Saratoga's Pienkos scores in win
By Dick Sparrer
Goals by Danny Frey of Los Gatos, Erik Rios of San Jose and Shaun Pienkos of Saratoga helped the Silicon Valley Quakes roll into the quarterfinals of the seventh annual North American Roller Hockey Championships in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, this past summer.
A loss a game later to the Michigan Stampede knocked the Quakes out of the tournament, but it did little to diminish the accomplishment of the powerful team from the Santa Clara Valley.
The 12-and-under Quakes finished fifth in the gold division of the tournament that featured nearly 300 teams from all over North America.
The Quakes, playing in the squirts division, dropped their opener 8-2 to the U.S. Blades Bulldogs from Detroit, Mich., but fought back to cursh the host Brampton Radicals 7-2.
Frey's slap shot gave the Quakes an early 1-0 lead over the New York Nightmare in the third and final qualifying game. The Nightmares battled back to tie it, but goals by Rios and Pienkos put the game away.
Frey scored again a game later, but the Quakes lost 6-1 to the Michigan Stampede in the quarter-final round.
Along with Frey, Rios and Pienkos, members of the Quakes team included Henry Barmeier of Saratoga, Michael Richardson and Steven Verbrugge of San Jose, Kevin Leonard of Cupertino, Steven Mauger and Eric Nakamura of Santa Clara and Brian Ganz and Andrew Norris of Sunnyvale.
The Silicon Valley 10-and-under team finished a couple of places higher in their age group than their local counterparts, finishing third in the mites division.
Hockey tryouts
The Silicon Valley Quakes will hold tryouts for their 10-and-under and 12-and-under roller hockey teams on Sept. 17, 8 a.m.-10 a.m., at Rollin' Ice at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
Tryouts are open to players from throughout the valley. The Quakes will field traveling tournament teams in the 10-and-under mite (players born before Jan. 1, 1990) and 12-and-under squirt (players born before Jan. 1, 1988) age divisions.
For more information, call head coach Dave Inouye at 408.370.3579.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
