Cup Climax

Gold Division The high school hockey season came to its climactic conclusion last month, with both city and state tournaments. Twenty-three regular season games decided only seeding for the playoffs, and a couple of upsets in the Gold Division proved you never know what can happen in a one-game series. Mansfield entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Gold Division after proving to be one of the better teams all season. It didn't matter to Flower Mound, though. The seventh-seeded Jaguars delivered a minor shock, knocking off Mansfield 4-3 in the city quarterfinals. "In one word, it was a heartbreaker," said Mansfield coach Tim Madigan. "I've been involved in a lot of tough defeats both as a player and a coach over the years, and this is one of the toughest because our kids played so well and so hard. We had some breaks go against us." Flower Mound found a way to score once more than Mansfield, winning the closely contested game 4-3. "We're awfully proud with how we played, but at the same time in some ways that makes it even more difficult," Madigan added. "It's just kind of the way it goes. We just didn't get any breaks and had a goal disallowed that we thought we had scored. We hit a goal post...We outshot them badly and carried the play for most of the game, but they took our best shot and we couldn't quite get there." The loss bounced Mansfield from contention in the Texas Cup state tournament, whereas Flower Mound moved on as a potential Cinderella team to contend with. The Jags city championship hopes were dashed in the semi-finals by Dallas Jesuit, which eventually lost to Plano West for the local trophy. However, Jesuit would get ultimate revenge by winning the state title. As for Flower Mound, the Jags issued another upset in the first round of the state tournament, ousting city champs Plano West, 2-0. Plano Senior would end the Jags' bid for the ultimate prize, but Flower Mound rebounded to win the third-place contest, defeating College Park 7-3. Keller entered the postseason with the eighth seed after knocking out McKinney in the preliminary round of the playoffs, and put up a fight against top seed Jesuit before falling, 4-3. Marcus was bounced in the preliminary round by Highland Park, 4-2. Silver Division The Silver Division playoffs were slightly marred by controversy after questions of eligibility were raised. Arlington Martin was eventually disqualified for what was deemed to be use of an ineligible player. Colleyville Heritage entered the postseason as the No. 3 seed and emerged as the city champion, bettering top-seeded Frisco, 2-1, in the final. "It was a close game," Heritage coach Sean Brady said about the city championship final. "It could have gone either way. We ended up getting one more goal and one more save, I guess." The Panthers ended the season on a 9-0 run and capped off a solid year by hoisting the Silver Division trophy. A lot of Heritage's success rested on the shoulders of goalkeeper Ryan Koontz, who posted a 13-3 record on the season with two shutouts and a .921 save percentage. Fellow goalkeeper Michael Warner was solid in his time, posting a 9-2 record with four shutouts. "You're not going to go anywhere in hockey in the playoffs if you don't have strong goaltending," Brady said. "There were plenty of mistakes in front of them, but we got the saves when we needed them. It's great having two No. 1 goalies back there." Logan Runde led the team offensively with 19 goals and 45 points. Zach Pizzey was the team's leading goal scorer with 26 in 23 games. "It's easy to coach a team that plays hard and plays in your system," Brady added. Arlington Martin had been a top team in the division all season long and advanced to the quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed after knocking off Arlington Wild. Martin then defeated Birdville, 4-3, in the quarterfinals and seemingly had advanced to face Frisco in the semifinals. However, the league ruled that Martin had used an ineligible player and Birdville was inserted into the semifinals in Martin's place. "Our season is pretty much unfinished," head coach Louie Greco said. "If you look at the final four, we beat all of them. A couple of them beat us as well, but that gives us a pretty good chance. We had a good shot, and we had five seniors that aren't going to get another chance at it. "I think they did great," Greco said about his team's season as a whole. "My seniors and players that passed played their hearts out...Our rookies were outstanding as well. We were real lucky." Birdville, which faced Frisco in the semifinals, lost that game 4-1 to end its season. The Hawks were one of the most improved teams over the course of the season, and featured prolific scorer Sean Hickey, whose points-per-game average of 2.81 was best in the division.