Any good Final needs good storylines, and the most obvious story coming into the last clash between young Captain William Teglia’s ‘Willuigis’ and not-quite-as-young Captain Bryan Ossa’s ‘Dookey Kong’ was the result of the two prior meetings. Way way back in Week One, Brown edged Purple 3-2. That loss would stand as the only regular season blemish for Purple, as they proceeded to run the rest of the table at 7-0-0, capturing the top seed and begging the question ‘should we even bother with playoffs, or just hand them the Cup now’. We did bother with playoffs, and with those playoff came a Week Three rematch…a chance for Purple to prevail, avenge that Week One blip, and cozy into the Final as the incumbent and massive favorites to close the deal. Nope…it was Brown again…the plucky seven seeds repeating the regular season feat, defeating the top seeds and moving into that cozy spot in the Final themselves. Purple survived their visit to the Losers’ Bracket slums, and with super star Young Canuck™ Owen Perks FINALLY in the lineup to face Brown, Teglia & Company warmed up with renewed faith in their ability to toss the giant monkey that is Dookey Kong off their collective backs, and barrel through (see what I did there) two last wins to Cup glory. Neither team was willing to bend, much less break through most of the first period of the first game, but Purple’s 12-3 dominance in shots was a reflection of their dominance in press and possession, and (who else) it was Owen Perks who would finally break through with an unassisted strike at 0:58. Captain Teglia made it 2-0 with another unassisted goal at 8:01 in the first, and Brown had no answers and very little in the way of genuine chances, slumping into the second break at a 21-8 shot deficit. Mark DeGraffenreid finally found a response, wristing home a Josh Wirt faceoff win at 5:34 to cut the lead in half and (almost as importantly) have Brown believing that they still had the magic and the mojo to three-sweep Purple and capture the Cup. Alas, it was Perks unassisted again at 3:03, restoring Purple’s two goal edge, and snuffing out the rising spirits of their rivals. Will Heinl (13/14) locked the shop from there, as Purple (finally) found the right result against their nemesis, 3-1. Mason Holcomb (28/31) earned third star honors in the losing effort, very nearly finding a way to steal a win for himself and his besieged mates. Brown would need more such Mason magic, and a much sharper offensive effort if they had any hope of surviving round two…
It was HOT on August 23, 2026, and running around outside, chasing a balls and bouncing off other sweaty bodies is not on the Family Feud board of ‘ways to cool off’. The heat was particularly paralyzing for the goalies, whose gear trapped heat and began to boil the last line of defense for either side alive. That, plus tired legs and a two sides determined to go down swinging translated to FOURTEEN combined goals in a wild encore for all the marbles. The first half of the first period was a cute little microcosm of the entire first game…Trevor Vick put Purple on the board first at 9:20 (Perks), Sadie Hellstrom quickly doubled the lead at 7:52 (Perks), and after a Mark Nagy point shot rocket cut the lead back to one at 6:05 (Wirt & Leah Gonzales), Hellstrom’s second at 5:01 (Perks) saw Purple on top 3-1 heading into the first break. Five goals were scored in both of the remaining periods, and Purple secured the bigger share of both of those spates. Captain Teglia pushed Purple’s lead to three with his second of the night at 8:31 (Trevor Vick), then to four with this third just SEVEN seconds later (Grant Goins & Tim Vick). Josh Wirt finally stopped the bleeding for Brown with an unassisted effort at 6:28, Trevor Vick pushed right back at 6:03 (Perks & Hellstrom), and Wirt continued his drive to save his team with another strike at 3:02 (DeGraffenreid & Kerri Sevenbergen). So…6-3 in Purple’s favor heading into the final period of play…Purple obviously in the driver’s seat, but this new ‘wide open’ vibe making both sides feel like more twists and turns were sure to come. Meanwhile, the body temperature for Heinl and Holcomb continued to climb, with both goalies stopping to take fluids with increasing regularity, and otherwise beginning to appear a bit dazed and worse for wear. A very early third strike for Wirt to open the third period (9:34 from DeGraffenreid & Captain Ossa) had Brown just two back, and feeling like ‘this was the moment’. ‘The moment’ lasted just a moment, however, with Perks restoring Purple’s three goal edge just thirty-three ticks later with his third of the night and first of the game at 9:01 (Hellstrom). TWO seconds later (I’m not even sure how that is possible, and I was there), Captain Teglia broke in, capped his hat trick, and shoved a stunned Brown back down by four. When Kerri Sevenbergen responded for Brown at 8:33 (Matt Rogers), it was beginning to feel like this was a ‘first to ten’ situation (seriously…four goals in the span of 1:01…WTF). Both sides settled down for a bit from there, as the concern grew with both Heinl and Holcomb swooning in the suffocating heat. Holcomb in particular showed troubling signs of possible heat stroke, and after Grant Goins drove Purple’s lead back to four with his first of the night at 3:32 (Teglia), Brown made the no-brainer decision to pull their netminder…both to insert an extra attacker and potentially spare him serious health issues. Holcomb left through a hero’s tunnel of sticks at Brown’s bench, and both teams eased into what was genuinely a light, fun final few minutes. The highlight of this stretch was (very) easily Leah Gonzales’ sparkling save on Hellstrom’s hat trick bid…seconds left to play…no reason to care either way, but…full effort to the final horn from pseudo-goalie-Gonzales and Brown in a crazy 9-5 Cup-clinching win for Purple in the swan song for both Captain Teglia (off to UCSB) and Tyler Winstead (back to Arizona). Not to get too graphic, but both Heinl (18/23) and Holcomb (26/35) were in bad shape after the game…vomit may or may not have been vomited by one or the other goalie. Special thanks to those two troopers for hanging in through a scorching, sweaty pair of games, and CONGRATULATIONS to Purple on winning when it matters most…the last night of play. Thanks to Dorothy Kline for scorekeeping, to Steve Linke and Chuck Bender for graciously volunteering to call the games, and to my amazing Dookey Kong mates for an incredible and very memorable run to the (almost) tippy top…
