Our Week Eight cover team hit the court first, as Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green set out to secure vital points in their cut line chicken fight with idle Red. Nguyen & Company did not hate the matchup with Captain Bryan Ossa’s Brown, a team sitting at 2-3-1, but one that had struggled mightily prior to a Week Six tie with an understaffed Orange and an 8-5 slugfest decision over the aforementioned Red. A win would not only vault Green over Red and into playoff position, but would also allow them to control their own destiny in their regular season finale against Orange. For Brown, a playoff berth was (just BARELY) assured coming in, but an honest effort against one of two teams still fighting to get into second season play, a chance to even their record at .500, and (of course) personal points and pride were sufficient drivers. Jenna Chercoe broke the scoring seal at 7:16, completing a nifty passing play to notch her second of the season (Jackson Tomaszewski & Ty Pereira), but Mark DeGraffenreid would equalize for Brown exactly three minutes later (Greg Wirth). Tomaszewski recaptured the lead for Green with his first (!) of the season at 4:07 (Pereira), and doubled the lead with his second at 3:34 (Chris Tran & Pereira). Tomaszewski switched from his scoring hand to his helping hand in the second, providing the lone assist on Chris Tran’s goal at 7:53 to push Green’s lead to three. Leah Gonzales buried her second of the season at 7:22 (Vance Morra & Josh Wirt), and combined with her five assists to this point, Gonzales now sits just one point back of Sadie Hellstrom for the female scoring lead. Newcomer Alex Rockhoff was next to act, restoring Green’s three goal advantage with his second of the season at 6:23 (Jason Olver & Tran) before DeGraffenreid made good on a perfect attacking zone draw from Wirt to slice it back to two with his second of the game at 5:05. Brown would get no closer, thanks to our POTW, Gabe Davenport (18/21). A second Rockhoff strike at 5:02 in the third (Olver & Shawna Hamon) and a buzzer-beating-empty-netter from Jordan Pynn (Pereira) made the final score a bit harder on the eyes for Brown, but Davenport deserves a good deal of the credit for providing his team with calm and confidence with his first winning performance of the season. CONGRATULATIONS, GABE! Mason Holcomb (23/29) was very, very solid, as always, but Brown will need to sort their defensive zone play out if the hope to help him help them make a serious playoff push. The 7-3 for Green jumps them above the cut line, and even a draw with Orange will give them what they need to book playoff passage. Only a loss to Orange AND a Red win over Grey in the final game of the regular season can break the glass slipper for this Cinderella squad.
The second game on the Week Eight slate felt like a dress rehearsal for Saved By The Bell (shout out, Don Tran), with Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s Neon tussling with Captain Lena Amelang’s Pink. I’m not sure which team was playing the role of ‘preppy’ and which ‘jock’, but this was a ‘good episode’, by all accounts. Both teams sat comfortably in playoff position coming in, but with twin 3-2-1 records, this would serve as a good ‘measuring stick’ match. Well, perhaps a not-perfectly-calibrated measuring stick, given the absence of Joel Gattey and Scott Wieland for Pink and Joe Malki and Parsa Mostafavi for Neon. At the very least, it was another opportunity for Brennan Abel to protect his perch at the top of the scoring charts, and he did not waste much time adding a seventh goal to his season total, putting Pink in front first at 7:37 in the first (Emily Bennington & Rob LaVigne). Gary Peters brought Neon level with a point blast at 1:12 (Vinny Santora & Chris Malki), sending both BRIGHT sides to their benches for the first break on even footing. That footing remained level through a scoreless second, in spite of Pink holding a 7-2 edge in shots, and while Neon flipped the shot script in the third (11-8, in their favor), it was Pink who would do the only damage. Rob LaVigne scored his first of the season in short-handed fashion on an Abel assist at 6:15, and another strong effort from Chuck Bender (18/19) forced Neon to pull Don Tran (18/20), which ultimately led to a Steve Goncalo empty-netter to seal it at 0:34 (Abel). The 3-1 win moves Pink into sole possession of second place at 4-2-1, with no chance to catch Purple, but ample opportunity to tumble a spot or two, depending on a number of Week Nine results. Abel’s 1 and 2 effort has the Young Canuck™ scoring stud at nineteen points (7 and 12), just two points north of Purple Captain William Teglia and a Brown’s surging sniper, Josh Wirt. So, while there may be little beyond improved playoff position at stake this Sunday, there is certainly a fair amount of individual intrigue left to unfurl.
