Limited Space

Seven teams have successfully charted a playoff course, but the fates of the other three starships remain to be resolved. Purple, Red, and Lime…only one team will survive the bottomless vortex of the cutline and warp to the final safe space as the Fall League 2025 regular season wraps this Sunday…

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.

Beaming Up

Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red and Captain Jeremy Copp’s Teal were left for dead on the planet Noplayophs back in mid-October, but both teams have since won two of their last three, and stand primed to be beamed up into the thick of the playoff hunt. Safety back on the USS Second Season…or death on a dire and dangerous planet…stay tuned to the final two episodes to find out.

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

Warped

When Captain Nagy’s crew went off Star Trek script with their namesake ‘The ORangeVILLE’, we should have known that this was a dangerous and unpredictable bunch. Even in the absence of their main weapons systems (Kalen Hunter and Eric Willard), Nagy’s scrappy cast of misfits managed to divert nearly all power to their shields (Nick Meglich), while reserving enough to fire off three on-target photons and warp away from Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple unscathed. While their Week One nemesis, Black, is still ‘out there…somewhere’, Orange may well prove the only ship capable of tracking down and terminating the most feared vessel in this, or any other star system…

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…

Prosperity

Both Captain Mostafa Azab’s ‘Live Long & ProspeRed’ and Captain Jeremy Copp’s ‘The Final FronTeal’ came into Week Seven with no wins, and every reason to fear that their season was destined to amount to a Kobayashi Maru (yeah, I’ve never heard of it, either…thanks, Google). Inspired wins for both Red and Teal may have both teams on course to live longer and finally enjoy some ‘prosperity’…if nothing else, the standings now reflect a bit more ‘parity’…

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.

The Hole Package

While I am not quite ready to suggest that resistance is futile, Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black have sucked up/disappeared all four teams they have faced to date. With steady goaltending, a strong and seasoned defense, and a frightening array of speed and skill up front, Black is the deadliest force in the SDFHL universe by at least a few warp factors…

Captain Jeremy Copp’s ‘The Final FronTeal’ brought zero wins, high hopes, and a splash of early season desperation with them to the rink in Week Five, with Captain John Boddy’s similarly-named ‘Star Trek Blue: Boddy’s Final Frontier’ standing between them and their first points in the Fall League 2025 race to playoff safety. I’ve made mention before that my post draft assessments are often wildly off the mark (pun intended) but if you had asked me in September which team would be 0-3-0 and which would be 2-1-0 coming into this match, I’d have confidently laid money on Teal having the much better record/being the much better team. As reality would have it, it was Copp & Company taking another blindfolded swing at the points piñata, hoping to knock at least one out and grab it before Boddy’s Blue could pounce. Alex Giummo gave Teal their FIRST LEAD OF THE SEASON (!) with his fourth at 5:27 in the first (Arnold Gonzales & Kerri Sevenbergen), and with a 13-3 Teal edge in shots, Blue was lucky (well, frankly, Chris Tranny) to not be down 4-0. OK…I need to make a quick plea…do NOT start calling him ‘Chris Tranny’, folks…I was…you see…I was simply making an adjective out of his name…grow up! The Teal shot domination continued through the second, with Copp’s Crew holding a 10-5 advantage in the period, and a 23-8 overall advantage going into the second break. The important number is that goal total, though, and with none recorded in the middle frame, Teal would have to hope they could make a 1-0 lead hold though ten more minutes of play. Captain Boddy would say ‘they’ with his third of the season at 5:25 (Sean Kelly & Steve Linke), Ramsey Ksar would say ‘could’ at 3:09 (Weston Oakley & Captain Boddy), and Oakley would say ‘not’ on the power play at 1:13 (Ksar & Tony Thinh). Josh Tran’s provided a last gasp Teal response with 0:11 to play (Andy Strathman), but alas for Teal…‘they could not’ hold a lead and would fall to 0-4-0 with the 3-2 loss to Blue. Chris ‘Do NOT Call Him Tranny’ Tran (30/32) was an absolute beast in this game, stealing a third win for Blue and (hard) earning first star honors. Will Heinl (18/21) was no slouch in a fill-in role for Matt Henderson, but Teal just continue to find the banana peel here in the first half of the season. If the turnaround is coming, it needs to come soon for Teal. A Week Six win over White would be a big first step, while a loss would leave them near dead, given that nine points is the typical (theoretical) playoff ticket. Blue’s second straight win has them at 3-1-0, confidently striding into a match with record twins, Gold, this Sunday…

