3/6/10 - Greg Howes scored the eventual game winning goal in the second quarter and the Tacoma Stars held on for a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Bolts in the final of the 2009/10 PASL-Premier Winter Championships.

The Bolts nearly pulled off one of the most unlikely runs in league history.  Led by player/coach Bernie Lilavois, Los Angeles made it to the final by upsetting the Fredericksburg Generals, San Diego Fusion, and Kansas City Kings.

Los Angeles was the lowest seed in the tournament and seemed to confirm their status by losing their two games in group play 10-1 to Kansas City and 11-6 to Vitesse Dallas. 

That’s when their season turned on a dime.  Facing elimination they surprised Fredericksburg 8-3.  In the quarterfinals they shut down San Diego 4-1, which put them in a semifinal rematch against Kansas City.

Tied 2-2 the game went to shootouts and the Bolts took the shootout 2-1.

"There’s not one thing you can really point to," said Lilavois on his team’s unexpected turnaround. "A lot of our young guys were nervous coming in and it took us a couple games to get our legs."

The Stars, meanwhile, took a very different route.  Tacoma went 4-0 to each the final, taking out Santa Clara, Arizona Heat, the host Las Vegas Knights, and Dallas.

Though the PASL-Premier is an amateur league,  the tournament was filled with several well-known professional indoor veterans.  Besides Lilavois and Couch in Los Angeles, and Howes in Tacoma there was also Ato Leone (Los Angeles), Leighton O’Brien (Tacoma), Patrick Shamu and Frank Mmemba (Dallas), Rick and Randy Soderman (Arizona), David Beltran (San Diego) amongst others.

Several PASL-Pro teams had representatives at the tournament scouting both the veterans and the rising crop of new talent.

For Tacoma this is their second PASL-Premier national title, but their first Winter crown.  The Stars won the PASL-Premier Summer Championships in 2004.