The elder of the Salt Bros™ had the first laugh in the regular season, as Jon posted a hat trick to lift Green over Zach and White 3-2 in their Week Eight meeting. He had the second (and possibly last) laugh, as well, as Green won in, well, a laugher in the Week Three playoff rematch. Jon scored the only goal in each of the first two periods, with helpers to Kim Hernandez and Gary Peters on the strike at 6:37 in the first, and Justin Ker on the game-winner at 3:20 in the second. His goal at 6:20 in the third (from Ker and Peters) completed the natural hat trick, and put Green well in control, 3-0. White would muster just one response, with Justin Stege closing the gap on the power play with 1:43 to play (from Andrew Wong and Steve Linke), but Justin Ker’s empty-netter restored the three point edge less than half a minute later, and Eric Willard chipped in one more at 1:01 to close out the scoring, and close out White, 5-1. Matt Henderson (19/23) was the much busier goalie in the losing effort, while Silas Perks (8/9) collected a rather ho-hum W to help usher his team into the Fall League 2022 Final. The top seed will await the survivor of a Week Four ménage a trois in which White will sit by for sloppy seconds after Black and Neon have a go at each other.
David Schlatter and Sean Kelly are really fucking good, and the rest of the roster looks quite nice, but Neon just sort of bumbled and fumbled their way along through the regular season, never once stringing together consecutive wins. After dropping their playoff opener to White 4-1, many (if not most) pundits would have had them making a quick two and through exit. Enter the aforementioned hero horses, Schlatter and Kelly, with the former dropping a third period hat trick, and the latter stopping 24/25 to snuff out Red in a Week Two elimination match. Could Neon finally keep that winning form going for a second straight game, or would Navy (who prevailed in the regular season match with Neon 4-3, and who came in not having lost two in a row thus far) eliminate the lower seed, and stay in the race for the Cup. Schlatter opened the scoring midway through the first (from Rob LaVigne), and doubled Neon’s edge late in the second (from Captain Luke Wolmer and Nik Thompson). To that point, Kelly had only faced THREE shots, and that’s not enough of a push to push one past the GOAT. The shots picked up for Navy in the third, and Josh Wirt picked his team up with 6:04 to play, cutting the Neon lead to one goal. It was Schlatter again, though, restoring the lead on the power play at 2:07 (from Thompson)…a lead that the underdogs would not surrender…3-1 Neon over Navy. Kelly (11/12) collected his (and Neon’s) first back-to-back win, while Alex Theis (14/17) and Navy suffered their first back-to-back loss…and this L was a playoff KO. Neon look to continue their surprising surge after the Thanksgiving break, hoping to best Black, then wiggle past White and into the Final.
Our league has been running strong for a quarter of a century, and coming into this season, I cannot recall an instance where we had to resort to spot male subs. It might have happened once, but certainly not multiple times. When Neon reported seven players out for their Week Nine match with White, we were forced to call in reinforcements. Fast forward a whopping three weeks to Captain Brandon Olsen reporting just three players and a goalie for their elimination playoff match with Black. One female sub (Steph Palomo Schmidt), and one male sub (Sean Bathgate) gave Grey the bare minimum, but sadly left them barely able to compete. Sadie Hellstrom recorded what may well be the most potent performance ever from an SDFHL female, pouring in FOUR goals, and assisting on another, as Black crushed, and cruised to a 7-0 win over a severely short Grey side. Hellstrom scored twice in the first, twice in the third, and recorded the only assist on Carl Vankoughnett’s late game strike. Vankoughnett and Brennan Abel each had goals of their own in the second, as the trio account for 4 & 1 (Hellstrom), 1 & 3 (Abel), and 2 & 1 (Vankoughnett). Nick Meglich (27/34) was absolutely battered and deep fried at one end, while Chris Tran (9/9) just had a nice view of the carnage at the other. It’s a tough break for Grey, who certainly showed signs of strength through their season, but attendance is an important part of a winning formula, and sometimes the calendar is not in your favor. Black move on to face Neon in the first of two games on December 4th. If they can prevail in that match, they will have a short rest, then turn to face a waiting White side to determine who will advance to face Green in the Final…