The final Sunday of any SDFHL season is a mixed bag of ‘last chance…must win’, ‘hoping to improve our playoff seed and gain some momentum’, and ‘nothing much to be lost or gained here…just having fun’. The Week Six Make-Up slate (the week that was 14/15 wiped out because of a brush fire just a slap shot from the rink) opened with a match in that middle category, with Captain Rob Gaudio’s Gang looking to lock in the second seed with their fifth win of the season, and Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal hoping to extend their winning streak to five, and streak past White and a few other middle-packers in the process. First year Teal tour de force, Alex Giummo, continued his torrid tromp through November opponents, opening the scoring with his eighteenth goal of the season at 9:28 in the first (Andy Strathman), then notching his nineteenth at 1:24 in the second (unassisted), then tallying his TWENTIETH at 8:24 in the third (Kerri Sevenbergen & Josh Tran) to stake his side to a 3-0 lead. Copp & Company would only need two of those Giummo gems to push past White on this day, as the lone retaliation for White came courtesy of Rob LaVigne with 1:08 to play (Dan Jurgens). The 3-1 win stretched the Teal win streak to five, and also vaulted them to a bronze medal regular season finish (silver was briefly held, before being ceded to Blue), but the shots and run of play showed that Matt Henderson (24/25) was reason 1b that Teal escaped with a win. Jon Cima (7/10) was less than half as busy at the other end, but the quickness and quality of Giummo’s snap shot is already established as the most devastating weapon in the league. I don’t have the league’s entire statistical history in my lap as I type this, but I am fairly confident that NO player has ever scored twenty goals in a season. Giummo’s 20 and 6 make him the runaway Fall League 2025 scoring champ, and with Teal now definitively the hottest team in the league, Captain Bao Nguyen’s #6 Green are no doubt not loving the reality of an opening round playoff playdate. Green did best Teal rather convincingly in the very first week of the regular season (6-3), but the playoff are a different animal, and Teal feels like a completely different team, at this point. The loss moves White down to the four slot, with their first playoff pairing set as Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange. The teams tied 2-2 back in Week Seven, so…rather fitting that they will rematch as the fourth and fifth seeds…should be a great one.

It was absolutely ‘last chance…must win’ for Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red, and ‘last chance…must at least tie’ for Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple as THE big game of the final week of play unfolded in the second slot. Red’s rally from 0-3-0 to 2-4-1 included a crucial 4-3 win over Blue and a convincing 6-3 win over Green, but a subsequent 4-1 loss to White left them deadlocked with Lime below the cutline going into the final week of play. A win would move them past Purple and into playoff position, while anything less would seal their fate and set them up for a string of sans-SDFHL Sundays. Purple’s regular season path was paved and peachy through a 2-1-0 start, but potholes and pit stops found them just one point clear of a complete crashout coming into their final spin. That one spare point allowed them the luxury of advancing with a tie, but a loss would leave them squeezed out of the playoff picture along with Lime. With their scoring leader (at the time), Darin Cerasuolo, out, along with Papa Cerasuolo and defensive anchors Captain Karns and Tyler Winstead, Purple hopes were not high for that ‘tie or better’ result, but Red was also without their captain and Jason Northrup, so…could be worse. Steve Pugliese opened the scoring at 2:39 in the first (Shawna Hamon), his first goal since coming onboard to replace Ali Nabipour the week prior. This first blood touched off a late period scoring frenzy, with Carl Vankoughnett pushing Purple level at 2:02 (Jason Lee & Geoff Downes), then Josh Wirt ripping the lead back for Red at 1:30 (Sadie Hellstrom) before returning the favor to Hellstrom on her goal at 0:07. Red’s 3-1 lead lasted through the first half of the second period, but another sudden scoring spate flipped the score (and all of the momentum) in Purple’s favor. Vankoughnett’s second of the game at 4:43 (Brendan Jew) cut the lead to one, Jew’s third of the season at 2:23 (Leah Gonzales) knotted the score at 3-3, and Jason Lee gave Purple their first lead of the game at 0:39 (Jew & Gonzales). To this point in the game, the shot counts were relatively even (12-9 in Purple’s favor), and both teams had proven that they could score in bunches…it would be one final period to determine who wanted it more. Red certainly ‘wanted it’, outshooting Purple by an 11-3 margin in the final frame, but Chuck Bender (17/20) held tight, and Purple’s penalty kill proved the difference down the stretch as Karns’ Krew would hang on to secure the 4-3 win. With this result, the playoff field was officially set, with both Red and Lime now eliminated from contention. Gabe Davenport (11/15) finished a valiant first season with his head up, and while Red did not find a way to advance, their final fighting flurry proves that they believed to the bitter end. It’s certainly not all champagne and caviar for Purple, who move into the second season as the bottom seed, staring down the barrel of Captain Luke Wolmer’s Big Bad Black when playoff play kicks off in early December.

