After an extra week of waiting, the Fall League 2024 keg was finally tapped, with freshly-brewed Brown and Red ales flowing freely in the four o’clock hour. Captain Ryan Karns & Company, while reasonably stout from top to bottom, had to hope that their secret ingredient (rookie netminder, Mason Holcomb) would give Brown a winning pour in his SDFHL debut. With just three years of drinking age eligibility under his belt (and very much looking like ‘that kid that sneaked in with a fake ID’), he was sure to be carded hard by Captain Mark Nagy and Red’s eager offense. Red chugged out to an early lead in possession, and held a 5-1 lead in shots through one period of play, but ‘Da New Kid’ allowed no spillage, and the teams would roll into the second period with matching zeroes. The chatter on the Brown bench at the break was centered around generating more than ONE shot in the next ten minute chunk, and Captain Karns led by example, firing one shot into Don Tran’s pads, then collecting his own rebound to notch the first goal of the new season on the coveted second shot just twenty-one ticks into the middle layer. The ‘shoot shoot shoot’ mentality continued, with Mark DeGraffenreid cashing in at 6:55 to build Brown’s lead to two (from Rich Shane), and Holcomb remaining steady at his end to preserve that margin. The third period belonged to Kalen Hunter, who made his SDFHL return truly triumphant with three dazzling goals to put the game well out of reach of a Red redemption. The hat trick began when he snapped home a blistering top corner wrister (Sadie Hellstrom), then came a nifty bang bang tuck-in in front (Hellstrom and Andy Strathman), and finally a very sick/slick backhand deke-and-roof from a tight angle (Leah Gonzales). The furious finish more than made up for the slow start, with ‘Da New Kid’ keeping his nets ball free through three (10/10) to secure the 5-0 win for Brown, and earn his first career win, and first career shutout. CONGRATULATIONS, MASON! Tran (15/20) absorbed the loss for Red, who lost their early edge to fatigue with three key defenders (Dorothy Kline, Mark Daquipa, and Will Heinl) out of the lineup.

There is maybe nothing as special or memorable for a veteran SDFHLer as finally getting to play with your offspring. This is becoming increasingly more common, as us ‘first generation’ players suddenly find ourselves with highschoolers who are ready to strap on a helmet and come out to play with mom and pop. The latest entry in this torch-passing trend…William Teglia. Fresh off his sweet sixteen, the son of two OG members of the SDFHL family was set to make his league debut under the proud, watchful eyes of his mom/captain, Janet Goins, and step dad/teammate, Chad Goins. With the proven potency of Brennen Abel and Jackson Tomaszewksi, and the potential potency of Eric Enciso out of the lineup, toppling Captain Nick Meglich’s Green would be a tall order for the newest/youngest league member and his Orange-clad comrades. Meglich was his typical ‘Megical’ self in this one, but the real story was at the other end. A relentless Green attack, led by Josh Wirt and Nick Vacchio, racked up 22 shots against Chuck Bender over the first two periods, and while Bender would bend (a few VERY close calls), he would not break. The final shot count would show Green nearly tripling Orange’s output (30-11), but Bender kept his team in it from start to finish with a mix of solid positioning and glovework, ‘Raygun’ Olympic breaking moves, and a dash of good fortune. Alas, ‘the other Nick’…Mr. Vacchio, would spoil both Teglia’s debut and Bender’s brilliance, finally finding twine at 8:43 in the third (Josh Wirt & Vinny Santora) to give Green a 1-0 lead that they would never relinquish. Teglia had a golden opportunity to even the score later in the third, but Meglich had the answer to his breakaway question, leaving the rookie heroics for another Sunday. Meglich (11/11) joined newcomer, Mason Holcomb, in the low-intensity shutout column, locking down an opening win for his side, while Bender (29/30) earned first star honors for his in-vain valiance. In spite of the loss, it is clear that Captain Janet was happy with her teams short-benched efforts, and extremely proud of her son’s first showing. Again, some things in life (and certainly sport) transcend wins and losses…

