Red Devils Wrap Up Wildcat Tourney With 4 Straight Wins

FRIDAY
After sleeping in, the Red Devils took on Olympia at 1PM. Senior Captain Jack Meara led the scoring with 6 goals as the Red Devils got off to a hot 5-0 start. Junior goalie Chris Lauber saved 9 shots en route to a 13-7 victory. Senior Captain Chris Watkins ended up with 1 goal, 2 assists and 1 steal, and was named player of the game for doing all of the little things right; driving hard, winging out for the outlet pass, going into set and holding his water, swimming end-to-end.

At 5PM, the "White" team took on Winter Park's JV team, which had two varsity players starting for them. This game proved to be the closest game of the tournament for CCP as Winter Park never let the Red Devils run away with the game by responding with big goals to keep the game close. But, three third period goals, two by Junior Kevin Glauber proved to be too much to overcome for the Wildcats. Senior Peter Hoette stopped 5 shots, and had 3 assists, earning player of the game as "White" took home a 9-6 victory.

At 6PM, the "Red" team played Boone, an Orlando area team. "Red" worked hard the whole game and never gave Boone anything easy. 9 second quarter goals, 6 from Senior Jack Meara, put this game out of reach early. Senior Jake Entwistle had 10 steals and chipped in a 4th quarter goal to earn player of the game honors. Junior Chris Lauber stopped 4 shots as "Red" wins 17-2.

SATURDAY
Growing in confidence each game, the Red Devils kept the heat on the local teams by bringing the intensity right from the initial swim-off. Local Orlando team Bishop Moore was up next at 10AM and fought hard with the Red Devils for the first quarter and a half. The Red Devil defense was intense and led to a flurry of counter-attack goals, 5 in the 2nd quarter and 7 in the 3rd quarter. Jack Meara and Junior Ed Rose each had four goals and accounted for 6 of those 7 3rd quarter goals. Jack also chipped in 4 assists. Junior Chris Lauber played his best game of the year, stopping 8 shots and having his best passing game of the year, leading to one assist. Chris earned player of the game as the Red Devils beat Bishop Moore 17-3.

The final game of the tournament was at 12pm against Palm Beach County school Suncoast. The intensity the Red Devils displayed in the previous three games did not diminish against Suncoast as the Red Devils imposed their defensive will upon the unsuspecting Suncoast players. Another game was out of reach early as Chaminade ended the first quarter up 7-0. The scoring was spread wide as all but three of the 13 players notched a goal, including Junior Chris Lauber who scored his first two goals after being relieved by Senior Peter Hoette. Sweeping the Saturday "player of the game" awards was Chris Lauber, who had 2 saves and an assist in the first half, and notched 2 goals on 2 shots in the second half, one of which came on a 5M shot.

Overall, the tournament was well played by Chaminade as we seemed to be growing in confidence with each game. The comfort level with the system is as good as it's ever been and the intensity on both ends of the pool is light years ahead of where it was against Kirkwood and SLUH. Every player agrees that it was definitely worth the trip. Coach Creighton apologized that he couldn't get some more top-level teams to come play us, but most of Florida was on Spring Break this week as well. I was pleased with the competition, and I wish we could have another shot at Winter Park (or played them last), because we've grown in the last two days. Player of the tournament goes to Chris Watkins, who did everything and more. His passing was great, especially on 6-on-5, his driving was relentless, his hole setting was physical and aggressive. He played tough defense and had a lot of steals. An all-around great performance, one you would expect from a captain. Jack Meara deserves some mention in the POTT conversation as he led the team with 22 goals, and did nearly everything I mentioned Chris doing. The difference was Chris' 13 assists.

Up Next: Monday March 30th v. Parkway South at Parkway South. JV starts at 4PM and Varsity follows at 5PM.