Bombers Fly, Suns Shine, Maidens Reign at Western Regionals

Davis, CA -- 15 games were played over the course of nine hours under a broiling California sun on the outskirts of Sacramento this past Saturday.

When all was said and done, the #1 ranked team in the country repeated as regional champs, the hometown Suns earned some well-deserved hardware, and the San Francisco Iron Maidens asserted themselves as favorites to reach a third straight chance for a National Championship.

But there was more to the USAFL Western Regionals than just the teams that ran out as victors at Nugget Fields.  There were some fantastic matchups, including another renewal of the SoCal Derby that is quickly becoming one of the most entertaining in all of the league, a resurgence of footy prowess in the Pacific Northwest, and valuable experience from the next wave of American women players.

And, of course, there were the guest team in the Hong Kong Dragons, who, in spite of being on the business side of three defeats on the day, played extremely competitive footy and represented themselves, and their region, with the utmost excellence.

DIVISION ONE, MEN:

From the very first game of the four team group, you knew it was going to be an entertaining day of football.  The Orange County Bombers, who had defeated the L.A. Dragons by one point a week before, were now the opening act of the tournament, and tried to take advantage of the cool, early morning conditions.

The game was evenly matched and contested from the opening ball, with both sides trading jabs into each other’s forward lines.  The Bombers would get more penetration early, as they would get the ball into hands of their big half forward, Lachie Agars, and their veteran pocket man, Adrian Heffernan.  L.A., meanwhile, would find many knifing runs through Matt Hitch and David Dollar, locating Paul Ioakim and Anthony Martin for a couple of quick scoring opportunities and a first half lead.  Big American ruckman Donald Lee won just about every hitout in the ruck, and when his rovers were there, it was a potent setup.

But as the game wore on, the defense of Orange County began to tighten and chances started to dry up for the Dragons.  South Australian Jake Snow helped clamp down and distribute chances in the other direction, and veteran Scott Leal ran forward from the back to help out the attack.  That would be the difference in the opener, as the Bombers would go on to win 35-21.  Despite the fourteen point difference, this was a very well contested game, and Los Angeles once again proved that they could play top tier football with the best teams in the country.

Next up for the Bombers were the Golden Gate Roos.  Winners of their own opener against Hong Kong in the morning, Golden Gate now had their chance against the top team in the land.  But Agars, Heffernan, and the rest of the Orange County offense were still flying high, and they would kick eight straight goals in the first half, putting the game out of reach early.   Though Golden Gate would make a respectable effort in the second half through the play of Kyle Johnson and Luke Quirk, in the end OC was too much, and ran home 56-27 victors.

The Roos’ would end the day against the LA Dragons, whose fantastic footy skills carried them to a win over Hong Kong by 26 points.    The heat didn’t seem to get to the Dragons much over the course of the day, and here in their final game they continued to pump away and booted home five goals in the opening term.  Again Ioakim, Martin, Hitch, and former Manly Giant player Justin Hall ran circles around their opponents, and would form a 25-point halftime lead.  But Johnson, Robert Sears, and the Roos once again surged in the second half, and although Golden Gate would fall 59-23 in the end, it was a gallant effort from the #8 ranked team in the country.

LA coach John Fragomeni was quite pleased as his club’s performance in Davis, and though they had the one stumble against Orange County, showed how good of a team they were.

“I thought it was a very good tournament,” said Fragomeni.  “2-1 isn’t how we had hoped the day would play out, but nevertheless there was a lot of positives to take away for the Dragons. We knew it was going to be a tall order for us as we went into the tournament with several of key players out, seven to be exact, but that this gave an opportunity to test our depth and for many of our second tier players to step up and take on a bigger role, particularly our American group, we travelled with 19 and they all played a lot of footy over the three games.”

Orange County, meanwhile, had to beat Hong Kong in the final match of the day to sew up the Divvy 1 title.  The orient’s Dragons, despite losing both of their openers, played great footy in good spirit, and took to the field against the Bombers looking for a big scalp to take back home to South China.  And, in the opening term, it was Hong Kong who held the better of play in the first ten minutes.  But Chris McNeil’s charges found their legs in the second half, and took a 26-13 lead into the break.  Agars dominated the forward line in the second half, and with Leal and company constantly getting him the ball, the floodgates opened.  Lachie Agars would take home MVP honors for his efforts, and OC would close out the tournament with a 58-37 triumph to clinch the title.

“I wasn’t all that happy with the last game,” said McNeil after the final match, “but we did a lot of work early in the first two games, and we were a little bit off in the last game. We had six first year players playing in this tournament and we put them all on in the last game.”

Despite the trail off, “Macca” commended his team’s performance but acknowledged that there was still work to be done to improve on their Grand Final appearance from last year.

“We’ve got a lot of the same team this year, which is good, and some new blood come in as well; some of our second tier players have taken a bit of a step up.  That’s what’s got to happen; we obviously didn’t get there last year.

“We don’t feel like we’re anywhere near [the top] yet, but we’re on the right track.”

Hong Kong may have gone 0-3 for the weekend, but the representatives from AFL South China did their league, and their region, proud.  Made up of exclusively Aussie ex-pats, Dom Dunn and his team charmed and impressed the American teams, and crowd, with their play.