It must have come as some relief to Captain Jon Salt when he learned that his Heather Blue bunch would not have to find holes in the armor of defending champion/living legend, Sean Kelly, in their season opener. Any such relief almost certainly flipped to grief on learning that Silas ‘The Silencer’™ Perks would be filling the pipes in Kelly’s stead. While neither goalie is fun to face, and while Kelly did outduel Perks in the Spring League Final, it’s clear the the latter is the leader of the goalie pack as we shuffle toward 2025. The aforementioned PTSD (Perks To Sub…Damn!) felt by Salt & Company transitioned to panic and confusion as warmups wrapped and their own netminder, newcomer Eric Kroeker, was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, Nick Meglich was still suited and available to fill in for Kroeker, who we later learned (upon his arrival at around 7:00pm) simply had his team’s game time in his head as 8:00pm. So, with Vegas scrambling to fix the line from ‘Kelly v Kroeker’ to ‘Perks v Meglich’, our muddled little middle game got underway. Blue overwhelmed and outshot White 9-1 in the first period, and Luke Wolmer made one of those shots count, burying a beautiful backdoor feed from Salt, with the second assist going to Ty Pereira. A scoreless second saw no change in Blue’s dominance, at least in the statistical realm, as they followed their 9-1 first period with a 10-4 (good buddy) second period slant. Perks was Perks, though, keeping it a one goal game going into the third, and Carl Vankoughnett finally found an answer for White with 8:12 to play (from super sub Kerri Sevenbergen & Captain Geoff Downes). White finally managed to match Blue in shots down the stretch (5-5), as well, but the last part of that stretch was a devastating doozy…Ty Pereira (ironically, undoing the 1-1 tie) with the game-winning solo dagger with just 34 ticks to play. A 2-1 last minute loss is not how you want to start the season, but considering White was outshot 24-10, and had ‘The Silencer’™ as their last line of defense, it is hard to be too upset or frustrated by the loss. Nick Meglich (9/10) will be added to The Kroeker’s Christmas card list for sweating through another early evening match in Eric’s stead, and we can only hope that the Kroeker calendar has been updated with accurate game times for the rest of the season.

The first three games of the season produced nine total goals, and (spoiler alert) the nightcap added just two more, for a grand total of eleven goals in four games. The one remaining game, a grinding grudge match between Captain Joel Gattey’s Gold and Captain Rob Gaudio’s Atomic Blue, managed to match that goal total, while also providing the lion’s share of the opening night ‘drama’. Both teams boast potent offensive threats, but when even ‘The Silencer’™ allows FOUR goals, you know this was a wacky, wild, Kool-Aid style battle for the ages. Kyle Snyder struck for three of those Silas-solvers, the first of which coming at 6:22 in the first (from Captain Gattey), and the second a solo effort at 3:44. Captain Gaudio had sandwiched the 1-1 equalizer for Atomic Blue between the Snyder salvos at 4:55 (from Shawna Hamon and Mostafa Azab), and he would equalize again at 2:18 (from Vance Morra and Robert Pietropaula). Morra’s primary on Gaudio’s second was just the tip of the Vanceberg™ in this one, as the humble-but-deadly Canuck would carry the day for Atomic Blue from that point on. His first of the night gave Atomic Blue their first lead with 0:50 remaining in the first, and after Snyder brought Gold level again early in the second (John Gamm), Morra was there with another late period goal to restore the one goal Atomic edge going into the final period of play. Rookie Steve Pugliese recorded his first career SDFHL goal (CONGRATULATIONS, Steve!) to draw Gold even for a second time just twenty-one ticks into the third, but Morra was there again…completing the hat trick on the power play to put his team back in front, 5-4 (Hamon and Chris Tran). Speaking of career firsts, it was finally time for Greg Francisco to break his career scoring seal, pushing Blue to their first two goal lead with his first ever (CONGRATULATIONS, Greg!) (from Gaudio & Tran), and Mostafa Azab added a neat little bow at 1:01 (Gaudio & Kerri Sevenbergen) to complete the wrap of a 7-4 win over Gold for Atomic Blue. Multiple reports of squabbles/near physical altercations surfaced after this one, and while ‘intensity’ is appreciated to some degree, it is also a good time for a reminder to all that we are out there to have fun and enjoy a sport we love…please try not to kill each other. So…yes, if you are scoring at home, that was THE Silas Perks allowing four goals for maybe the first time ever (?), but securing the win all the same (because…of course) with a 10/14 line. At the other end, Matt Henderson (22/29) felt the sting of POTW Morra and the mighty Atomic Blue attack, absorbing a tough loss in a fill-in stint for the soon-to-make-his-much-anticipated-return titan of the twine, Alex Theis.

As alluded to in the previous recap, the late game was a return to the kinder, gentler, lower-scoring fare, with Captain Jeremy Copp’s Grey taking on Captain Zach Salt’s Lime. A scoreless first saw Lime holding a small edge in shots (8-5), and even when that edge became more pronounced in the second (12-5), the zeroes stayed intact…well…ALMOST intact. Dan Jurgens broke the shutout deadlock with 0:01 to go in the middle frame, capping a series from Emily Bennington and Captain Salt to steal a lead JUST ahead of the second intermission. Matt Henderson, now in nets for his native team, had stopped all but that one of twenty shots through two periods, while Jon Cima rested considerably more comfortably on his end, having only faced ten. Grey finally got their offense operational in the third though, with Jon Zygelman smashing home an answer at 7:55 (Justin Stege & Hima Joshi). Both teams would continue to press, with the shots falling only slightly in Grey’s favor in the final parcel of play (8-7), but both Henderson (26/27) and Cima (17/18) would hold on to earn a point for their respective teams in a very quiet and civil 1-1 affair. Henderson earned first star honors for his considerable efforts, and the league got its first look at Silas Perks…the defender, who logged the first game of a four game fill-in stint for his brother, Owen. It was Perks third game of the night (two in nets, and the third without all the gear), but I for one am disappointed in his lack of production. No double hat trick…no long range snipes…nothing. I guess what we’ve learned is that ‘The Silencer’™ is just not good enough to play out, and should probably just stick with tending goal…

