MHC Dish From the Pitch 2013 MHC Dish From the Pitch 10 | Page 7

Shamrock Club’s Late Comeback
Surprises Surging Marauders
by Jason Kirkpatrick

The Shamrock Club Griffins squared off
against the Ale House Marauders in a fight to
distinguish themselves as they attempted to climb
out of the mid-pack gridlock that had emerged. 
Family battles abound as the Varelas and Miksch
clans were playing for both panels, and the
weekend’s trend of missing goalies also continued
as captain Vinny Maloney stepped into the box for
the Shamrock Club. It was a different strategy than
usual from the Griffins, but would their late
season gamble turn out in their favor?
Shamrock Club took the early initiative on
an offensive push upfield and made the most of
their early shot attempts, coming away with a goal
from Tom Doers. The Marauder defense soon dug
in though and began to shut down the Griffins’
scoring lanes.   Ale House then began their
persistent attack on the uprights that would
continue throughout the game led by the efforts of
Marauders Matt Danahey and Jack Tuescher.
After a wave of scoring in the first quarter,
both defenses began to set up shop and build a
wall.   Every venture near the goal seemed to end
in tight scrums and battles up front. The strong
combo of Ryan Koppa and Michelle Varelas locked
down the Griffins end while Kyle Manderscheid
tried his hand at defense aided by the strong
presence of Nick Neuman in Marauder territory. 
Having come up short on their attempts to
penetrate inside, the Griffins utilized some very
polished passing to get the sliothar in the hands of
Brian Marsolek who opened up for a hat trick of
points to bring the score tantalizingly close at the
half, Shamrock Club 1-3 (6) to Ale House 0-7 (7).

photo credit: Kerry Leonard
Ale House demonstrated they too knew how
to move the ball and good transitions in the
second half led them into Griffin territory.   The
points began to fall and the Ale House defense was
doing a fantastic job gaining possession and
clearing the ball.   The Shamrock defense
meanwhile was frantically rushing to contain the
action, and Jack Tuescher exploited the chaos for
an uncontest