A smooth and spotless 6-0-0 start meant that Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black were booked for December play back in early November (actually mid-October, knowing what we know now). White’s loss earlier in the evening meant that their finale would fall into the ‘nothing much to be lost or gained here…just having fun’ category, but snapping a ill-timed two game losing streak before ‘the real games’ begin was likely more than enough motivation for the frontrunners. Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green came in under the ‘hoping to improve our playoff seed and gain some momentum’ flag, having patched together a passable season, but never having managed so much as a two game win streak. An upset victory in their finale would check that box, and also serve as something of a ‘statement win’ for a team whose hit or miss mojo has seen them struggle to formulate a fearsome front to opponents. A scoreless first bled into a very nearly scoreless second, with Captain Wolmer finally finding twine with just twelve ticks left in the creamy middle of a very tight contest (Trevor Vick & Wasif Hussain). Wolmer’s second of the game and tenth of the season with 5:06 to play (Jenna Chercoe & Hussain) doubled Black’s edge and cast a considerable shadow over Green’s hopes for that swan song ‘statement’. Chris Malki finally responded for Nguyen & Associates at 3:51 (Joe Malki), bringing renewed hope and hop in Green’s collective step into the final minutes of play. All hope and hop were quickly halted, though, as super sub, Jenna Chercoe, restored the top dogs’ two goal lead just 0:32 later to seal the 3-1 win for Black. Will Heinl (21/22) earned third star honors for his sparkling showing, while John Kushneryk (13/16) was no slouch in the losing effort, wrapping a very solid rookie SDFHL goalie campaign with a 2-2-1/.868/1.75/1 SO line. Wolmer’s 10 and 8 season totals would typically be enough to put him in scoring crown contention, but Alex Giummo would not be denied that hardware in his debut season, and Wolmer would have to settle for runner-up in that race. As noted, the win was essentially window dressing for Black, who put one last pass of polish on their number one seed to finish with fourteen points. The loss prevented Green from ascending as high as the two seed (three, in reality, given the later results), and instead settled them in at slot six. Black will face a plucky Purple in Week One, while Green have perhaps the worst opening draw in the entire tournament…the hottest team in the league, Teal.

Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime were shoveled to the playoff scrapheap by virtue of Purple’s win earlier in the evening. Had Purple lost, they would still find themselves on said scrapheap…it would have taken a tie between Purple and Red and (of course) a win over Orange to save their season…such is the quirky and unforgiving cut line math. So, Lime was fully in the ‘nothing much at all to be lost or gained here…just having fun’ camp, while Orange were ‘hoping to improve our playoff seed and gain some momentum’ as the ‘Citrus Bowl’™ kicked off as the final full game on the Week Six Make-Up slate. Kalen Hunter put the favorites in full control out of the gate, lacing home his tenth of the season at 9:27 (Jenna Chercoe & Eric Willard), then his eleventh at 5:44 (Kevin Hunter). It was a listless, lifeless period for Lime, who were outshot 7-1 in that opening period against an Orange team with just two available subs (Mark Daquipa, Weston Nawrocki, and Will Heinl all out of action). The shot disparity did not improve much for Lime in the second (8-4), and Orange continued to capitalize against a clearly deflated and defeated opponent. Parsa Mostafavi’s unassisted fourth of the season at 1:44 padded the lead to three, and while Lime put forth one final ‘death rattle’ resistance in the third (6-5 edge in shots to Orange), the only scoring response mustered was an unassisted Brennen Abel tally with 0:19 to play. Abel’s late goal served no significance beyond spoiling Nick Meglich’s shutout bid (9/10), but Meglich FINALLY benefitted from his team outshooting their opponent. Yes, this was the first time all season that the Orange netminder was not busier (typically considerably busier) than his counterpart. Whatever the SDFHL equivalent of the Vezina Trophy is (the Santat Trophy (?)…the Pynn-ant (?)…the Kelly Cup (?)…the Perks Prize (?)) Meglich is the runaway winner this season. The man played in all nine games, and faced nearly ONE HUNDRED shots more than the only other goalies in the league to do so. His 4-3-2/.900/2.67 line is absolutely the main reason that Orange made the playoffs in (relatively) comfortable fashion. Don Tran (18/21) and Lime just did not get the scoring they needed to prevail in this one, and certainly not enough to compete in most other games, finishing with a league low twenty-two, including just six from their leading scorer, Abel. The 3-1 win capped a solid season for Orange, who ultimately settled in at the five spot, based on the result of the final game and the goal differential tiebreaker with White. Captain Nagy & Company will break another tie with White when playoff play opens on December 7th…the teams battled to a 2-2 deadlock in Week Seven, so there is ‘unfinished business’ there…

The league has certainly seen its share of rainouts over the years, and also survived a pandemic and a ‘heat out’ in the summer of 2024, but October 19, 2025 would enter as the first ‘fire out’ in league history. The game began as any other…very nice day, as I recall…Gold rolled out to dominant start against Blue, who were without Captain Boddy and a number of other key players. Gold held a 9-3 edge in shots, and spent most of the first ten minutes of play in the attacking zone, but Chris Tran stopped all but one of those nine shots…a Mark DeGraffenreid wrister at 1:16 (Evan Melcher). As the teams broke their respective huddles to begin the second period…smoke…flames…confusion. A small brush fire in the neighboring canyon was sending black smoke over the roof of the Boys & Girls Club, but with the rangers alerted, fire trucks en route, youth leagues still merrily playing baseball and soccer nearby, and the winds blowing steadily away from the rink, the thought was that we could continue. Police orders to evacuate minutes later quashed any such lingering ideas, and with the rest of the Sunday slate called off, it was decided that ‘Gold v Blue Part Deux’™ would be tacked on to the end of the Week Six Make-Up schedule. The sequel did not go nearly as well for Gold, with Captain Boddy and Sean Kelly back in the fold. Kelly’s fifth of the season at 8:15 in the ‘second’ (opening period of play on this day) from Steve Linke and Eli Schonbrun brought Blue level, and his sixth of the season at 7:52 in the third (Marc Lapointe & Captain Boddy) flipped the flames of fortune in Blue’s favor. Owen Perks would equalized quickly for Gold with his eighth of the season at 6:31 (DeGraffenreid), but Eli Schonbrun produced an even swifter response, pushing Blue back in front with his seventh at 6:00 (Captain Boddy & Erin Plone). Neither team could find a way past Mason Holcomb (18/21) nor Chris Tran (19/21) the rest of the way, but Schonbrun’s empty-netter at 0:01 brought the final score to 4-2, Blue. The weird win propelled Blue all the way to the second seed at 5-3-1, while the ‘stupid fucking fire’ loss kept Gold in the seven slot. So…as fire and fate would have it, these two teams will meet again in the late game of opening Sunday of the Fall League 2025 playoffs…will we be ‘lightninged out’ or ‘snowed out’ or ‘zombie apocalypsed out’…find out Sunday, December 7th!

Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple found themselves at 2-1-0 after three weeks of Fall League play, having lost their season opener in blowout fashion to White, then sliding past both Teal and Gold to establish themselves as a strong side with plenty of playoff potential. The ensuing four games stripped nearly all of the ‘potent’ from that ‘potential’, as Karn’s Krew went L-T-L-L to limp into the first of two make-up weeks at 2-4-1, sharing space below the cut line with their scheduled regular season finale opponent, Red, and the latest team to hand them a loss, Lime. At 3-3-1, Captain John Boddy’s Blue was very close to booking playoff passage, needing just a win, a tie, or even a loss, coupled with losses for both Red and Lime to seal the deal. A win for Purple would push them into a tie with Blue in the standings, but also grant them the head to head breaker and allay most (if not all) fear of a November elimination. Darin Cerasuolo pushed Purple in front first, notching his fifth of the season at 7:35 (Brendan Jew & Geoff Downes), but Blue produced a trio of responses to assume full control going into the first break…Sean Kelly from Weston Oakley and Captain Boddy at 6:00, Kelly again from Ramsey Ksar and Captain Boddy at 2:42, and Boddy from Tony Thinh at 0:39. Enter our POTW, Pat Gladstone, whose second of the season at 8:38 cut the lead to one, before Carl Vankoughnett brought Purple level on the powerplay at 5:31 (Gladstone & Captain Karns). Old Man Steve Linke snatched the lead back from Blue on the powerplay at 2:11 (Boddy), but Downes answered at 0:44 (Darin Cerasuolo & Vankoughnett) to leave the ledger knotted at 4-4 going into the second break. Gladstone was at it again in the third, with her second of the game at 7:28 putting Purple back in pole position (Darin Cerasuolo & Jew), but a late gut-punch-point-saving-hat-trick-capping-power-play strike from Kelly with just 0:30 to play took all of the wind out of Purple’s would-be-winning sails, and ran them aground on the shores of a 5-5 tie island. The lone point makes Blue playoff official in Captain Boddy’s final Cup run, while the non-win leaves Purple in cut line peril going into the final week of play. Karns & Company do control their own destiny, with a win over Red sealing their second season seed. A loss to Red would spell Purple’s end, while a tie coupled with anything but a Lime win would also put them in. Blue will face Gold in a continuation of the infamous ‘fire game’, which was suspended after one period of play with Gold leading 1-0. A win for Blue could push them as high as the two seed, while a loss could drop them as low as the seven slot.

Were it not for a crucial 4-3 Week Nine win over Purple, the already slim wedge of playoff hopes for Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime might have been squeezed dry before their meeting with color cousins, Green. Captain Bao Nguyen’s deeper-shaded side came in a cozy 3-3-1 in spite of a stunning 6-3 loss at the hands of a down and desperate Red in Week Nine. A bounce back win would give Nguyen & Kin a playoff in, and also paint Lime into a must-win-and-get-help season finale. With Brennen Abel, Zach Siemer, Chris Tran, Nick Vacchio, and Joe Nguyen all out of the lineup for Lime, a Green win seemed like a foregone conclusion, but a god mode performance from Don Tran made a VERY lopsided game look like a standard issue 3-0 affair. If you weren’t on hand, or didn’t check the box score closely, the shot count closed with Green holding a FIFTY-SIX TO SIX ‘edge’. I am confident that no team in league history has ever posted a +50 shot differential in a game…very few have ever even managed forty shots, let alone fifty…crazy! Crazier still was the fact the Tran kept this close throughout. Chris Malki finally solved the subLime netminder with (what I presume was) the last of twenty-one first period shots at 0:18 (Jon Zygelman). Our POTW, Pat Gladstone, kept her mojo moving as a fill-in for Janet Goins, doubling the Green lead at 4:47 in the second (Chris Malki), and Bryan Ossa added insurance at 3:27 in the third (Joe Malki & Dan Farrell) to cap a 3-0 win that could have been 30-0 if Tran (53/56) were a mere mortal. Unfortunately for Lime, moral victories are still literal losses, and at 2-5-1, Gattey & Company will need a win over Orange and (specifically) a tie in the Red v Purple match to survive to December play. John Kushneryk (6/6) recorded his first career shutout in cruise control fashion as Green improve to 4-3-1, punch their playoff ticket, and remain in striking distance of the second seed going into their ‘measuring stick’ regular season wrap against Black.