Our Week Five cover team took to the court next, with Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black looking to push past Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple to remain perfect on the season and maintain their firm grasp on first place. Karns’ & Company came in as winners of their last two outings, a 6-4 brush past Teal, and a last minute 1-0 win over previously unbeaten Gold. The buzz about Black is that their skilled, speedy forwards are A LOT to contain, and with both Geoff Downes and Tyler Winstead out of the lineup for Purple, that already tall order donned eight inch heels. Riley Mann continued his torrid rookie scoring race pace, notching his third of the season at 3:33 in the first (Captain Wolmer), then returning the favor to Luke with the lone assist on Wolmer’s fourth of the season at 5:48 in the second. Trevor Vick got in on the scoring act with his sixth of the season (!) at 1:43, making Papa Tim proud…and also notching another ‘Papa Point’™ in the process for the lone assist. A three goal lead going into the final period of play is a steep hill to climb, but Darin Cerasuolo finally broke through for Purple with 0:31 to go before the second break (Brendan Jew & Ryan Karns), giving his mates some hope for a late rally and leveling the ledger a bit in the Trevor v Darin smack talk/bragging rights friendly feud. Will Heinl (15/16) would allow no further push from any Purple player, however, and Wolmer’s second of the game and fifth of the season boosted him into a tie with Orange’s Kalen Hunter for the league lead in points with eleven. Mann recorded the lone assist on Wolmer’s cherry atop the 4-1 winning sundae, tying him with Trevor Vick and a handful of other players for fifth on the scoring charts with eight points. So…4-0-0, three of the top nine scorers in the league, most goals-for, among the fewest goals-against, best goal differential, best shot differential…Black is THE team to beat so far this season. The loss drops Chuck Bender (10/14) and Purple back to 2-2-0 heading into a match with Red in which they would be considered considerable favorites. My team assessment and prediction skills may be off, but I have Purple finishing much higher than their current middle of the pack perch come mid-November.

With Teal and Red having failed to earn any points in the standings through three weeks of play, the ‘middle ground’ battles have a bit less of the typical urgency attached to them, but (almost) every game has some inherent importance in a nine game season, and neither Captain Bao Nguyen’s 1-2-0 Green nor Captain Rob Gadio’s 1-1-1 White could afford to tempt cut line fate too much longer. Both teams came in winless in their previous pair of outings, though White did earn a tie in the process of narrowly avoiding a win against Lime the Sunday prior. The team that could find a way to win this meat-of-the-season meeting would enjoy not only improved playoff prospects in the obvious wins and losses sense, but would also reap the added benefit of a potential late season tie breaker. Dan Jurgens put White on the board first with just eight ticks to go in the first period (Mark Scelfo), and while the shot totals stood dead even through one (6-6), a late period goal is typically a big boost for the scoring side, and a major mental blow to the scored-upon side. Dan Farrell would ease that ‘mental blow’ with his first career SDFHL goal at 5:11 in the second (William Teglia)…CONGRATULATIONS, DAN…but, Jackson Tomaszewski would spoil the milestone mazel tovs with his second of the season at 3:18 to lead White into the second break with the same one goal lead they held coming out of the first. The third period was all Green, though…all Joe Malki, to be exact. Malki knotted the score at 2-2 with his third of the season at 5:33, gave Green their first lead of the game with his fourth at 1:14 (Chad Goins), then iced the 4-2 win with an empty-netter at 0:53 (Teglia & Farrell). Nick Meglich (15/17) won the battle of sub goalies, standing in on the Green win for John Kushneryk, while Chuck Bender (17/20) absorbed the loss in lieu of White’s Jon Cima. The bounce back win for Nguyen & Company has them at .500 going into the midway point of the season, while the loss makes three straight winless weeks for Gaudio’s Group, who now find themselves at 1-2-1. The two teams face polar opposite challenges in Week Six, with Green bracing for impact with first place Black and White taking on dead last Teal. As noted in last week’s recaps, a win is a win, and a loss is a loss, but a Green win over Black, or a White loss to Teal…those are weighty results that could really dictate the trajectory of the second half of the season…

