Your bandmates are assembled, you are (hopefully) out of rehab (for that bad ankle, I mean), and it’s time to hit the SDFHL Fall League 2021-2022 road and start knocking out gigs! Fire up the amps, and get ready to make some noise, as league play commences this Sunday!
Playoffs Week 4:
Captain Jon Salt was back in the lineup after a one game paternity leave, and both benches were filled to the brim for the final boss v boss fight that is one v two. Both goalies were sharp, but naval sub, Nick Meglich saw nine shots to Alex Theis’ one through a scoreless first period. The lopsided shooting continued, but the scorelessness subsided in the second frame, as Josh Wirt cashed in not once, but twice. Meglich (26/28) kept Navy alive under the avalanche the rest of the way, and Zach Salt thickened the plot with 1:17 remaining in regulation, but it was Wirt again with empty net emphasis, and Eric Willard with empty net echo to bring the final in favor of Yellow, 4-1. Willard and Bill Casey each collected two assists, and Alex Theis stopped 10/11 to keep the regular season champs moving forward…
…into an absolute thriller of a Losers’ Bracket final! Sean Kelly v Alex Theis…enough said. Black was on the front foot in the first, treating Ty’s tired side to a slanted shot total (9-2) nearly identical to the margin Yellow enjoyed over Navy. Joe Malki put one of those nine shots past Alex Theis (assist to Erin Dowrey), and Black would maintain that 1-0 lead into and through the second period. It was Captain Ty Pereira himself who would finally bring Yellow level at 5:35 in the third (assist to Bill Casey). The predictable, but no less awe-inspiring goalie grudge match pushed this one into extra time, and it seemed this one was destined for a ‘for the ages’ shootout. Newcomer (and Kamal Gill replacement), Adam Williams, snuffed out any such sizzle, and made a name for himself with a sharp angle snapper at 1:38 remaining in OT to slay the big, bad, Yellow dragon, and move Black on to the promised land, 2-1.
Brown edged Black 1-0 in Week Three of playoff action, after getting smacked around in a 5-0 loss back in Week Two of the regular season. Both teams feature top flight goaltending, great team chemistry, and dynamic scoring. It should be a great one (or two)…come out and join us for the action starting at 6:00pm this Sunday. Actually, come out and play before the game(s) start by signing up for the final open session here.
Week 3 Playoffs:
Brown and Black got the Week Three parity party started right with a clean, intense, well-played game. Neither team could break through over the course of the first two periods, but it was Captain Mark Nagy leading the way for his team once again with an early third period strike that would prove to be the game-winner. It ranks as one of the grittier/prettier plays I have seen all season, with Matt Rogers charging and weaving into the zone, and laying a perfect cross to his captain for the finish. Frankly, it has to be a highlight reel play to beat Sean Kelly (8/9). The 1-0 loss is the first for Black (and ‘Da Kid’) since Week Eight (August 8th). Kelly certainly did all he could, but was undone by a great play, and outdueled by fellow pipes veteran, Don Tran (16/16). The win propels Brown into the Cup Final, giving them this Sunday off to rest and ready themselves. Black await the winner of Yellow v Navy, and hope to leverage their fresh legs to earn a chance to avenge their loss on October 24th.
It’s not often that the one and seven seeds meet in the third round…or maybe it is…I am too lazy to check the books. Whatever the numbers, and whatever the expectations, this game was as close as any other on a night of razor-thin thrillers. Vance Morra put Silver in front with an early first period strike, and Alan Razoky followed with a goal that was later disallowed (be sure to ask Captain Karns how he feels about this). Yellow seized the momentum of that reversal, and Eric Willard converted a Josh Wirt assist to even the score in the second. Willard and Wirt had helpers on Bill Casey’s go-ahead goal with 4:00 to play, and Captain Ty Pereira added any empty netter to make it 3-1. Silver was not done fighting, as Razoky found twine with 0:12 to play, but the top dogs would run out the clock, and run Silver out of the playoffs, 3-2. Yellow survive the scare, and move on to face Navy in the first of two elimination tilts this Sunday.
