If you read the front page each week (if/whenever I actually get around to updating it), you know that I have repeatedly professed that Captain Josh Wirt’s Red has been a sneaky Cup contender in average team clothing all along. The first four weeks of Red’s season…3-0 loss to Gold…3-1 loss to Black…6-3 loss to Sand…5-3 loss to Green…an 0-4-0 run that had them edging into ‘must win’ mode at the midway point in the season. A 7-4 win over Pink in Week Five was the turning point, and Red bounced all the way back with a 3-0-1 run that rendered a 4-3 loss to Blue in their finale a non-issue. That bounce back was only enough to earn them the lowest seed, which meant a playoff opener against the dreaded Sand…a 5-4 loss that could easily have swung the other way, had their replacement for Joe Malki been in the lineup. Elimination wins over Purple and Teal advanced Wirt & Company to Week Four, where they hoped to repeat their Week Five regular season defeat of Pink and earn a second shot to push past the top seeds on their Cinderella path to the Final. Captain Darin Cerasuolo’s Pink were the model of hit or miss in the regular season, finishing at 4-4-1, and never having strung together more than two wins or two losses. After dispatching Purple 5-2 in their playoff opener, the four seeds became another notch in Sand’s battle belt in Week Two, then edged past Gold 1-0 to earn a rematch with Red. So, Pink the higher seed, and technically ‘favorites’ in the second meeting, but Red feeling like a ‘trap’ team based on their late season surge, their regular season romp over Pink, their impressive playoff showing against Sand, and the betting buzz around a really good looking team with something to prove. On cue, Captain Wirt would open the scoring unassisted at 9:15 in the first, and Jason Remple (on to replace Riley Mann, who was on to replace Joe Malki) made it 2-0 Red just 0:26 later (Emily Bennington). Chris Tran would answer for Pink at 1:54 in the first (Captain Cerasuolo), and a 9-5 first period shot edge for Pink made that late period goal feel all the more like a ‘stay the course…we got this’ moment for the higher seeds. The shot ledger flipped in the second, though, with Red holding a 14-5 edge, including two shots that found netting…Eli Schonbrun at 6:11 (Shawna Hamon & Chris Malki) and Remple at 0:42 (Hamon). A 4-1 edge with one period to play is by no means insurmountable, but Remple’s third of the game (unassisted at 9:39) to make it 5-1 really made the Pink pit feel bottomless (giggity). Jason Olver finally provided a Pink response at 8:11 (Captain Cerasuolo & Eric Willard), but Captain Wirt’s second of the game restored Red’s four goal edge at 5:36 (Schonbrun & Hamon). A very much too little, too late tally from Captain Cerasuolo with 0:12 to play was extremely cold comfort for Pink, who were left shaking their heads, shaking hands, and tipping their collective caps to another strong Red showing in a convincing 6-3 win. Chuck Bender (25/31) shouldered the elimination loss, while Don Tran (25/28) continued his run of strong play in the big win. Remple earned first star of the game honors for his hat trick heroics, but he and Red knew that their night had only just begun. Sand was lurking, and they would have just minutes to rest before grappling with that beast…
We’ve all heard the adage that history repeats itself, and while Sand did storm past Red 6-3 in Week Three of the regular season, and while Sand did repeat the feat 5-4 in Week Two of the playoffs, Red was really beginning to feel like a ‘team of destiny’…a bottom-seeded sleeping giant ready to rise, avenge themselves, and stomp through to the Final. Sand was a very-much-awake-and-routinely-snapping-necks giant all season, though, and no player is more feared in this league than Alex ‘Thanos’ Giummo. So, strange as our world is, this win-and-in throw down between two teams at the opposite ends of the playoff seeding spectrum actually seemed like it might play out as a tooth and nail fight to the death…and it did. First period…no score, no penalties…Sand holds just a 5-4 edge in shots. Second period…no score, one minor penalty…Sand holds an 8-5 edge in shots. Ten minutes to play…that first goal now looming large over both benches. Giummo…of course…looming large himself at 9:08 in the third (Jeremy Copp) to break the scoreless stalemate and send a shiver through the Red ranks. Captain Wirt would respond at 5:37 (Eli Schonbrun & Chris Malki), swinging the game back to level ground…only to have Thanos tip things back in Sand’s favor with his second of the game less than a minute later (4:40, from Trevor Vick). Perhaps all of the ‘Cinderella’ talk, all of the front page lauding and applauding, all of the Rudy-esque aura surrounding this Red team was all about to be washed away. Then…a hero…a moment…the fist-pumping, eye-watering twist at the end of an underdog sports movie…Shawna Hamon to tie it for Red with TWENTY seconds remaining in regulation (Wirt & Schonbrun)! Yes…Red was not dead, and this fairytale story was still on course for the happy ending that we all…NOPE. Thanos straight up said (with his skills) ‘nah’. SIX seconds into overtime…Giummo off the draw…in…hat-trick-capping-game-winning-Red-eliminating-Final-ticket-punching goal. Wow. The same spirits that were soaring just seconds prior, that crescendo of hope and elation that had just peaked in the hearts and minds of every player in Red’s ranks…dashed in six ticks on and off the slick stick of Giummo…3-2 Sand advance to the Final. Captain Nick Meglich (16/18) and his top-seeded side could exhale, knowing that the business of bouncing back from their lone playoff loss was done. Don Tran (19/22) and Red…no doubt shocked silent…having screamed with adrenaline-fueled joy through the loops and corkscrews of a rollercoaster of a game only to be thrown from the ride on the last drop. One final KUDOS from me to Red on a great run…really impressive heart and spirit! The win earns Sand a third turn to do what no team has done this season…beat Captain Kalen Hunter’s Black. Should they manage that first, they’ll need to muster a second in order to cast off their one ghost and capture the Wing League 2026 Cup.
