UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

3/30/2000 

Pacific Sectional Teams Duel for 2000 Nationals
By Ed Suhr and Allan Seals

The weekend of March 3-5, six teams came together in Portland, Oregon to try their skills against one another and attempt to advance to this year's USQRA Nationals. The new format for sectionals would qualify 4 teams to go on to nationals instead of only 3. With Team X and newly formed Sacramento dropping out, the Pacific Sectional field was narrowed to six teams. The six teams were Sharp Shadow, Casa Colina Buccaneers, Portland Pounders, California Quake, Team AllNight and the Northridge Knights. With only 6 teams in the field, the tournament was setup in a round robin format. This meant that each game would be of significance in determining who would advance. The winner and runner-up would qualify for Division 1 Nationals and the 3rd and 4th place teams would qualify for Division 2 Nationals.

Friday's games started with Casa taking on the California Quake. Led by all-tourney players Gerardo Aldape 3.5, Dan Shaw 2.0 and Bob Martinson 1.5, Casa proved to be a little too much for Quake. However Quake, led by their 20-year-old all-tourney 2.5 Justin Patterson showed that they had come to play this weekend. The final score was Casa 35 Quake 26. In the second game, Shadow led by the picks of all-tourney players .5 Dan Guillou and 1.0 Ralph Shadowens won 59-16 versus Northridge. This set up the last game of the evening between the 3rd seeded Portland Pounders and 5th seeded Team AllNight. Both teams knew that advancing to D1 was probably unrealistic but the chance to go to D2 gave both teams a spark and some hope that they too could compete for a national championship. Led by all-tourney 3.0 Lynn Nelson, Portland worked to make every possession count while trying to force AllNight into turning the ball over. This strategy worked as they forced enough AllNight turnovers to take a 3-point lead into half time. In the 3rd quarter, Portland worked their lead to 6 points. In the 4th quarter, AllNight tried to get back in the race but was not able to close the gap as Portland controlled the ball and finished with a score of 39 to AllNight's 34.

Saturday's games started with Casa continuing its dominating play by taking AllNight 38-23. As if AllNight hadn't had enough, they went from playing the number 2 seed to playing the number 1 seed in back to back games. The end result was Shadow 41 and AllNight 18. In the 3rd game, Quake won by a score of 32-21 over Northridge. The 4th game, Casa handily beat Portland 53-30. The next game was Shadow versus California Quake... This looked to be just another warm-up game for Shadow but turned out to be one of the best games of the weekend. California Quake's kid was having a breakout weekend, he gave the Shadow high pointers Troy McGuirk, Dean Maccabe and Rick Draney fits. Behind Patterson, Quake was able to force Shadow into some turnovers that they wouldn't normally commit. Quake did make some mistakes but not many; Shadow was only able to take a 2-point lead into half time. In the second half, Shadow buckled down and reverted back to their outstanding play and finished off Quake, 38-23. The score makes it look like Shadow won easily but the game was much closer. Look for the "California Kid" to do some good things at D2 Nationals this year and at bigger tournaments in the years to come. The last game pitted Portland against Northridge where Portland prevailed 41-26.

In the past, the early games on Sunday were not of much importance but because of the new playoff structure this Sunday's "breakfast bracket" game between California Quake and Team AllNight became important. AllNight had lost its first 3 games but if they could win their two games on Sunday, it would put them in a 3-way tie and a possible D2 playoff birth. The game began with Quake taking an early lead and maintaining it until the end of the third quarter. The 4th quarter started with Quake having a 6-point lead. AllNight kept their composure and began whittling away at the lead. With 45 seconds to go, AllNight forced another turnover. They had the ball and the chance to tie the game and force overtime. But with a D2 playoff at stake, Quake forced AllNight into a turnover and finished them with a score of 31-29. In the second game, Shadow continued to warm-up for the championship game by taking Portland 50-21. Casa also warmed up for the Championship by beating Northridge 49-30. In AllNight's 5th game of the weekend, they finished their season with a 48-25 victory over Northridge.

With the tournament coming to an end, the final 2 games' results would determine which teams would get a higher seed going to the Nationals. Quake would battle Portland to determine the Division 2 higher seed and Shadow would battle Casa for the better seed at Division 1.

In the first game, Quake came out strong and took an early lead behind their quick 2.5's, Ed Olsen and Patterson. They scored the last three goals of the first quarter to build a 9-5 lead. Portland played a much better second quarter but couldn't close the gap as the half ended with Quake leading 18-14. In the 3rd quarter, Quake built on their lead by controlling the ball and forcing Portland turnovers. Quake got steady, solid efforts from their veteran 2.0, Rick Mason, and their 1.0 Steve Davis. Portland tried going to their bench to find a spark but could never gain the momentum. The game ended with Quake earning a 34-25 victory.

The Championship Game pitted the Casa Colina Buccaneers against their Southern California rival and 3 time National Champion Sharp Shadow. In the past, Shadow would beat Casa by an average margin of 8-10 points but as the years have gone by Casa has improved and the games have gotten much closer and more interesting between these two teams. As the game started, Casa won the tip and both teams put their game faces on. Shadow forced an early turnover and took a one-point lead. The teams trading goals and incredible hits for the rest of the period. The quarter ended with Shadow holding a 10-9 lead. Shadow pushed their lead to 22-20 at the half behind their excellent 2.5's, Rick Draney and Dean Maccabe. Shadow's 3.0, Troy McGuirk, returned to help his team stretch their lead to 35-31 at the end of three quarters. Casa stormed out at the beginning of the fourth quarter behind their 3.5 Gerry Aldape. They were able to close the gap to two by the four-minute mark in the quarter. Shadow was double-teaming Aldape but he was able to find his teammates Dan Shaw and Bob Martinson with repeated scoring passes. With one minute remaining, Aldape scored to cut the Shadow lead to one, 42-41. Casa then forced a turnover and Aldape hit Shaw with a scoring pass to tie the game at 42. Shadow inbounded against a furious Casa press and worked the ball into the front court. Shadow's Sam Gloor broke free and received a pass near the goal line with less than fifteen seconds left. He let the clock run down to six ticks before scoring the winning goal. Casa inbounded quickly but couldn't score before the clock ran out on a 43-42 Shadow victory.

The Portland Pounders would like to thank everyone who made the Pacific Sectional possible including Oregon PVA, Oregon Disability Sports, Hewlett Packard and Team AllNight. We would like to give special mention to Dave and Rachel Kammeyer and Trisha Suhr for their tireless hard work and dedication.

The final standings and All Tournament team are as follows:

1st Place Sharp Shadow
2nd Place Casa Colina Buccaneers
3rd Place California Quake
4th Place Portland Pounders
5th Place Team AllNight
6th Place Northridge Knights

All Tourney Team
0.5 Dan Guillou
1.0 Ralph Shadowens
1.5 Bob Martinson
2.0 Dan Shaw
2.5 Justin Patterson
3.0 Lynn Nelson
3.5 Gerardo Aldape
MVP Gerardo Aldape
Sportsmanship Lynn Nelson

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