It has been something of a Tale Of Two Seasons for Captain Eli Schonbrun’s Blue. After racing out to a 3-0-0 start, with three straight six-goal efforts in wins that saw them outscore opponents 18-9, Blue limped and languished through a 1-3-0 stretch that included a shocking 4-3 loss to Red, and a skin-of-teeth 2-1 win over Green. If you’re going to have a feast or famine regular season, you really want the famine early and the feast late, but Blue would settle for anything to settle the butterflies in their collective playoff stomach as they turned to face Captain Jeremy Copp’s 2-3-1 Orange. Jason Lee led the charge for Blue, finishing a breakaway chance at 6:38 (Adam Schindler & Jason Northrup), but Orange would charge back on the strength of goals from Justin Hepler at 6:03 (Chris Fiore) and Captain Copp at 5:22 (Hepler & TK Mason). A scoreless middle frame set up a for-all-the-marbles third, and Justin Stege made his third marble of the season count at 4:05 (Fiore) to plump Orange’s lead to 3-1. It was Lee again at 3:44 (Kyle Snyder) to keep Blue hustling and hopeful to the end, but Matt Henderson (10/12) would shut the door and seal the 3-2 win for Orange. John Kushneryk (16/19), now once again able to devote his time and attention to the SDFHL after much World Cup globetrotting, would shoulder a second loss in three outings. With Blue now sitting at 4-3-0, this means that Non Kushneryk efforts (3-1-0) have outstripped John Kushneryk efforts (1-2-0) by a considerable measure…I think we have discovered the weak link 🙂 The win evens Orange’s ledger at 3-3-1, and while they could slide up or down the seeding scale in their finale, the more important Week Nine role they will play is potential spoiler for Green/savior for Red. If Orange should defeat Green, it would leave the backdoor to the playoffs open for Red, who would then be in with a win over Grey in the late game.
Captain William ‘Big Willy T™’ Teglia’s Purple had staged a very impressive run to the top coming into Week Eight, bouncing back from an under-gunned 3-2 loss to Brown in their season opener to rattle off six straight wins and find themselves untouchable in the top playoff spot with twelve points. Their Week Nine bye feels a bit poetic and appropriate now, giving the front-runners time to rest on their considerable laurels this Sunday, with nothing left to play for/prove in the regular season. Well…there is always the scoring race, and this tilt with Captain Zach Siemer’s Grey would represent young Captain Teglia’s last chance to add to his impressive fifteen point total coming in (7 and 8) to catch or pass Abel and Wirt in said race, For Siemer & Company…a chance to prove themselves against the top seed, and (perhaps more importantly) prove that they could survive and even thrive in the absence of their superstar, Kalen Hunter. Kalen had accounted for eleven of the sixteen Grey goals in their first six outings, with just one other player on the roster having scored more than one (John Kushneryk…a total of two). His absence posed an obvious challenge for Grey, and Purple is not a team that leaves gifts on the table. Sadie Hellstrom rattled off two goals early in the first…her second of the season at 9:37 (Trevor Vick), and an unassisted third of the season at 7:24. Will Heinl (18/18) remained perfect through two, and Big Willy T posted his first of the game at 6:44 in the second (Hellstrom & Owen Perks) to give Purple a commanding 3-0 lead heading into the third. Captain Teglia would add a second at 6:53 in the third (Chad Goins), and while the two goal effort would leave him short of his first career scoring title with seventeen points (9 and 8), his regular season run was nothing short of great, and Purple’s 4-0 win makes them nothing short of overwhelming Cup favorites as they head into their bye. Hellstrom’s 2 and 1 earned her first start of the game honors, and (as noted in the earlier recap) keep her one point clear of Brown’s Leah Gonzales for the regular season female scoring crown. Chuck Bender (16/20) once AGAIN stayed late to cover for Jon Cima, absorbing what felt like an inevitable loss, especially with Young Kalen elsewhere. Purple will sit by the pool sipping lemonade this Sunday, while Grey carry the important role of playoff jury/executioner in the final game of the regular season against the only team not currently parked in the playoff lot, Red.
