West Region competition kicked off this past Sunday, December 13 at the newly painted court at California Lutheran University. Five teams squared off in a one-day festival style event. LATHC 1 & 2, Team Handball Santa Clarita, recently formed San Diego Team Handball and Cal Lutheran THC each played two matches on the day.

In the first match of the day LATHC 2 outlasted a tough Cal Lu team 30-18. Jeff Smith led LATHC with 8 goals while Kyle Hitch led the CU team with 7 goals. The surprise was the outstanding play of Cal Lu’s new goalie, Michael Zubach, who despite playing in his first ever handball match showed outstanding skill in net.

In the day’s second match a surprisingly tough Santa Clarita team played back and forth with LATHC 1, one of last year’s National semi-finalists, before succumbing 20-18. Arman Amirkhanian led Santa Clarita with 8 goals while Julien Wojta led LATHC1 with 6 goals.

In the third match of the day the newly formed San Diego Team Handball Club won their first ever match by defeating the Cal Lutheran team 25 – 18. San Diego used a balanced attack, with all 7 of their court players scoring at least one goal. Jose Fuentes and Tobias Gierk led the attack with 6 goals each and Takashi Ono added 5 goals from the wing. Despite excellent goaltending and 8 goals from Cal Lu’s leading scorer, Kyle Hitch and 7 cannon like blasts from Matt Heagy Cal Lu was unable to overcome the balanced attack of San Diego.

The next match featured Santa Clarita and LATHC 2. Santa Clarita jumped out to a quick 6 goal lead and never looked back. With 8 scorers and a patient offense Santa Clarita’s experience overcame the youth and speed of LATHC 2 for a final score of 25-17. Santa Clarita goalie Eliot Gillum played an outstanding match. At a critical point in the match with LATHC trying to scramble back Gillum stopped a 3-1 fast break then immediately stopped two rebound shots before gaining control of the ball. Santa Clarita was reenergized and reeled off three consecutive goals to stretch their lead back to 8 and closed the game out.

The day’s final match proved to be the best of the bunch. San Diego faced off against LATHC 1 in what looks like it will quickly become a heated rivalry. San Diego again used a balanced attack with all players, including goalie Rodrigo Serzedillo, scoring at least one goal to take LA to overtime. LATHC was led in this game by Lars Zelsig who scored 7 goals in the game. Tuan Bui and Andres Espinosa added 5 goals each for LA. In the overtime period LA out scored San Diego 3-1 to win by a final score of 25-23.

The early favorites in the California sub-region, LATHC 1 and Cal Heat, are going to have to work to secure spots in the Regional Championships as the new teams sent an early message that the competition will be tough.