The close encounters continued into game three, with the dangerous and dynamic offenses of Navy and Green exchanging salvos in a wild and wonderful affair. Captain Jon Salt was an expectant father with an unexpected delivery to tend to, but Navy was no less imposing in his absence. Steve Jones got Green on the board first, Luke Wolmer and Weston Nawrocki flipped the lead in Navy’s favor, and Mostafa Azab brought the ledger back to level…all in the first ten minutes of play. It was all Green in the second (Jason Dick and Josh Tran), and all Navy in the third (Zach Salt, and a Patrick Fusco season-saving stunner with 0:12 to play), and we were back to square one, all square at 4-4 through regulation. Overtime could not produce a winner, so it was on to the shootout. Jones gave Green the lead again in the first round, but Deborah Finucane matched his tally in the third round, and Anthony Cerasuolo netted the decider in the final round…5-4, Navy over Green in SO style. It’s tough when your team is eliminated from the playoffs, but even tougher when you lose as Green did. Nick Vacchio’s final effort in his inaugural goalie campaign was valiant (14/18), but ultimately in vain. Nick Meglich (23/27) was steady enough through the storm to push his surrogate team on…they will face Yellow this Sunday, and hope to face Black in a back to back to make their way to the final Sunday of play.
Playoff Week 2:
Captain Greg Wirth’s Orange team backed out of the playoffs as quietly and unassumingly as they backed in. After nearly staging a coup d’etat over top-seeded Yellow in Week One, the bottom seed bottomed down and out to become the first playoff casualty in Week Two. Steve Jones took the offensive reins for Green, guiding the favorites to a 4-2 victory with a 2 and 1 effort. Orange kept it too close for comfort through two, with Scott Wieland and Captain Wirth himself matching Jones’ scoring pace. It was Mostafa Azab who netted the game-winner early in the third, and Josh Tran adding insurance minutes later to bring the scoring (and Orange’s season) to a close. Nick Vacchio (11/13) earned his first career playoff win, besting the best efforts of Steve Deppensmith at the other end. Green march on to face second seed, Navy, in a delicious Week Three duel…
It was a somber, surreal second scene of act two of playoff action. A moment of silence to acknowledge the loss of Michael Froman led into the opening face-off between Silver and Red. HIs passing has shocked and saddened all of us who knew him over the course of his SDFHL career, but it hung particularly palpably on the shoulders of his Red teammates in their final foray in his final season. Steve Goncalo snapped a scoreless tie late in the first, and that would prove to be the game-winner in the 4-0 win. Goncalo added another in the second, and a helper on the third strike from Alan Razoky (1 and 2). Vance Morra capped the scoring in the third, and Chuck Bender stopped 11/11 to keep his team at ease, throughout. Red join Orange on the playoff sidelines, while Silver slide forward to face toppled top seed, Yellow, in Week Three.
Week Two of the playoffs is where we really start to see the heavyweight bouts. The two and three seeds met in the form of Navy and Brown to throw down in the first major test for the crown. Mark Ennsmann gave the lower seed the upper hand in the first, and a pair of Matt Rogers’ strikes gave Brown a 3-1 lead through two (Zach Salt had equalized before the Rogers rally). Jordan Pynn notched assists on both of Rogers’ goals, then scored one of his own early in the final frame. Zach Salt (again) provided the only, lonely answer, as a powerhouse Navy fell to an emboldened Brown, 4-2. Don Tran earned second star honors with his 25/27, while Chuck Russell (15/19) found himself on the losing end again in a fill-in role. Brown advance to the winners’ bracket finals to face Black in Week Three, while Navy will look to recover against a tough Green side in a do or die date with destiny.
The underdog power surge continued into the nightcap, as fifth-seed Black unseated top-seeded Yellow. Joe Malki posted Black up 1-0 in the first, then assisted on Kim Hernandez’ second of the playoffs in the second to make it 2-0. Yellow proved no pushover, pushing back with goals from Shawna Hamon and Jack Traughber to make it 2-2 going into the last half of the third. With 3:21 remaining, the Dynamic Darlington Duo did the deadly, definitive damage with Janice converting on Tom’s second assist of the evening to drive the game-winning 3-2 dagger. The loss is the first suffered by Yellow since Week One (nearly four moths ago!) and leaves the top seed spinning into a Week Three battle for their playoff lives against Silver. Black move on to face Brown in the winners’ bracket final, with a ticket to the big dance on the line…
Week 9:
Navy sailed to an easy win over Orange to open the Week Nine slate. It was same story, different Sunday, as the Salt brothers combined for 5 and 4, and Deborah Finucane racked up another four assists in the 7-0 spank job. Patrick Fusco and Anthony Cerasuolo played supporting roles with supporting goals, with Cerasuolo’s late first period tally holding up as the only edge that Chris Tran (24/24) would need. Navy remain in striking distance of the playoff catbird seat with the win, while Orange enter their last game of the season this Sunday needing a point or better against Silver to guarantee passage to September.
