Ganz, Norris help Quakes to 5th
Sunnyvale's Backo, Weng on third-place roller hockey team
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 summer.
A loss a game later to the Michigan Stampede knocked the Quakes out of the tournament, but it did little to dimish the accomplish 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. The Quakes ended up third in the Mites division, winning four qualifying games and beating the Brantford Rolling Thunder of Ontario 6-3 before losing 2-1 to the Projog Blackhawks of Arizona. The 'Hawks went on to win 4-1 in the championship game.
Members of the third-place Quakes team included Brian Backo and Darrin Weng of Sunnyvale, Kiffer Gudmundson of Cupertino, Michael Inouye and Daniel Inouye of Campbell, Cody Hogue of Aptos, Will Lamping of Los Altos, Garrett McDowell and Max Train of Santa Cruz, Brandon Oneida of San Jose and Greg Alexander of Davis.
Tryouts for the 2000-2001 roller hockey season will begin in October. For more information, call coach Dave Inouye at 408.370.3579 or business manager Randy Frey at 408.356.1424.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