The middle game on the Week Two Make-Up slate saw the last of three cut line teams clambering to clear the cellar as the the playoff door atop the rickety stairs creaks closer to closed. Captain Motafa Azab’s Red rode the high from a huge second win of the season over their basement buddies (Lime) into battle with Captain Rob Gaudio’s White, and with Purple securing just one point and Lime losing, a third Red win would finally find them above the scrap heap and primed to stamp their playoff passport. Both teams were dealing with critical people-insisting-on-double-booking-themselves-in-other-hockey-leagues-and-tournaments absences in the form of an MIA Josh Wirt and Sadie Hellstrom for Red and Captain Rob Gaudio and Dorothy Kline for White (and also Ty Pereira…unrelated). Gary Peters put White in front first, tucking home his second of the season at 8:07 in the first (Mark Scelfo & Jackson Tomaszewski), and Tomaszewski made it 2-0 with an unassisted strike at 6:05 in the second. Steve Pugliese made his debut for Red as a permanent replacement for newcomer, Ali Nabipour, and he recorded the primary assist on Red’s first response…Captain Azab from Pugliese and Eric Caligiuri. Alas for Azab & Friends, that would be the only Red response. Craig Russell restored White’s two goal lead at 3:07 in the second (Tomaszewski), and Dan Jurgens made up for two minor penalties with his seventh of the season at 2:25 in the third (Russell & Rob LaVigne). Jon Cima (7/8) held on for a rather ho-hum 4-1 win to push his personal season mark to 3-1-2 and White’s second place standings stake to 4-2-2. Captain Gaudio’s Group can snatch the top playoff seed this Sunday with a win over Teal and a Black loss to Green. The stakes are far steeper for Gabe Davenport (13/17) and Red, who need a win over Purple (and, amazingly enough, no ‘help’) to finally find their way to playoff safety. In fact, unless there is a tie, the Red v Purple result will settle all remaining playoff mystery…clearly THE game to watch this Sunday.

Lime, Purple, and Red have all had fairly consistent struggles finding their footing this season, but no team had a more ‘left for dead’ slog to the midseason marker than Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal. Four straight losses to start the season, with one of those four losses coming at the hands of the now-in-playoff-peril Purple…it was clearly ‘must’ win time for Copp & Company coming into their Week Seven match with Lime. Copp’s Crew did win that game by a 3-1 score, then dealt Red a matching 3-1 loss to make it two in a row, then boat raced a barely-there Gold 10-2 (bonus for a certain individual later bragging about running up the score, as if it were an actual accomplishment/something to be proud of…but I digress)…three straight wins, and a sudden and near-complete resurrection from probably-paste to playoff-probable. The momentum alone that comes from a three game win streak through this stretch of the season can be enough to carry a team to greater heights, and Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black has been enjoying said greater heights since Week One. A Week Nine 4-0 loss to White was their first taste of defeat all season…indeed their first non-win. Factor in that Captain Wolmer, Riley Mann, and Wasif Hussain were all out of action in the loss, and it would be easy to dismiss the bump in the road and look to get back on the winning track the following Sunday. Trevor Vick started that journey back, giving Black the first lead at 6:46 (Riley Mann), but Alex Giummo would answer unassisted on the powerplay to draw Teal level through ten. Giummo struck again at 9:48 in the second to push Teal to their first lead (Kerri Sevenbergen), but Mann had a prompt response at 8:14 (Tim Vick). Josh Tran was next to act, with what I can honestly say is the most badass goal of the season/recent memory…swooping through his own zone…weaving through the neutral zone…down along the right boards, then hooking in and touching home a sensational end to end gem to wrest the lead back for Teal. Giummo would complete his hat trick just over a minute later, leaving Black in need of a third period comeback for the second straight week. Giummo’s fourth of the game on the powerplay at 8:10 in the final frame (Andy Strathman) sucked most of the energy out of any such plans, and while Janice ‘The Better’ Darlington would finally put Black back on the board at 3:22 (Andrew Wong & Captain Wolmer), it was too little, too late to avoid two losses in a row, this time 5-3 at the hands of the now white hot Teal. Jon Cima (8/13) ate the loss in Will Heinl’s stead, while Matt Henderson (9/12) and Teal continued/concluded their climb to playoff safety with their fourth straight win to improve to 4-4-0. The two game tumble has left open the possibility of Black (FINALLY) falling out of first place, but a tie or better against Green this Sunday, or a loss and anything but a win for White will lock them in as the top playoff seed. Teal are not only a playoff lock, but can lock in the TWO seed with a win over White and losses for both Blue and Green.

