San Francisco CalHeat defeated Caciques Palmer 33-27 in the Gold Medal match last night to win the 2023 NACHC Club Championship. Caciques made CalHeat work harder for this win then their earlier meeting in Group play, a one sided 34-22 win. In fact, the match started out very evenly and Caciques trailed just 8-7 with 16 minutes remaining in the first half. However, at that point CalHeat took control of the match and went on 9-3 run over the next 10 minutes for a 17-10 lead. Caciques were able to narrow the gap to a 4 goal, 18-14 deficit at the half, but this gap would prove to be too much to overcome.
In the second half, the two sides played evenly the first 15 minutes with Cacques even closing the gap to 3 goals on 3 occasions. However, they could get no closer and with the score 25-22 midway through the half CalHeat went on a 4-0 run to open up a commanding 29-22 lead. The sides then traded goals for the eventual 33-27 final score. damage was done and they could get no closer in the 2nd half.
Caciques were led in scoring by a 1-2 punch from Pablo Monge and Pablo Rodrigues with 11 and 7 goals respectively. Felix Kerst led CalHeat with 8 goals while Drew Donlin added 6.
In the 3rd place match, Los Guerrilleros dominated Krakens H.C. for a 42-32 win. Jose Ceballos led Guerrilleros in scoring with 10 goals while Jesus Ochoa scored 13 goals for Krakens.
All Star Team and Awards
With CalHeat winning all their matches convincingly, it’s no surprise they took 5 of the All Star team selections: Lucas Kroeger (Goalkeeper), Daniel Eggert (Right Back), Eloy Rubio (Center Back), Zuwed Akuro (Left Back) and Drew Donlin (Pivot). Also making the all star team were Jose Caballos (Right Wing) (Guerrilleros) and Benjamin Chaidez (Krakens H.C.) (Left Wing). The overall MVP for the tournament was Pablo Rodrigues of Caciques. Rodriquez and Ceballos were the co-leading scorers with 30 goals each.
IHF Super Globe Qualification
As the tournament champion, CalHeat will represent the NACHC at the IHF Super Globe later this November in Saudi Arabia. It will be CalHeat’s 2nd participation in this event as they also were the NACHC representative in 2021.
Tournament Webpage: All match results, standings, match reports and links to on demand video can be accessed here: Link
