(Note: For all the latest results, standings, video links, photo galleries, etc., check out the official competition page: Link)
NACHC Club Championship Pool Play concluded last night with defending champions San Francisco CalHeat and Puerto Rico’s Los Guerrilleros claiming victories to win their respective groups.
Neither team, however, coasted to easy victories. Canada’s Club de Handball de Levis, needed a 6 goal victory over CalHeat to qualify for the semifinals and at halftime actually was on a pace to accomplish that leading 14-11 at the break. CalHeat, however, eventually asserted themselves in the 2nd half and ended up winning 24-21.
In the second match, both Los Guerrilleros and Club Ministros were assured of making the semifinals, so the match was simply to determine seeding for the semifinals. The match was close throughout and went down to the wire with Los Guerrilleros stopping Ministros twice in the final minute to win 37-26 on a penalty shot with 15 seconds left. The last minute can be viewed here (skip forward to 1:34:20).
The tournament now moves on to the knockout phase with a 5th place match and semifinals today (Friday) and the finals on Saturday afternoon.
Schedule (Note all times local; USA ET, CAN ET and PUR are all 1 hour ahead of Monterrey)
- Friday, 29 July
- 2:00 PM 5th Place Match: Club de Handball de Levis vs NYAC
- 5:00 PM Semifinal: San Francisco CalHeat vs Club Vikingos
- 8:00 PM Semifinal: Los Guerrilleros vs Club Ministros
- Saturday, 30 July
- 2:00 PM 3rd Place Match
- 5:00 PM 1st Place Match
Video Streaming: All matches can be seen live and on demand at the Difusion Handball Facebook Page
