West Region Notebook: Legally Blind Player Going D-I

This week’s notebook highlights a story about a legally blind Division I commit, meetings of top-ranked teams in California and Minnesota and returns to form for a top-rated junior.

Legally Blind

In a report from the Reno Gazette-Journal, AJ Mercurio from Damonte Ranch (Nev.) survived cancer as a child but was left legally blind. Undeterred, Mercurio is a future Division I player who is signed to play with Denver.

“For anyone that has seen him play, they would not believe that he is doing the things he does with only one functional eye,” his father, Chris Mercurio told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “He doesn’t know any different. He never let it be a handicap. That’s how he lived his life.”

A three-sport star for Damonte Ranch, Mercurio has 31 goals and 14 assists through 10 games this season.

Tartans and Sea Kings Preview?

Kevin Groeninger from St. Margaret's Episcopal (Calif.).

St. Margaret’s Episcopal (Calif.) and Palos Verdes (Calif.) matched up in the final game of their regular seasons in what could be a preview of the Southern Section championship.

St. Margaret’s bounced back from an 18-8 loss to Torrey Pines (Calif.) to defeat Palos Verdes 10-8. Kevin Groeninger scored nine points (3g, 6a) and Stuart Pollard went 16-for-22 at the faceoff to help lead the Tartans to victory.

Birk Swan scored four goals and two assists for the Sea Kings.

Unanimous No. 1

Asher Nolting from Cherry Creek.

Cherry Creek (Colo.) was selected by coaches and media members as the consensus No. 1 team in Colorado in Class 5A. The rankings were posted on CHSAANow.com with Cherry Creek received all 11 first-place votes.

Valor Christian (Colo.) is No. 2 with Arapahoe (Colo.), Grandview (Colo.) and Kent Denver (Colo.) rounding out the Top 5.

Two Better Than One

No. 2 Minnetonka (Minn.) defeated No. 1 Prior Lake (Minn.) 7-4 in an early meeting of state championship hopefuls. The Skippers scored six-straight goals and its defense held the Lakers to one goal in the second half.

Luke Tollefson and Grant Brunsvold each had two points for Minnetonka in the win. Minnetonka improved to 2-0 with the win. Prior Lake fell to 0-1.

News and Notes

Torrey Pines got seven points (4g, 3a) from Miles Botkiss and three points each from Dewey Egan and Alex Pistorius in the win over St. Margaret’s, according to MaxLaxOC.com.

Andrew Cumming from Foothill-Santa Ana (Calif.). Photo by Gregg Shaw

Foothill-Santa Ana (Calif.) junior Andrew Cumming returned from an injury he suffered on opening day with a seven-goal game against Granite Bay (Calif.) according to MaxLaxOC.com. This was Cumming’s first full game back since the Loyola-Los Angeles (Calif.) game on Feb. 23. Cumming’s has played in 10 games with 15 goals. He scored 105 points for the Knights as a sophomore in 24 games.

Senior Lucas Heverly from Amador Valley (Calif.) surpassed 1,000 career faceoff wins last week. The Johns Hopkins commit hit 1,001 wins in a 12-10 win over Bellarmine Prep (Calif.).