04/09/2001

By Greg Lautenslager / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Plano East played like mighty ducks to reach the finals of the Texas State High School Hockey Tournament. But entering its fifth game in 25 hours with little sleep, Plano East was a sitting duck for Southlake Carroll.

Sunday's results

Carroll scored two goals in the first two minutes Sunday at the Chaparral Ice Arena and rolled to an 8-1 victory.

"This team has been here for four years and never had a chance to win anything," Carroll coach Laddy Tresl said. "Now they won section, league, state."

Carroll (24-1-1) defeated Plano East (23-5) in overtime in Thursday's Southwestern Bell Metroplex High School Hockey League championship game and 2-1 in a 7:30 a.m. game Saturday in the double-elimination state tournament. Carroll beat Clear View, 4-1, later Saturday to earn a berth in the finals and a chance to rest.

Plano East, meanwhile, had to defeat Lewisville and Arlington after its loss to Carroll on Saturday, leave the arena about midnight, and beat Clear Lake, 4-2, in Sunday's 8 a.m. game just to avoid elimination. The finals started 30 minutes later, and Plano East would have had to beat Carroll twice to win the title.

"We were physically and mentally fatigued," Plano East coach Ron Regenscheid said. "But those are the rules, and we put ourselves in that position by losing to [Carroll] on Saturday morning."

Carroll had little mercy in the finals. Brian Jacobowski scored the first of his three goals on a slap shot 1:26 into the game, and Danny Force slid in another goal 17 seconds later.

"After those two goals, we could sense them go flat," Jacobowski said. "They just died on us."

The only glimmer of hope for Plano East darkened when a goal was nullified because a player was in the crease. Carroll's Guy Grivas and Geoff Eames scored goals in the final two minutes of the first period for a 4-0 lead.

"I was pretty confident after the first three goals," said Carroll goalier B.J. Cotton, who has not allowed more than two goals in a game all season.

Plano East's Jonathan Massegee scored on a slap shot off a face-off with 19 seconds left in the first period. But Jacobowski made it 5-1 in the first three minutes of the second period. After second-period goals by Eric Anderson and Benjamin Paradee, Jacobowski added the exclamation point with his third-period goal that gave Carroll an 18-3 margin over its opponents in the four games at the state tournament and a berth in the Rocky Mountain Regional Tournament in Phoenix later this month.

"I've played better," said Jacobowski, a junior. "But this is the best game of my life."

Greg Lautenslager is a Dallas-area free-lance writer.

TEXAS STATE HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY PLAYOFFS

(At Chaparral Ice Center, Austin)

SUNDAY'S RESULTS

Plano East 4, Clear Lake 2

CHAMPIONSHIP

Southlake Carroll 8, Plano East 1