‘Wissco Brinferno’ remained the only other undefeated team, blanking Orange, 3-0 to open the Week Three slate. Dorothy Kline earned POTW honors, scoring not once, but twice to lead the charge for her team. Captain Jon Salt assisted on her GWG in the first minute of play, and added an insurance notch late in the third. Mark Boulanger was a perfect 13/13 in a fill-in stint for Cory Brin, who is still dealing with concussion symptoms from a blow to the head he suffered against Red. Purple will have a tough test in Green this week, who are coming off their first loss of the season to early going juggernaut, White.
Week Three headliners, ‘Eight-Ball Bender’, jumped out early on Green, with Jon Zygleman finishing a sequence that started with Shelby Shattuck and Jeff Chen. Zygleman returned the favor on Chen’s second period tally that doubled White’s lead, and had them standing at eleven goals-for, ZERO goals against through the first eight periods of their Summer campaign. Dan Jurgens put the first blemish in Chuck Bender’s GA column, and Bill Casey added a second, but Casey’s strike was wedged between two empty netters, with Ryan Owen’s proving the game-winner, and Quinn Hume’s the deal-sealer. The wild finish left the final score at 4-2, White over Green, and left fans wanting more of this great match-up.
Captain Janet Goins’ group are off to a truly remarkable start. After serving as White’s first regular season victim in a 5-0 Week One loss, Gold have yet to surrender another goal. The problem…they still have yet to score one! A second straight 0-0 tie, this time facing Black, may have Gold in the SDFHL record books as the only team to go without a goal through their first three full games. Our crack statisticians are working on that, but meanwhile, Gold is working on a ‘slow and steady wins the race’ plan that just might work. Two ties in three tries gives them two points in the standings, good enough to be well in the mix, in spite of their offensive futility. Alex Theis (17/17) became the latest to blank Gold, while Matt Henderson earned his second straight shutout with a 16/16 effort. I, for one, love streaks in sports, and I am anxious to see when this goal drought ends for Goins & Company. I am equally anxious to see whether they can continue to produce points in the standings without producing points on the floor.
Both Lime and Tie Dye stepped on the court in Week Three with hopes of earning a first W on the season. Attendance and injury issues have plagued Lime, while Tie Dye have fought hard, but produced just one of four possible points in the standings against two of this season’s tougher teams (Purple & Green). Lime welcomed in yet ANOTHER Malki, with younger son, Christian, coming on to replace the injured Erik Taylor, and bringing the Malki count to three. Three is clearly the magic number, as big brother, Joe Malki, put Lime on top in the first, and rookie, Tyler Winstead, scored his first career goal to win it in the third — 2-1 Lime over Tie Dye. Alan Razoky had evened the score for Tie Dye with his third of the season back in the first, but Alex Theis would not be denied his first win of the season, stopping 19/20 to push his team into the thick of the playoff hunt through three weeks of play.
Captain Hima Joshi and Pink were on the Gold plan coming into Week Three, with zero goals, and just one tie to show for their first two weeks of play. It looked like it would be more of the same against Red, as Jim LaGrossa and Josh Wirt paced their side to a 2-0 lead. Julie Ott finally broke the seal for Pink just over a minute after Wirt’s tally, and Eric ‘Pinball’ Willard knotted the score on a crazy carom from behind the goal line to knot it for good at 2-2. It’s not a true victory, but certainly a moral victory for Pink, who are hanging on in the standings with two straight ties, and have now…found their scoring touch? Red has become a surprising story of struggle thus far, falling below the cut line to 0-2-1. They look to right the ship and keep Gold scoreless in a crucial Week Four tilt.