Boston Pitbulls tame the Beast

The sixth annual Beast of the East tournament was held November 15-17 in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The tournament was a seven team round robin event that included five teams from the Northeast along with Atlanta and South Florida. The tournament opened with an upset as South Florida beat Connecticut, who played without Paul Nitz, by a score of 31-18. Nitz arrived later in the evening and helped his team defeat the Atlanta Rolling Thunder, now coached by Wendy Gumbert, by a 40-35 score. Some other scores of the first day had the EPVA Strykers defeating the host Philadelphia team, 44-30, and NEPVA Pitbulls taking out the Rolling Thunder, 38-31.

The second day featured several exciting games. In one, the Philadelphia Rolling Rebels, with a full eight point lineup now that Jim Thompson is back, faced the Connecticut Jammers in a run and gun affair. The Rebels opened a 3 point lead early and held off several Connecticut runs before winning 35-32. In the only overtime game of the tournament, South Florida defeated Maine 36-35. South Florida had been in control early before losing class 2 Rich Hearne with a chair problem early in the third quarter. Hearne returned in the last minutes to help his team prevail. New York defeated Atlanta 40-26 and Boston beat Philadelphia 45-34 to set up the final day's games.

On Sunday, Atlanta faced Philadelphia to decide third place. Philadelphia started strong behind the scoring of their class 2's, Dan Drach and Brian Sterner, and opened a 12-7 first quarter lead. Atlanta countered by bringing class 3 Chris Malcolm and class 2 Bob Lujano off the bench to provide more speed and closed the gap to 14-12 at the half. A five goal run at the end of the third quarter gave Atlanta a 23-20 lead they would maintain en route to a 33-30 win and a third place finish.

The championship game was a repeat of last year's matchup between Boston and New York. The long time rivals went two overtimes in that game with Boston coming out on top. New York started strong this time, jumping out to a 7-4 first quarter lead behind a strong press and the scoring of Angelo Mongiovi and Carlos Guzman. In the second quarter the teams traded goals as neither press was able to force turnovers. New York led at the half 15-12. In the third quarter, New York dropped into the key but their key defense was ineffective while Boston used the speed of Adam Ellis to help turn up their defensive pressure. Boston put together a 7-2 run late in the quarter to grab the lead 22-21. Boston used the ballhandling skills of Steve Killilea and Gary Bogue to control the tempo in the fourth quarter and seal a 29-27 victory.

The final standings were:

Boston (NEPVA) Pitbulls

New York (EPVA) Strykers

Atlanta Rolling Thunder

Magee Rolling Rebels (Philadelphia)

South Florida Rattlers

Connecticut Jammers

Maine Roadrunners

All Tournament team was:

Class 1: Dan Daggett (NEPVA)

Class 2: Bob Lujano (Atlanta)

Class 2.5: Jim Thompson (Philadelphia)

Class 3: Gary Bogue (NEPVA)

MVP: Angelo Mongiovi (EPVA)

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