‘We need to talk’, ‘do we have flood insurance’, ‘has your neck always had that weird bulge in it’…just a few of the things you really don’t want to hear in your life. If you’re Captain Ryan Karns’ White, you can add ‘Wirt is out with food poisoning’ to the list, and you can underline and highlight that if that rest of the sentence is ‘…and we’re facing Silas Perks and Olive in an elimination game tonight’. You REALLY need all of your shields at the ready, and your swords at their sharpest when you play Olive, because if you allow two goals…you’re done, and if you don’t manage to somehow beat them 1-0 or 2-1 in regulation or overtime…you’re done. With Wirt out of the lineup, White’s hopes at avoiding ‘being done’ were heavily eroded, but playoff hockey is certainly not a vacuum in which flukes, freakish feats, and unreal upsets cannot silence the echoes of expectation (holy hell, this reads like I am so high…I’m actually not). Olive was certainly encouraged by the absence of White’s leading scorer, and knowing from Week Ten experience that they could but this team even with Wirt in the lineup (albeit in a 1-0 escape pod with 2:14 to play) had to have them feeling like the rematch was theirs to lose. A scoreless first featured a shocking role reversal for the one seed, as they outshot White 9-3! Dan Soar (the pilot of the aforementioned Week Ten escape pod), broke through at last for Olive with an unassisted effort at 8:14 in the second, and Aaron Cooney notched the dreaded second goal with 2:56 to play in that middle third (Hima Joshi and Brandon Olsen). The only thing worse than finding yourself down two goals going into the third period of a game against a Silas-Perks-backed team is finding yourself down three with less than half a period to play. Christopher Fiore, now universally whispered to be the most underrated player in the league, made that horrifying hypothetical a horrifying reality for White, making it 3-0 Olive with 4:31 to play (Cooney). Carl Vankoughnett, White’s second best weapon, and best non-poisoned one, finally solved Perks to give White late hope at 3:32 (Kevin Dinino & Arnold Gonzales), but as we have established…you’re lucky to get one on Perks, and two is almost always ‘two much to ask’. Perks (13/14) would indeed hold on, washing out a valiant Matt Henderson (15/18) bid at that other end, and washing White out of the playoff picture, 3-1. Olive would not have long to savor the win, grabbing a seat and some fluids before trotting back out to take on Brown in the Losers Bracket Final…

Revenge may be a dish ‘best served cold’, but it’s definitely not a dish that Brown wanted served to them at any temperature. Captain Kyle Prior’s Brown had delivered the LONE loss on the season to Olive two weeks prior, and had (cautiously optimistic) hopes of repeating the feat against (what they hoped would be) a tired side, and beginning preparations of their own revenge ragout for Red. You might have noticed a mention or two of Olive’s goalie in the recaps each week (if you look closely). ‘The Silencer™’ had allowed more than ONE goal just TWICE in twelve games coming in…the first in a 4-2 win over Brown in Week Four of the regular season, and again in a 2-1 loss to Brown in Week Two of the playoffs. So…Brown had the rare air of confidence of not just having scored two goals on Perks, but having AVERAGED two goals against a goalie with a 0.63 GAA. They knew that they COULD beat Olive if they could just play their game, and count on the numbers to bear out. The numbers did not bear out, and Olive washed Brown’s ‘but we can score TWO’ confidence right off the court with a three goal first period blitz that made this one feel over early. Chris Fiore (aforementioned most underrated player in the league) struck first just 1:01 in (Jon Zygelman & Aaron Cooney), Cooney doubled the lead at 5:26 (Zygelman & Fiore), and Zygelman made it 3-0 at 1:14 (Dan Soar). It’s worth nothing that all three of these goals were somewhere between ‘soft’ and ‘suspect’, but Olive is no stranger to the generosity of the hockey gods, it would seem. Divine intervention or not, a three goal hole against The Silencer™ might as well be the Grand Canyon…with the walls of said canyon well and truly greased, and Brown had A LOT of work to do in the final twenty minutes of play. Zach Salt gave Brown an immediate jolt in the second, scoring at 9:35 (Tony Thinh) to put his team back in ‘we can do this!’ mode. Zygelman’s second of the night at 5:51 in the second (Cooney & Captain Copp) downshifted that dream drive back to reality. Brown would continue to pour on the pressure, ultimately outshooting Olive 32-12 (!), but it seems that the more shots he faces, the stronger Perks grows, and a late token second goal for Andy Strathman (Shawna Hamon) would be all Brown would manage in their attempt to claw their way back. Perks (30/32) advanced to yet another Final, serving Cory Brin (8/12) and Brown a 4-2 revenge a la mode, and dragging his Olive mates along to take on two-seeded Red for all the marbles. If you’re not familiar with the SDFHL playoff format, Olive will need to beat Red twice to win it all. It will be a battle of two titans of the twine (Perks v Kelly), and a fitting match of top two playoff seeds that would surely break ratings records, were it not for those pesky Olympic Games gumming up the works.