Central Florida Captures SCRHA Title!

The SCRHA Regional Championships finished up this 2003-2004 season, and the University of Central Florida added another championship to their résumé. In a rematch of the 2002-2003 championship game, Central Florida outlasted South Florida 7-4 and took home their 4th SCRHA Championship in 6 years. This marks the first time in league history that any team was successful in defending their previous championship. With the win, UCF has earned the automatic birth to the 2004 NCRHA National Championships in Anaheim, CA. The event will take place April 14-19 and will feature the best teams in the country. This years SCRHA Championships have been one of the most exciting to date. The action started with Round Robin play on Friday night and ended Saturday evening. The champion of Bracket A, South Florida, defeated Florida International 9-1, Miami-Dade CC 12-2, and Valencia CC 4-2. Valencia finished 2nd, followed by Miami-Dade and Florida International. Although USF won the bracket, it was only good enough for the 2nd seed in the championship round on Sunday because UCF won Bracket B and took the 1st seed by giving up one less goal then USF did. Central Florida won Bracket B by defeating Florida Atlantic 11-0, Central Florida-B 9-3, and Florida 7-1. Florida finished 2nd, followed by Central Florida-B and Florida Atlantic. As competitive as the tournament was, it was all forgotten about for two hours on Saturday night as the SCRHA All-Stars took the floor for the first ever SCRHA All-Star Game. With over 13 teams represented in the game, the West All-Stars defeated the East All-Stars 14-11 in a thrilling game that featured many goals, assists, and goalie?s standing on their heads making unbelievable saves. The West had a commanding 13-8 lead with about 3 minutes remaining in the game, but the East made it very interesting by scoring 3 unanswered goals to make it 13-11 with about 50 seconds left. The East pulled their goalie to try to send the game to overtime, but Florida's Adrian Fure iced the game with an empty netter to give the West the win in the first ever All-Star game. (Attendance: 183) Sunday morning brought the beginning of the elimination tournament. Central Florida had some trouble with Florida Atlantic, but pulled away in the end 7-1 to earn a spot in the semifinals. Florida and South Florida both earned their spots in the semifinals with victories of Central Florida-B and Florida International, but the upset of the tournament came when #3 seed Valencia CC lost to Miami-Dade CC 5-3. This was the first time in 4 years that Valenica did not make the semifinals on Championship Sunday. Semifinal #1 matched Miami-Dade CC with South Florida. Dade kept the game close in the first period and a half, but South Florida was too much to handle and cruised to the 12-2 victory. Freshman Michael Sanders had 6 goals to ensure that South Florida would have another shot at the SCRHA Championship. Semifinal #2 matched two top ranked teams in the nation as #2 Central Florida took on #4 Florida. Earlier in the tournament, Florida was blown out by Central Florida 7-1. This game was totally different. In a packed house of about 200 people, both teams excited the crowd and finished the first period tied 2-2. But that would be all the scoring UF would do. Central Florida goalie Spencer Sadkin stopped the remaining 18 shots after the first period and Gaspare Lucania scored twice in the second to put Central Florida into the Championship game for the 5th time in 6 years. The Rematch: #6 South Florida vs. #2 Central Florida South Florida has never held it. Central Florida has lifted it 3 times already. Both teams knew what was at stake. The two of them had met twice earlier in the season. UCF won the first game in the last 30 seconds of the game 7-6. South Florida evened the series up one week ago with a thrilling 6-5 victory, scoring in the last 50 seconds of the game. The drop of the puck signaled an all out war. At the 6:32 mark of the first period, South Florida struck first on the power-play. Steve Ruhmel blasted a shot into the top of the net to give South Florida the first lead of the game. But all that did was open up the flood gates. In the next 3 minutes, the teams went on to score 5 goals with the lead changing twice. After the first period the score was all tied up 3-3. It only took two minutes into the second period for South Florida to take their third lead of the game. Rick Albritton found the back of the net to give South Florida the lead, but the Bulls could never increase their lead past 1. Six minutes later Gaspare Lucania netted the tying goal for Central Florida and the period would end in a 4-4 tie. The championship would come down to who would score the most goals in the third period. The action went back and forth with both goalies making great saves, but at the 4:39 mark, Patrick Crenshaw scored the go ahead goal and UCF never looked back. Crenshaw would get one more and Jeff Stepp added the empty netter to end the game as Central Florida defeated South Florida, 7-4. For all information regarding the SCRHA, please visit SCRHA.com or NCRHA.org.