If you haven’t spoken with me directly in the past few weeks, or if the parenthetical jag in the previous recap didn’t clue you in, Gold (this member of Gold, in particular) was…none-too-pleased about the way things went down the week prior. Losing is one thing, but…yeah…none-too-pleased. Frustration and anger can either derail you or make you more determined, and Captain Hima Joshi’s team was beyond pumped and primed to put themselves back in the win column after a three game slide had left them too close for comfort with the cut line. Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange rolled in as perhaps the ‘most lukewarm’ team in the league, with a 1-1-2 runup to their make-up week rendezvous with Gold, and while the Red and Lime losses earlier in the evening already had them pushed into playoff position, a fourth win would establish them in the top half of the bracket and provide some swagger and stability going into the final week of play. Late period goals are almost always a killer, but early game goals often set a tone, and Eric Willard’s 9:31 delivery (Kalen Hunter & Captain Nagy) dealt a definite dent to Gold’s determination. Captain Joshi steadied her mates with her (very timely) first of the season at 6:42 (Mark DeGraffenreid & Christopher H. Fiore), and DeGraffenreid drove one of those late period daggers home at 0:33 (Shelby Shattuck) to give Gold their first lead* since Week Five (!) (*not including The Fire Game™). Kalen Hunter drew Orange level with an unassisted snipe at 8:54 in the second, but that’s when the real hero emerged from the phone booth for Gold…Greg Francisco. Francisco found and deposited a back door loose ball to give Gold back the lead at 5:46 in the second (Steve Goncalo & Owen Perks), then finished a dazzling rush/backhand feed from Perks to pad that lead at 7:20 in the third (Shattuck with the second). A DeGraffenreid empty-netter with 0:13 to play sealed the 5-2 win for Mason Holcomb (12/14) and Gold, who punch their playoff ticket in snapping their losing streak and evening their record at 4-4-0. Nick Meglich (25/29) continued his string of magical performances with mixed bag results, now topping the goalie charts with a .900/2.88/0 SO line, having faced TWO HUNDRED THIRTY ONE shots..ONE HUNDRED more than any other goalie in the league! Nagy & Company can only ride poor Nick so far…they will need to find more Joshi/Francisco-esque ‘secondary scoring’, and stop the bleeding on the shot differential if they hope to do damage in December. Orange will have one final tune-up in the form of last-legs-Lime, while Gold (weirdly) have just two periods of hockey left to play before turkey day…the continuation of The Fire Game™. Gold hold a 1-0 lead in that game, which will serve as the final flourish in the Fall League 2025 regular season.

Sorry, folks…I tried…but I do not have recaps in me again this week. Chalk it up to seasonal affective disorder…

I am very sorry, folks…I ran out of time and energy for recaps this week. I may come back and add them for posterity when I have time next week…

The main goal of the SDFHL draft is to (hopefully) produce even teams, with any given team having a chance to beat any other given team on any given Sunday. Of course, not all teams are drafted equally…some captains just pull the right strings, find a diamond in the rough, or just manage to formulate/foster great team chemistry out of the gate. Sprinkle in a key absence or two (or more), ‘bad luck’, and other such factors, and lopsided results like the pair of 5-1 Week One romps, and even the ‘avert your eyes, children’ 10-1 Week Three thrashing can and will litter the results page. Week Seven was near parity perfection, however, with two ties, two one goal decisions, and one two goal ‘convincing win’ going into the books. Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal were hoping for a win of any ilk, after limping and languishing through four losses coming in, while Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime hoped (and perhaps even expected) to table Teal’s redemption plans and even their own record at 2-2-1. Alex Giummo put Teal on top with his fifth of the season at 1:04 (Jim LaGrossa), and his sixth at 3:58 in the second (Josh Tran) had Copp & Company enjoying their first two goal lead of the season. Giummo would return the favor to Tran at 3:50 in the third, providing the lone assist on JT’s third of the season and stretching Teal’s lead to a down-right-comfortable three goals. Brennen Abel finally answered for Lime with 1:27 to play (Joe Nguyen & Justin Stege), and while that strike did spoil the sparkling substitute shutout bid for Chuck Bender (26/27), there would be no spoiling Teal’s first taste of victory, 3-1 over Lime. Don Tran (8/11) might start taking his team’s lack of goal support in his starts personally, as his season record falls to 0-3-0 behind just one Lime goal (Lime scored just one goal in his first loss, and two in his second). Neither team is breathing easy as we enter the second half of the season, but with an energized Teal facing 1-3-1 Red, and Lime taking on 5-0-0 Black this Sunday, we may well see some movement to and from the standings cellar this weekend…

Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green and Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple rolled into Week Seven with matching 2-2-0 records, and (spoiler alert) rolled out of Week Seven with their standings twinhood still intact. Of course, the only way for that to be true would be a tie…the first of two on our biggest parity party Sunday in recent memory. Tyler Winstead put Purple on the winning path with his first of the season at 1:19 in the first (Carl Vankoughnett), and Vankoughnett pushed Purple further along that path just 0:22 later (Brendan Jew). One late period goal is enough to stun and demoralize an opponent, but two is staggering. The consolation for Green…it was ‘still early’, and when Chad Goins converted on an extended Geoff Downes penalty at 5:11 in the second (Joe Malki), both teams settled back into ‘up for grabs’ mode. Jon ‘JZ’ Zygelman ‘grabbed’ early in the third, potting this third of the season at 9:47 (William Teglia) to knot the score at twos, and both Chuck Bender (10/12) and a returning John Kushneryk (15/17) made sure that it would remain tied to the end. So, while a 2-2 tie is not the result you dream of on Sunday morning, the point apiece keeps both teams a smidge safer from the cut line at 2-2-1 with four games to play. Both teams have a chance to climb in Week Eight, with Purple facing 2-1-2 Orange, and Green taking on 3-2-0 Gold in ‘Middle Ground Mania’ this Sunday.

Early season struggles can sometimes be a positive. While a tough start can certainly be demoralizing, and while you do need to start stocking points in the standings before it is genuinely too late, there is something to be said for the benefits of learning from loss and building to your best. Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red stumbled and tumbled through a very tough start to the season, opening with a 5-1 loss to Gold, following with a 10-1 lambasting at the hands of Lime, then showing signs of life, but ultimately falling 5-3 to Black. Even their 3-3 tie with Orange in Week Five had a rusty lining, with their opponent snatching away their first W with just 0:45 to play. Key absences played a major part in Red’s 0-3-1 start, but with everyone in the lineup for the first time all season, and with Captain John Boddy out of the lineup for Blue, the scene was set for the next phase of ‘build to your best’ for Azab & Associates. Josh Wirt got the ball rolling for Red at 4:11 in the first (Captain Azab & Eric Caligiuri), and doubled his team’s delight at 3:31 (Captain Azab). It would be Red’s second two-goal first period lead in as many weeks, and Ali Nabipour made it 3-0 with his unassisted second of the season at 2:14. While a three goal lead certainly confers confidence, Red were knew they would have more work to do to avoid another pitfall and finally secure a winning result. Eli Schonbrun’s goal at 8:35 in the second (Steve Linke) underscored that point, but Captain Azab restored his team’s calm resolve with a response at 1:08 (Caligiuri). Any and all of that Red ‘calm’ turned to caution and chaos in the third, as Schonbrun’s second of the game at 5:21 cut the lead back to two, and Sean ‘Da Kid’ Kelly’s first of the season (Linke & Schonbrun) slid Blue back into striking distance of another Red parade spoiler with a plump 4:22 remaining. If you have your eyes and ears tuned to the season storylines at all, you know that while Red came in merely seeking their first win of the season, rookie netminder, Gabe Davenport, remained in search of his first career win. A late game-tying (or worse, game-winning) goal for Blue would not just be a big blow to Red’s playoff hopes, but would break this writer’s heart just a bit. A scoreless 4:22 later, my heart remained intact, as did that 4-3 lead…a HUGE win for Davenport and Red! CONGRATULATIONS, GABE! Congratulations to the entire Red team who, while still hovering around the cutline at 1-3-1, are now officially ‘building to their best’ as we enter the second half of the Fall League 2025 season.

