landscaping went down to Boise with nine players—Dale Johnson, John Stevens, Phil Hebert, Dave Stone, Tim Jeneson, Dave Hennesey, Ron Buehl, Dave Ingraham, and Jim Hague. Brad Dredge, Clark Shafer, Doug Wilson, Jeff Enos and Chris Zarkos fleshed out the roster.

Team captain Gunnar Whitehead remarked, "It was such a combined effort and everyone contributed. The whole tournament was great."

The ‘Scrapers played Boise State to a 4-4 tie Friday night. Dave Ingraham (2 goals) scored the tying goal with less than five minutes remaining. Hennessy also netted two goals.

With Ingraham (4 goals) at center and Hawk (1 goal) and Hennessy (1 goal) on the wings, the first line scored every goal in a 6-2 win over McCall.

Whitehead kicked in two "own goals" on Stoney in a 3-2 loss to the Flying Dutchmen Sunday morning ("The Sisters of the Blind," according to one Sun Valley player.) Gunnar Whitehead tallied both scores. The Dutchmen went on to finish fourth after a 9-2 loss to BSU.

 

Women’s B

Thanks to a lot of hard work by Kris Josey, who makes most Type A personalities look a little further down the alphabet when it comes to getting things done, the Sun Valley Fury had two entrants in Women’s B division—the Fury and Fury Too.

The gold-medal winning Fury opened with a commanding 6-0 shutout of the Boise Goaldiggers, who exemplified their name by digging a lot of goals out of their own net.

The Fury added to a 1-0 lead by scoring five goals in a 14-minute span in the second. Wing Cinda Lewis slotted two goals. Jen Douglas, Bege Reynolds, Dotty Sarchett and Kris Josey got the rest.

The Fury squads faced off in a high noon showdown on Saturday. Goals by Jini Griffith, Sarchett, Nicky Elsbree and Reynolds lifted the Fury to a 4-1 win over Too. Jenni Conrad nicked the net to prevent the goose egg.

For their next contest against the Fury, the Goaldiggers utilized a different goalie and held Sun Valley in check. The teams tied 1-1 with MVP Bege Reynolds putting in the equalizer with 3:35 remaining off a pass by Sarchett.

After skating to a scoreless tie against the Goaldiggers on Saturday, the Fury Too whipped Boise 6-1 Sunday morning to make it an all Sun Valley final. Co-MVP Sara Shafer and Conrad scored two goals each. Joanie Fox and Lolly Greeninger singled.

Fiercely determined to win, the Fury Too drew first blood in Sunday’s championship contest between the two Sun Valley women’s sextets.

The speedy Conrad and Carole Punnett linked up halfway through the first for a 1-0 lead. With less than three minutes remaining in the first, Reynolds converted a pass from Merri Whitehead to tie the game 1-1.

Griffith and Sarchett (Douglas/Elsbree) both scored in the second to put the Fury on top 3-1, but co-MVP Laura Blash (Conrad/Punnett) converted to make it a one-goal game with twelve tense minutes remaining. The Fury hung back, played some D and hung on to preserve the 3-2 win and capture the gold medal.

Coach Chris Edwards remarked, "It was great we could take 25 women, split them in half and make two even teams."

Also suiting up for the medal-winning squads were Jenny Gatehouse and Jody Zarkos on Fury, and Lia Johnson, Linda McMahon, Jeannie Kiel, Susanne Connor and Heidi Ottley on the Fury Too.

 

Men’s Intermediate A

The Silver Blades won their opening game, 6-1 win over Mountain States Cellular.

Alex Orb scored twice. Singles were added by Whit Atkinson, Alan Reynolds, Bryan Furlong and Alan Dupuis.

Idaho Foot scored twice in the final eight minutes to beat the Blades 5-3. Jeff Ballou, Dave MacMillan and Dupuis lit the light.

Despite a 3-0 loss to the Timberwolves Sunday morning, the Blades qualified for the consolation final based on goal differential. CRI claimed the bronze 4-1 over the Blades. Digger Dupuis netted a solo score.

The Sawtooth Rangers lost their three games by scores of 3-2, 3-2 and 4-3. Two of the losses came in the final minutes of the games. Normally a goalie, Eric Wingard skated up and scored four goals. Singles were slotted by Clark Shafer, Reamy Goodwin and Billy Sprong.

 

Men’s Intermediate B

Sun Valley had three entries in the nine-team Intermediate B division—the Vipers, Wolfpack and Chiefs.

Danny Thomas’ early-rising Vipers (1-1-1) beat McCall 5-2, tied the Virus 4-4 and lost to finalist Boise Fire 5-0. The ageless Dick Springs and Rod Watson finished with three goals each. Danny Thomas tallied two and Gary Norbom one.

Peter Ahrens’ Sawtooth Wolfpack (1-2-1) tied Action Motors 3-3 on goals by Bryan Furlong, Geoff Sjoberg and Jim Slanetz. Jamie Trevino slotted a solo goal in a 3-1 loss to Boise Fire. The Virus inflicted a 6-3 loss on the Pack. Goal scorers were Jay Hedrick, Matt Bauer and John Cortum.

The Pack came back and finished up with a 6-4 win over the Chiefs, scoring a pair of empty-netters in the final 1:11. The Pack attack was led by Cortum with three goals. Baba Street, Dan Gralenski and John Barsch scored one each. Willy Cook was named the "Alpha Dog" as team MVP.

The Chiefs (0-3), last year’s "C" champion, lost their Wells Fargo games by scores of 4-1, 3-2 and 6-4. Goal-getters were Mark Elsbree (2), Wendy Speth (2), Dave Gittens, Deeder Petersen and Anthony Naghsh.

 

Women’s A

In a two-game set, the Sunsets beat the Boise Blades 4-0 and 4-1. Goalie Karen Morrison notched the shutout. Michele Hampton scored two goals. Liza Weekes, Wendy Speth, Christl Holzl, Christine Gould, Jennifer Embree and Tizz Miller netted one each.

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.