Doug Harrington knew his South Gwinnett Crusaders were heavy underdogs heading into their game against the Gulf Coast Storm. Still, Harrington had every reason to believe that an upset was quite possible with the Crusaders leading by a goal after the first period.

Even Chris Gerstmyer, the Crusaders' 10-year-old goalie who attends Lovin Elementary School in Lawrenceville, thought the same thing. Especially when teammate Jake Ledford scored the game's opening goal.

"I thought I had studied all their shots during the first period," Gerstmyer said. "But then they took it into overdrive during the second and third periods."

The Crusaders' momentum downshifted considerably when the Storm scored the tying goal with two of their players in the penalty box. "We were playing real well until their first goal," Harrington said.

The end result was a 5-1 loss to the Storm in the first of four games the Crusaders would play during the second day of the five-day, 2008 ECHO Inline Hockey National Championships.

"What we quickly learned is what you cannot get away with playing at this level," said Harrington, who also is a member of the Snellville Snoozers Over-30 inline hockey team.

More than 1,000 players —- from ages 8 to adult —- on 97 teams in 16 divisions are competing in the growing tournament at Dual Deck Hockey Arena in Snellville. The tournament began Thursday and runs through Monday.

"There are approximately 30 teams representing Georgia, of which five to seven are from Gwinnett County," said Rob Patton, sports marketing director for the Gwinnett Sports Commission.

This is the first year women's inline hockey teams are in the nationals.

Teams from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio are competing. A team from the Turks and Caicos Islands also is in the tournament.

"It's getting to a point where we might have to add a sixth day," said Jason Munger, the tournament's organizer and ECHO's owner.

"It would definitely help keep us from playing until 2 a.m. each day."

Game 3 for the Crusaders is scheduled for 6 a.m. Sunday. Harrington's Snoozers have a game scheduled for 12:55 a.m. Sunday. But Munger, 30, said it is a problem well worth having this year, as the tournament attracted 75 teams last year and 60 teams the year before that.

"I have people who keep telling me that inline skating's popularity is declining," Munger said.

"But you have to think otherwise when you see all these teams competing."