Captain William Teglia’s ‘Willuigis’ are doing their Nintendo namesake proud and turning L’s upside down. Their latest W also handed a (right-side-up) L to the only remaining undefeated team in the league in Captain Eli Schonbrun’s Blue. The win not only has them at the top of the standings at 4-1-0, but also makes them the first Summer League team to clinch a playoff spot.
Captain Bryan Ossa’s Brown opened their season with a 3-2 win over our Week Five cover team, Purple, but the ‘Willuigis’ have been wiping up since, and it has been a steady flush since for ‘Dookey Kong’. The consolatory thinking for Brown after losses in their second and third matches of the season…the combined incoming record for their three opponents so far…4-0-0. Considering Purple’s 3-1-0 record since that initial outing, it was clear that Brown had faced the steepest of schedules to start, and could expect a better chance to improve their playoff stance through the balance of their season. The first such ‘beatable’ opponent came in the form of Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s 1-1-1 Neon. Neon came off a Week One bye to pluck their three points in the standings from Green and Red…teams with a current combined record of 1-8-1. A narrow Week Four loss to Orange had them looking to bounce back and shovel more dirt on a struggling Brown side. Joe Malki wasted no time executing that plan, putting Neon in front with an unassisted effort at at 8:49 in the first, and an early second period pair of strikes (Ryan Karns from Captain Vankoughnett and Parsa Mostafavi at 8:19, and Captain Vankoughnett from Vinny Santora and Pat Gladstone at 7:45) had the Brown burial well underway. Chris Koziol’s third of the season halted Neon’s plot (see what I did there) at 6:53 (Vance Morra), but three late second period tallies from Chris Malki at 2:01, Karns at 1:22 (Vankoughnett), and Joe Malki at 0:36 (Wendy Enright & Chris Malki) had Brown six goals underground (well, technically five, but that sort of ruins the turn of phrase) going into the final ten. With the game well out of hand, Brown’s approach was to look to win the final period and restore some faith in their ability to compete. Mark DeGraffenreid tucked home the rebound from a Josh Wirt shot to make it 6-2 at 6:25, and when DeGraffenreid returned the favor on Wirt’s strike at 5:57 (Leah Gonzales with the second assist), it started to feel like the ‘just win the period’ mantra might have morphed more to ‘just tie this game’. Alas…math…time…the enemies of such lofty aspirations for Brown. Don Tran (21/24) would settle in the rest of the way and seal the 6-3 win for Neon, while SUPER sub Chuck Bender (16/22) would swallow the loss in his first of three games on the night (on his bye week, no less). The win keeps Neon in the middle of the pack at 2-1-1, while the loss drops Brown to 1-3-0, far too close for cut line comfort heading into a Week Six showdown with Orange.
Two two-win teams looked to tack on a third, with Captain Zach Siemer’s 2-1-0 Grey taking on Captain Jeremy Copp’s 2-2-0 Orange. While the teams’ incoming records were similar, and while their goals-against numbers matched exactly at nine, Grey’s ten goals-for in three games stood double that of Orange’s five goals-for in four games. So, if there would be any true trajectory in the established scoring trends for these two teams, Grey came in as a clear favorite. Making matters worse for Orange…2/5 of their scoring output to this point would be elsewhere, with Chris Fiore out of the lineup. That left the other 3/5 of the Orange offense-to-date in play, and Justin Hepler wasted VERY little time adding a fourth to his personal season total, stuffing home some crease debris at 9:17 (Aaron Cooney & Steph Palomo Schmidt) to give the underdogs the early upper hand. The remainder of the first wound down without another notch, and Kalen Hunter would score the lone goal of the second at 5:03 (Sean Kelly & Captain Seimer) to draw the teams level going into the second break. The time of possession, scoring chances, and shots (18-6 in Grey’s favor, through two) all told a tilted tale, and Kalen Hunter would finally pen the expected end, scoring at 8:48 in the third (Captain Siemer & Steve Linke) to push Grey in front for the first time. That aforementioned scoring ‘trajectory’ would hold true for Orange, with no further citrus conversions forcing a pulled Will Heinl (23/25, in a sub stint for Matt Henderson), and an empty net icer from John Kushneryk with 0:18 to play (Craig Russell). If you’re scoring at home, that’s now just SIX goals for Orange through five games…four for Hepler, two for Fiore, and ZERO for the remainder of the roster. They’ll certainly need to score more if they hope to avoid a loss to an increasingly desperate Brown this Sunday. Chuck Bender (9/10), earned the win in relief of a now out-for-the-season Jon Cima, braving the heat in his second sub stint of the evening. The 3-1 win moves Grey to 3-1-0, very close to clinching a playoff berth, and very much still in the hunt for the top playoff spot as they enter the second half of their summer schedule.