Orange County 5.5.35 def Los Angeles 3.3.21
Golden Gate 8.6.54 def Hong Kong 3.4.22
Orange Couty 9.2.56 def Golden Gate 4.3.27
Los Angeles 6.10.46 def Hong Kong 3.2.20
Los Angeles 9.5.59 def Golden Gate 3.5.23
Orange County 9.4.58 def Hong Kong 6.1.37

WOMEN’S DIVISION

Sacramento’s Lady Suns have accumulated a good deal of experience in their long journey forward, and in their opening game on the weekend they faced a team of relative newcomers.  Facing a combined side of Arizona Lady Hawks and Portland Sockeyes, the Lady Suns played good team footy and were much the best in an opening 41-15 victory.  Despite 26-point difference, the Hawks-Sockeyes combination battled hard.  Portland’s Simone Shepherd played the whole field in the first game, and came up big for her team, snagging a kick off the foot of Christine Sanghera on the line to save a goal.  USA Freedom veteran Melissa Armstrong provided leadership for a team of footy rookies.  But in the end, Lauré Kwoka, Victoria Schoennagel and the Suns were too much.

After several hours rest, the Lady Suns were back at it against the defending Nationals runners up, the San Francisco Iron Maidens.  In the first half, both teams traded attacks and looked to scuttle the ball through the middle.  But the Maidens had a big target waiting up front, and Carly Smolak put her soccer goalkeeping skills to good use, snagging balls and muscling out anyone who came close to taking her down.  Smolak kicked all three of San Francisco’s goals in the opening term, but not without useful replies from the Suns.  Amanda Flok, Christine Flok, and Oanh Nguyen used their pace up the wings to elude the Maiden defense, and were able to manufacture two goals.  At the half, it was 20-12 to the Maidens, and a close second half looked in store.

Except no one told that to the San Francisco Iron Maidens.

Launching the ball forward, Smolak, Courtney Sherman, and Marion Jeanne found room to take marks that were harder to find in the first twenty minutes, and while Makenzie Seckora, Katie Klatt and the Suns’ defense did their best to stop the impending wave, it wasn’t enough.  With Milli Bruce, Brette Brower, and Bevin English controlling the center of the ground, the rout was complete.  Up 14-12 late in the opening half, the Iron Maidens ran off 35 straight points and went on to win 49-12.

Despite being neutralized in her second game of the day, Kwoka, who will be once again representing the USA with the Freedom team at the 49th Parallel Cup in August, kept her usual positive outlook on the weekend.

“I'm so proud of all the girl’s teams,” the midfielder said.  “The women's games have definitely become more physical as the years have gone by.  Everyone fought hard, played hard and partied even harder. The men's teams had great performances too and I'm so proud of every single new player getting a USAFL game under their belt. Nationals is going to be tough this year in the Women's Division. If I had a crystal ball it would probably show me that Sunday arvo of Nationals covered in cuts and bruises, ice strapped to me, sunnies on, smile on my face.”

The Maidens still had one final game, against the Hawks.  For this one, they lent a number of players to Arizona in order so that both sides could benefit from the weekend experience.  Smolak and company won out again, but the game was competitive from the beginning, ending up with a 39-20 San Francisco victory.

Despite losing both games, the weekend was valuable experience for a group of players from the Valley of the Sun who had just started playing football within the last six months.  Victoria Moyer, Lindsay Roberts, Megan Jones, and Valerie Barber-Axthelm were among number of Hawks players selected to the USA Liberty Development squad, and the game went a long way to building their experience on the footy ground.

But the day belonged to the Iron Maidens, whose two victories are no doubt a large boost to the teams’ confidence ahead of Nationals.

“Me, personally, I think about it all the time,” said Smolak, whose dominant play earned her MVP honors.  “I’ve got my eyes on October, and I think we’re all just trying to really solidify our style of play, working with each other, working on jelling and communication, it’s top of mind for me, for sure.”

Sacramento 5.11.41 def Arizona/Portland 2.3.15
San Francisco 7.7.49 def Sacramento 2.0.12
San Francisco 6.3.39 def Arizona/Portland 2.8.20

DIVISION TWO, MEN

Matt Bishop and his Suns wanted to make a big splash to start off their “home” regionals, and they didn’t disappoint.  Their opponent in the first game was a piece-meal squad whose core group was made up the Seattle Grizzlies, with support from the San Diego Lions.

Saleh Tyebjee, Aaron Crumpacker, and the rest of the Suns stepped on the gas pedal early, and didn’t look back for a second.  Their opening game in the cool California morning seemed more like a training drill, and while Seattle, led by USA Development hopeful Max Depina, put on worthy opposition, Sacramento won easily, 76-13.

Bishop’s team knew that game two against Portland, would me much tougher.  Martin Coventry, who has played over 150 games from coast to coast, had his side poised and ready for a dogfight.  Tyebjee, who was the leading force in the Suns’ Division III premiership run last season, was the keystone in the middle, able to pick off passes and quarterback his team’s attack.  Crumpacker, Wade Askew, and Melvin Chen knifed through the Steelheads midfield, creating chances from the forward line, led by Tom Ivester.  But the Steelheads would not relent, with Rylan Phillips and John Kim trying to do some dicing of their own.

Holding a 15-3 halftime advantage, the Suns sought to see out the victory and clinch the Divvy II title.  Portland would not give any quarter.  Coventry may be in his 40s, but he is still incredibly dangerous and his play was inspiring as Portland cut into the Sactown lead.  But Tyebjee, named Division MVP, helped seal up any further openings, and the tide would turn red.  The Suns would kick away to a 36-16 win, and yet another game on the day that was much closer than the final tally.

The final match of the afternoon saw Seattle and Portland in a Cascadia rivalry match for bragging rights, and second place.  Again, Seattle played tough, valiant, and hard footy.  Portland played better.  The Steelheads would kick 11 goals en route to a 72-21 victory, and putting their name out as a team to be reckoned with in Division III come Nationals time.

Sacramento 11.10.76 def Seattle/San Diego 2.1.13
Sacramento 5.6.36 def Portland 2.4.16
Portland 11.6.72 def Seattle 3.3.21

Photo: Amy Bishop