It’s been a rough start to the Fall League 2025 season for Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red. Attendance issues, injury issues, and a trio of games against tough teams to open the season (Gold, Lime, and Black) had them reeling into Week Five at 0-3-0. Key defensive piece, John Kushneryk, remained shelved coming into Red’s showdown with Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange, but with both Josh Wirt and Alec Noraditsky in the lineup together for just the second time, and a steadied and readied Gabe Davenport eager to capture his first SDFHL win, Red appeared primed to shake the o-fer monkey off their backs in a mid-season clash with a dash of the ‘do or die’ spice typically reserved for late season matches. Orange (most likely) felt that this was an opportunity to improve their 2-1-0 record, plump their playoff prospects, and possibly pad their personal point totals, especially with the league’s scoring leader up front (Kalen Hunter), and a clearly possessed and focused goalie at their backs (Nick Meglich). Newcomer, Ali Nabipour, was first to act, potting his first career SDFHL goal at 1:40 in the first to put Red on the front foot (Shawna Hamon & Alec Noraditsky). CONGRATULATIONS, ALI! Wirt would convert just 0:23 later to double Red’s edge (Hamon & Caligiuri)…the first two goal lead for the uberunderdogs to this point in the season. A scoreless second set the stage for a wild third period, with Orange finally fighting back, and Red scrambling to preserve their precious lead. Parsa Mostafavi scored his first of the season on the power play to cut the lead to one at 8:28 (Kalen Hunter & Captain Nagy), and Kalen Hunter’s unassisted strike at 4:54 drew Orange level and sent a familiar wave of failure fear through Red ranks. Sometimes it is the unlikeliest of heroes who…do unlikely hero things (Pulitzer, please), and Eric Caligiuri (of seven goals in 121 career games fame) was that unlikely hero for Red on this night, lacing home a powerplay point shot to snatch the lead back late (2:38 from Wirt and Noraditsky). With the clock winding to the final minute of play, it looked as though Captain Azab and his mates would finally have their day, but a Wirt tripping minor at 0:57 meant that Orange would have (at least) one last shot to spoil Red’s victory party. Jenna Chercoe took that last shot and made it count, poking a loose ball past Devenport’s pads at 0:45 (Will Heinl & Weston Nawrocki) to save the game for Orange, sink the hearts of Red, and (frankly) bum out most of the spectators in attendance who were pulling hard for the ‘little guys’. Gabe Davenport (15/18) may not have earned his first career win, but his first career tie is a huge point for Red, and finally has his team thinking they could make a competitive run. CONGRATULATIONS, GABE! Nick Meglich (25/28) was brilliant once again, but his Herculean efforts alone (to the tune of a .911 while facing BY FAR the most shots of any goalie so far at 112!) cannot win games for Orange. Orange will look for more punch and passion in the ‘Citrus Bowl’ with Lime this Sunday, while Red will hope to water their newly-planted seed of momentum in a battle with a beefy but beatable Purple.

The Week Five nightcap was billed (in my brain) as an intriguing matchup between two strong teams bound for playoff passage, and quite possibly a sneaky Cup run. Captain Hima Joshi’s Gold came in off a crushing 1-0 loss to Purple, with the dagger coming with just 0:31 remaining, while Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime entered on the heels of a thrilling 2-2 tie with White, with dearly departed (to Germany, not the afterlife) Silas Perks saving the day with just 0:34 to play. With Perks shipped off to Europe, Chris Tran joined the Lime ranks to help stop ‘That Other Perks’ (Owen) from guiding Gold to a bounce back win. That challenge proved…challenging (Pulitzer, please), even with the very veteran, very seasoned, very smart Tran patrolling the blue line, as Owen would open the scoring just 0:59 in (Mark DeGraffenreid & Shelby Shattuck). Another entry in the ‘unlikely hero’ file came at 8:39 in the second, with Greg Francisco collecting a Mark DeGraffenreid ‘pass’ and pushing it between Don Tran’s pads to make it 2-0 Gold. The likeliest of heroes led the come back for Lime, as Brennen Abel posted his second of the season at 6:59 in the second, then his third unassisted at 9:40 in the third. The 2-2 tie simmered through the bulk of the remaining third period clock, but it was Perks again at 1:48 (Shattuck) to give Gold back the lead, then a Perks’ empty-netter to cap the hat trick and seal the 4-2 winning deal for Gold. The triple threat performance brought Perks into a tie for the goal scoring lead with Kalen Hunter (7), and made the choice for first star of this game and open and shut case. Mason Holcomb (20/22) continued his sizzling season (check the goalie stat charts, folks) with another incredible effort for Gold, while Don Tran (16/19) was stout, but ultimately stung with his second loss in as many games for Lime. The win moves Gold to 3-1-0…comfortable for now, but steeling themselves for a bruising pair of upcoming games (Blue and Black). Lime fall to 1-2-1 with the loss, not nearly as north of the cut line as they would like to be heading into the ‘Citrus Bowl’ with Orange this Sunday.