Our Week Five cover team was up next, with Captain William Teglia’s Purple looking to run their win streak to four, hand Captain Eli Schonbrun’s Blue their first loss of the season, and surge into the top spot in the standings in the process. Neither team came in a stranger to scoring (Blue leading the league with eighteen tallies in just three games, and Purple with fifteen over their first four outings), and at a combined 6-1-0 record, the penultimate game on the Week Five slate was certainly the ultimate ‘must-see’ tilt. I mean…definition of spoiler alert, what with the headline and updated POTW widget, but Owen Perks and Purple would make the most of their opportunity to snatch the gold ring, starting with Perks’ first of the game at 8:59 in the first (Captain Teglia). Blue would recover from the early strike, with Brendan Jew equalizing at 2:24 (Captain Schonbrun), but that most devastating of demons, a late period goal, would put Blue behind once again through one. It was Perks with that gut punch strike, bookending his early marker with his second of the game at 0:18 (Captain Teglia & Tim Vick). A scoreless second gave Blue hope of a late leveling, but it was more from Captain Teglia (unassisted at 6:40) and Perks (unassisted empty-netter at 1:13) to add a ‘convincing’ label to Purple’s big win over Blue, 4-1. Perks secured POTW honors for the hat trick heroics, and Will Heinl (16/17) was stout in earning his second straight ‘three stars of the game’ inclusion, this time in support of his actual team. John Kushneryk (25/28) was no less steady, but was ultimately undone by The Perks & Teglia Show™ in Blue’s first loss of the season. Purple’s fourth straight win is all the more impressive when considering that it was managed in the absence of young scoring stud, Trevor Vick. Now officially the hottest team in the league, Purple can also now boast having punched the first official playoff ticket as they stride into a Week Six meeting with Neon. Blue are hardly the worse for wear with the loss, dropping into a three team second place pack at 3-1-0, and looking forward to a (presumed) rebound against 0-4-1 Red.
If the 7:00 game was the ‘must-see’ tilt at the top of the table, the nightcap was the ‘must-win’ match for the two teams at the very back of the pack. The lone point earned by Captain Rob Gaudio’s 0-3-1 Red coming in was all that separated them from Captain Bao Nguyen’s 0-4-0 Green. A win for Red would not only keep them ahead of Green, but would vault them over Brown and into relative safety with three games to play. A loss would sink them below the cutline, dead last, and also bereft of a potentially vital head-to-head tiebreaker with their lower ranks rivals. For Green, a loss heading into their Week Six bye would be nothing short of devastating, leaving them at 0-5-0 and definitely in ‘must win’ and possibly ‘must win and get some help’ territory heading into their final two matches with Blue and Brown. As miserable looking as a combined 0-7-1 record is for the two coming in, it is also very safe to say that both teams had been a bit snakebit. Barring the ugly irony of a potential tie, one team would finally see some relief from their season slide…and…that team was Green. Jason Olver delivered his first goal of the season at 1:25 in the first, and with Green outshooting Red THIRTEEN TO ZERO over the course of the first frame, it was once again an out-of-his-f’ing-mind Nick Meglich keeping his team breathing into the first break. The shot totals settled considerably in the second (10-8 in Green’s favor), and the scoring was also level. Alex Rockoff returned from a grisly injury the week prior to score his first career SDFHL goal at 4:59 (Jenna Chercoe & Jordan Pynn), and Dan Jurgens finally furnished an answer for Red with an unassisted tally at 3:17. CONGRATULATIONS, ALEX! The shots fell back out of alignment in the third, with Green making the most of their 11-2 edge with goals form Pynn at 4:30 (Nick Vacchio & Chris Tran), and a powerplay strike from Tran at 0:42 (Kline). So…finally…Green pulled the pointless monkey off their backs and promptly suplexed the unsuspecting primate with a 4-1 win over Red. The winning goalie…take a wild guess…Chuck Bender (9/10), of course…doing the duties of the absent Gabe Davenport, and appearing in his third game in one night for the second time this season. Nick Meglich (30/34) and Red now fall to 0-4-1, below the cut line, and well overdue for their own stroke of better fortune as they turn to face a very tough Blue side this Sunday. With just two games left for both Red and Green, and only Brown (with game in hand) in striking distance otherwise, it will well and truly come down to the wire to find the final seat in the playoffs over the coming weeks…