The playoff cutline is a yard stick more in the ‘measuring things’ sense and less the ‘smacking your knuckles when you act up in class’ sense at this point in the season, but at 1-2-1, Captain Rob Gaudio’s White were looking to move out of late season ‘smacking’ distance in a meeting on the standings ladder with Captain Mark Nagy’s 2-1-1 Orange. We’ve covered my lack of ability to accurately predict SDFHL roster potency, game outcomes, and Cup chances in recent weeks, but I saw this game as a ‘very good match, on paper’. Orange were all present and accounted for, while White would be without the services of Dorothy Kline (Shelby Shattuck in to sub) and top three threat, Jackson Tomaszewski. So…you could skew the ‘paper’ favorite Orange’s direction a bit, but White had a tinge of frustrated desperation bubbling that might prove enough to carry them through. Captain Nagy put Orange up early, notching his first of the season at 7:00 (Will Heinl), Dan Jurgens responded for White at 5:41 (Captain Gaudio & Shelby Shattuck), and Kalen Hunter restored Orange’s lead with an unassisted-and-league-leading eighth on the season. A scoreless second came and went, with the near-identical shot totals through two (13-12, in White’s favor) seemingly serving as proof that I had (for once) correctly predicted a close contest. The third period shot totals were not especially lopsided, with White holding an 8-5 edge, but White won the one statistical battle that matters in that final ten minutes of play…goals. One goal, to be exact, a game-tying effort from Captain Gaudio himself at 4:15 (Ty Pereira & Jurgens). Both Nick Meglich (19/21) and Jon Cima (15/17) deserve praise in earning their respective teams a point, with both sides now at least one point north of late November peril. The 2-2 tie was the second such result in a near perfect procession of parity in Week Seven, but both Orange and White will hope for a less equitable result (in their favor, of course) as we hit the downhill run to the second season.

We are certainly used to rainouts in the SDFHL, and we have even had games cancelled for excessive heat, but Week Six saw the first ever cancellation due to fire (or, at least, a fire literally feet from the rink). Captain Hima Joshi’s Gold was enjoying a 1-0 lead through the first period of their Week Six meeting with Blue, and with Captain Boddy and Sean Kelly out of the lineup, were pumped and primed to continue the rather lopsided run of play, improve their record to 4-1-0, and secure some momentum going into a big Week Seven showdown with Black. With the fire forcing evacuation, Gold would hold at 3-1-0, a bit less secure, and certainly no more stoked to see Captain Luke Wolmer’s 4-0-0 Black warming up as their Week Seven opponent. A scoreless first saw Gold hold the favorites to just four shots…the problem was the ONE shot mustered in response. Gold’s shot total improved to four in the second period, but Black’s improved in kind to eight, and Captain Wolmer finally found twine with one of those eight at 3:12 (Andrew Wong) to give his team the lead and move him into a tie for first on the scoring charts with Kalen Hunter at twelve points (6 and 6). Joshi’s troops (in Joshi’s absence…Jenna Chercoe filled in) spent the second break focusing themselves on producing more shots on goal, and while they did finally turn the tide on that front in the final frame (13-6, in their favor), it was Black who would strike next, with Riley Mann providing a vital insurance policy with 1:36 to play (Wong). Mann’s fourth of the season was rendered ‘vital’ by Christopher Fiore’s first (!) for Gold at 0:51 (Owen Perks), which set up a frenetic fight to the finish. ‘Frenetic’ was finally replaced with ‘fruitless’ and ‘fight’ with ‘finished’ for Gold, as Will Heinl (17/18) and Black held on for a 2-1 win to remain undefeated through their first five games. Mason Holcomb (16/18) sustained his strong statistical standing in spite of the loss, remaining atop the goalie board with a .914/1.67/0 SO line. Wolmer & Company will look to remain unstained in a match with a down-but-dangerous Lime, while Gold will look to rebound from the hiccup in momentum from ‘the fire game’ and a tough loss to the top dogs as Week Eight play plays out this Sunday.