By Nathan Max
WSL Executive Editor

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. -- A Tropical Storm just dropped wicked rips, huge hits, pinpoint passing and an egregiously high level of lacrosse to Sonoma State University.

Boasting a team comprised mostly of the top graduated talent from San Diego, with the Pacific Northwest’s best player thrown in for good measure, the newly-formed San Diego Tropics put the finishing touches on a perfect four days by beating Brady’s Bunch, 7-4, in the 2009 Adrenaline Shootout Boys Elite Division championship game.

Using five players who made the most recent WSL Elite 25 senior rankings, including two players who have been named WSL Player of the Year for the high school season, the Tropics finished the weekend 9-0 and outscored their opponents, 112-38.

“Everyone’s been wanting to do this for years,” said Washington College-bound long-stick middie and WSL California Player of the Year Jonny Poe. “We’ve all been playing with each other and against each other since fifth grade. We just all meshed. We knew what we were going to do, and we came here and did it.”

In the championship game, Denver-bound attackman Hayden Schuette scored a game-high three goals, Colgate-bound middie Peter Baum -- WSL’s Oregon Player of the Year -- added three points on a goal and two assists, and attackman Zac Ivy scored twice for the Tropics.

Queen’s University-bound middie T.C. Whaley rounded out the scoring with one goal. Denver-bound defenseman Nick Eggemeyer, middie Sean O’Brien and attackman Bobby Braun all dished an assist.

The team had two non-San Diegans, Baum and goalie Warren Nielsen, although Baum was clearly the biggest addition. The No. 2 ranked senior in the Western United States, Baum has personally won back-to-back Adrenaline Shootout titles, having played on the 2008 champion Oregon Rhino Bloodsharks team.

“I’ve played with a lot of these kids since my sophomore year on West Coast Starz, so I was thrilled to get invited down here and get to play,” Baum said. “We just had so many guys who knew each other well and played well together. I fit right in.

“They were just awesome,” Baum added. “Some of these guys were doing stuff I’ve never seen before. They were just ridiculous. It was a real razzle-dazzle team. It was a lot of fun.”

In defeat, attack-middie Reid Doucette scored twice, and Bucknell-bound attackman Billy Mattimore and Pennsylvania-bound middie Nick Richards scored each once for Brady’s Bunch (8-1), which had its eight-game winning streak snapped. Lehigh-bound middie Carlton Fisher added an assist.

Defensively, Johns Hopkins-bound goalie Pierce Bassett saved 11 shots.

This summer’s Brady’s Bunch team consisted mostly of players from Arizona and Northern California, with a few from Massachusetts and Las Vegas sprinkled in the mix. The club used to be called the Wild Card Starz but changed its name to honor head coach Mike Wein’s son Brady, who was stricken with Leukemia.

Brady’s Bunch/Wild Card Starz has made it to four straight Adrenaline tournament championship games, although it has lost in the final three straight times since winning the 2008 Adrenaline Challenge.

“That’s a great team we just played,” Bassett said. “All the credit to them. They played fantastic today. We played hard, but it wasn’t enough.”

Brady’s Bunch entered the championship game as the No. 1 seed, but it was all Tropics in the first half. Second-seeded San Diego rolled to a 5-1 halftime lead after it dominated possession and outshot Brady’s Bunch 20-5 in the opening 25 minutes.

Schuette scored back-to-back goals off blistering rips from the same tight angle after taking feeds from Baum to give the Tropics a 4-1 lead, and Ivy scored with 22 seconds to play in the half to put San Diego up four.

Brady’s Bunch came out a different team in the second half, as the Tropics appeared to waver. Richards capped a three-goal run when he scored on Brady Bunch’s only man-up advantage with 11 minutes to play to trim the deficit to 5-4.

Baum scored a brilliant quick-stick goal after cutting through the middle and taking a pass from Braun to give the Tropics a two-goal cushion with eight minutes remaining, and the game’s big turning point happened moments later.

On the ensuing face-off, Fisher appeared to score to make it a one-goal game again. However, after the Tropics’ bench appealed for illegal procedure on the face-off, the three referees conferred and waived off the goal.

The controversial call led to a lot of chatter on the sideline between opposing coaches and players, and San Diego’s lead wasn’t threatened again.

“That was huge,” said Schuette, who later added a transition goal to put the Tropics up three.

“If they would have gotten that goal, I don’t doubt that they would have tied it up. It was a big break, but at the same time, it was the right call. You can’t really argue with it.”

San Diego Tropics (9-0) 5 2 -- 7
Brady’s Bunch       (8-1) 1 3 -- 4
Goals: SD: Hayden Schuette 3, Zac Ivy 2, T.C. Whaley, Peter Baum. BB: Reid Doucette 2, Billy Mattimore, Nick Richards.
Assists: SD: Peter Baum 2, Sean O’Brien, Nick Eggemeyer, Bobby Braun. BB: Carlton Fisher.
Saves: SD: Jack Kelly 4, Warren Nielsen 2. BB: Pierce Bassett 11.
Shots: SD: 31, BB: 20
Face-Offs Won: SD: 4, BB: 8
Man-Up Opportunities: SD: 1-3, BB: 1-1.