The schedule maker (apparently) saw no problem pitting the most like-shirted teams against each other in the very first week of play. It was a bit hard to tell ‘Gold’ from ‘Orange’ out there, and even the score ended up matchy-matchy. Ash Wadhwa was in a fiery mood, and he had the hot hand for Orange, as well. He put Orange on the board early in the second, tied the game with his second at 6:29 in the third, and added a good old fashion shouting match for good measure in the waning minutes. Newcomer, Michael Betsch, wasted no time scoring his first career SDFHL goal with assists to Matt Hanley and Jim LaGrossa. LaGrossa gave Gold the lead with just one tick left in the second to complete a two point night, but Wadhwa’s aforementioned third period strike made it a 2-2 tango. Christian LeClair was steadier than he has been for most of his short SDFHL career, stopping 17/19, while Matt Henderson rebounded from the sting of Final failure to preserve a point for Captain Wirth’s side with a 14/16 effort.
Continuing the hard-to-tell-apart Week One theme, it was a muddle of Red and Pink in the second game of the season. Alex Theis was other-worldly in this one for Captain Karn’s lighter shaded side (31/33), but Vance Morra found a hole and filled it to give Red a 1-0 lead in the second. Andrew Jacobsen made his return to the league, and returned the scoring favor for Pink to make it 1-1 going into the third. Theis was sharper with each passing minute, but Jon Salt peppered him with long shots, then sliced in a sneaky strike from a tough angle to put Red up for good, 2-1. Theis was saddled with the tough loss, while Matt Henderson (10/11) recorded the win in a fill-in roll for Tiffany Fox, who was out in Vegas with Captain Danny Antonelli.
Speaking of other-worldly, London Peters is some kind of bionic being created in a lab to tests the limits of speed on the human form. Captain Kayleigh Marsolini and her crew held strong while he drag raced them up and down the court, but the young gun finally broke through on a long wrister to give Black a 1-0 lead at 3:53 in the third. Brian Sheptycki answered two minutes later to make it 1-1 and set up a fight to the finish. It was deja vu all over again for Melissa Busby (9/11), as Peters (who else) snapped a shot from just inside the blue line…off her body…over her head…in behind her…game over, 2-1 Black over Green. Busby battled, but was bitten again, while Alex Theis recorded the win he deserved in his own team’s game, stopping 17/18 to spell the absent Sean Kelly.
Grey and Purple squared off, and produced yet another low-scoring game decided by one goal. In fact, the two teams combined for one goal in this one. That one goal belonged to Captain Mark Ennsmann, who spoiled Cory Brin’s night at 3:54 in the first, with assists to Alyce Perry and Jeremy Zillmer. Brin (6/7) was by far the less busy of the two goalies in this one, as Nick Adkins stopped 24/24 to steal a win in Chris Tran’s absence. Considering that Grey was without the services of Kris Tosczak, Michael Froman, John Gamm, and Philip Nguyen, this 1-0 win over a fully-staffed Purple is certainly the Crazy Coup Of The Week (new feature I am trying out).
Well, it took all five games, but Week One finally saw a ‘decisive win’. By ‘decisive’, I mean a huge, two goal takedown, of course. Steve Jones is back (pardon the pun), and still doing damage with his stick (pardon the pun). Jones scored late in the first, and late in the third to lead the charge for Captain Zach Siemer’s Mint side. Mark Daquipa collected two assists, and both Dan Jurgens and Julie Ott each had a helper in the 2-0 win over Blue. Captain Nick Adkins would have liked the result he had as Chris Tran’s surrogate in the prior game, but he got a 10/12 loss, instead. Chuck Bender stopped 12/12 the other way, keeping the vaunted returning veteran, Jeff Anderson, at bay on the way to a nice, fat Week One win.