Riptide

The Pythons spotted the Sharks a two-goal lead in the first period before storming back for a 7-3 victory in Howe Division playoff action at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center in Huntington Beach. The Sharks took a 3-1 lead after one period, getting goals from Shane Patel, Nolan Smith and Trevor Dunbar with assists going to Jordan Conaway and Travis Bertrand. The Pythons, however, outscored the Sharks 6-0 over the final two periods. Four Pythons got into the scoring act, led by Aaron Caro, Brandon Drochner and Austin Heinz, each with two goals.

The HB Crush, a 12-and-Under Silver All-Star team from South Huntington Beach Girls Softball, won its second straight tournament by capturing the Placentia/Yorba Linda All-Star Tournament in Yorba Linda last weekend. Poise was what helped guide the Crush ? coached by Butch Fleck, Dwain Pautsch and Craig Bradford ? to the title, which came a week after the team rolled to the championship at the Oceanside Riptide Tournament. The Crush had to come from behind to win three of their five games.

A Claremont high school senior drowned Monday after being caught in a violent rip current at Huntington State Beach. Taeho Lee, 18, and two other friends were celebrating high school graduation at the beach when they got caught in a strong crosscurrent. Lee went into deeper water to help one of the friends and got caught in the rip tide himself, said Rich Haydon, a lifeguard supervisor for California State Parks. A third friend was able to make it back to shore and called a 911. Lifeguards searched for the two teenagers and rescued one from the riptide.

Brandon Prince scored two goals last weekend, and the Rampage collected another Wales Division victory, beating the Riptide, 6-4, in a match played at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center in Huntington Beach. Matthew Hiraoka handed out three assists as the Rampage improved its division-leading record to 3-0-1. Samuel Whittaker and Andrew Mastrolia each had a goal and assist, Josh Rice and Cory Liska both scored once, Jake Fuller had an assist, and goalie Austin Russell recorded 28 saves for the Rampage.

The Earthquakes laid claim Wednesday to the Norris Division title by beating the Thunder Blades, 5-1, in the division final at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center in Huntington Beach. The Thunder Blades took a 1-0 lead just 3:30 into the match on Adam Lamotte's unassisted goal, but the Earthquakes came back to score the final five goals of the match to win going away. Successive goals by Ramiro Pimentel, one off a Bryce Keizer assist, put the Earthquakes on top to stay, and a Jared Musacchio goal of a Eric Chan feed gave the Earthquakes a 3-1 edge through two quarters of play.

Facing the possibility of having their nine-game unbeaten streak come to an end, the HB Lightning struck for four goals in the game's final 10 minutes Saturday to post a come-from-behind 4-1 victory over Region 13 (Pasadena) in a girls AYSO Division 3 (Under-14) match. The Lightning trailed 1-0 throughout most of the match, with the play of goalkeeper Jessica Goud keeping her team within striking distance. In a late flurry, Caitlin McGinnis and Tori Heglar each scored two goals, as the Lightning remained unbeaten at 10-0-1 in league play.

Led by a balanced scoring attack and a 21-save game by goalkeeper Sergei Sedykin, the Lightning collected their first win of the season by defeating the Atomic Pucks, 5-3, in Howe Division play Wednesday at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center. Geno DeAngelis' two goals and one assist paced a Lightning scoring attack that also featured one goal and two assists by Kyle Jeffrey, one goal and assist from Darryl Morita, one goal by Jeffrey Kurokawa, and an assist from Reid Kays.

The Beach Bums out of Region 55 remained atop to standings of the boys' under-10 Division tournament standings following two weekend victories in AYSO All-Star competition. The Beach Bums first defeated Region 1335, 6-1. The spotted their opponent a 1-0 lead then evened up the match when Tanner Smith delivered a perfect throw-in to Bajj Chela, who put the ball in the net. From there, it was all Beach Bums as five consecutive goals were scored by Colton Stephens, Casey Harden, Tanner Greeley and Jacob Rushing.

The Rampage bolted to an 8-4 lead through two quarters of play Wednesday, then held off a late charge by the Hat Trix to come away with a 9-7 victory in Wales Division action at Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Center in Huntington Beach. Samuel Whittaker led the Rampage with four goals, Jake Fuller scored twice, Daniel Watt scored once with an assist, Matthew Hiraoka scored once, Andrew Mastrolia had three assists, and goalie Austin Russell recorded 23 saves for the Rampage.