MHC Dish From the Pitch 2013 MHC Dish From the Pitch Championship Edition | Page 2

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photo credit: Kerry Leonard
The Irish Pub squad set the tone early in the game as they’d done all season and came up
with a point in quick fashion. The Ninjas were passing up the lines well as Brian Lynch cleared
to Teddy Ruetz who lobbed it up to Ryan Schubert and then to Tony Gaar for the Pub goal. On
the defensive side, the Pub team was getting right in the middle of All Tool’s puck-outs and
preventing them from putting together plays, and tensions were already mounting at this early
point in the game as the Legion seemed frustrated at their lack of early scoring.
Working close to the sidelines, Gavin Mantyh had some great clears at defense for All Tool
and kept the sliothar out of the dangerous clasps of the Ninja forwards. Once they had control
of the sliothar Brian Christ and Steven Schmid worked together to transition the All Tool
midfield into attack mode in an attempt to get on the board. The Legion began to generate some
scoring opportunities in response, but shots were sailing wide and nobody seemed to be able to
penetrate deep into the Ninja defense due to the coordinated movement orchestrated by Brian
Lynch and Brian Dake for Irish Pub. At the first water break the scoreboard showed six
unanswered points for the Irish Pub and though the Legion didn’t look worried, they knew they
had to strike soon.
The All Tool captains led the renewed charge to try and take the fight to the Ninjas but
the Irish Pub defensive was still not having any of it, and after a scrum formed perilously close
to the Ninja’s goal Justin “Pinball” McCauley bounded through the pack to kick the sliothar clear
of the assault.  After Pub captain Tony Gaar put one through the uprights on a free, the Ninjas
swarmed and intercepted yet another Legion puck-out and forced it back to the net where the
sliothar trickled past the goal line for three. The Pub pressure was relentless with Liam Raasch
really stepping up with some great blocks on Legion captain Paul “Tebow” Steinbrecher at
midfield, and Ninjas Anna Dombroski and Naomi Gaar working the box together to create plays
up front.  Their efforts led to an Irish Pub goal late in the half. Ronnie Hansen and Christopher
Frans showed some great hustle in their efforts to get the Legion back on the offensive, but as
the halftime whistle blew the Legion, without scoring, found themselves looking at a
dominating Irish Pub lead of 3-5 (14).
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