Every Week Nine game was lopsided, and Green took the baton from Navy and bludgeoned a woebegone White with it, 4-0. Kevin ‘K Dub’ Wilkinson did double damage in the first, and Steve Jones equaled that feat over the course of the reaming two periods, as Captain Chad Goins & Company officially booked bottle service at the playoff party. Jones, and new recruit, Julie Ott, each collected two assists in the win, and Chuck Bender (6/6) chalked up a ho hum shutout as Nick Vacchio’s stand-in. Green can make headway toward the top in a clash with front-running Yellow this Sunday, while White will have to continue the fight for their playoff lives without Jeff Anderson, who will be serving the second game of a two game suspension as his mates take on Black.
If you let the winnings ride from your 120:1 Week Eight ‘Kamal Gill will actually show up to play’ bet, rolling it into a Week Nine 2,000,000:1 ‘Kamal will make back to back games’ wager, you are probably reading this from the deck of your new yacht. Gill showed up, and showed up on the score sheet, powering Black to a crucial 4-0 win over Silver with a 1 and 2 flourish. The news from Captain Chris Malki is that this would be the last game of the season, and indeed the last of Gill’s SDFHL career, as he makes his way back to his home along the Vacan Sea in his native Absentia later this week. Connor Miller has been tapped as a replacement, and they may well need his power to provide the point or more they still need to ensure playoff safety. Mark Scelfo, Joe Malki (GWG), and Erin Dowrey (SHG) gave Black primary punch from ‘secondary’ sources in the win, and Chris Tran (19/20) followed his 24/24 shutout of Orange earlier in the evening with another sparkling substitute showing. Silver continue their string of vital encounters this Sunday as they take on Orange. A win will almost assuredly vault them over the cut line, while a loss may well eliminate them, and at best will leave them at the mercy of potential spoilers, Teal, in the final week of play.
Not much has gone right for Captain Mark DeGraffenreid and ‘Antealfa’ this season. Still, with reinforcements in place in Week Nine in the form of Ryan Belbin and Rob Gaudio, and with a full compliment of ten players assembled for the first time all season, hope was still in the hearts of the denizens of the deep standings. Yellow made the euthanasia quick, and mostly painless, marching to an uber-easy 5-0 win, and laying Teal to rest in the first of three plots outside the gates of Playoff Land. Mara Bernd converted a sweet passing play with a one time backhanded sweep to account for the game-winner in the first, and from there it was the Wirt & Willard show, with Josh and Eric each tallying once on the power play in the second, then once again at even strength in the third to make sure Teal was good and dead. Jimm Reifsnyder filled in for Alex Theis (who is the replacement for Nick Adkins), but Yellow literally could have won this game with an empty net. That’s right…Teal mustered FOUR shots on goal! All that remains for Teal is the potential to play spoiler in their Week Eleven tilt with Silver. A win for Yellow against Green this Sunday will lock them into the top playoff spot, but even a loss will have them well-positioned for the pole position going into the final week of play.
I’m not ready to suggest we are witnessing a torch passing just yet, but Pink’s do or die 4-1 defeat of Red was not written and directed by Andrew Jacobsen, as it absolutely would have been in years past. Patrick ‘Hatrick’ Walker delivered the 1-2-3-4 punch in this one, scoring all four goals for the winning side to bloat his impressive rookie season numbers to 9 and 2 in seven games. Walker has accounted for just under half of Pink’s goals this season (9/19), and his latest outburst may well be the season saving salvo. While the win keeps Pink from joining Antealfa in the graveyard just yet, Captain Copp & Company can only watch and hope from their bye week bleacher seats that everything goes their way this Sunday. Any combination of two of these results this Sunday: a Silver loss to Orange, a Red loss to Navy, and a White loss to Black would pave the way for Pink to defy they odds and squeak into the playoff picture in Week Eleven. The problem…their final opponent is Navy (*sad trombone*). It will surely take more than even Walkeresque level heroics to come out of that one alive…
