Holmes Stand

Our cover team hit the court first in Week Six, hoping to parlay the momentum of a 7-0 beatdown of a barely-there Teal into back-to-back wins, and a bit more security in the top half of the standings. I want to give Brown some credit for being a good, solid team, but wins over two winless/woeful sides (Pink and Teal), and a loss to Olive in their only challenging challenge coming in had me (and any rational pundit) reserving judgment. While not a completely skeletal crew, Captain Jeannine Stuzka’s Gold was certainly missing some key pieces (most notably, Ty Pereira and Alan Razoky), providing another break for Brown’s perfect attendance posse to exploit. A scoreless first ground past, but Brown remained on the front foot, already leveraging the manpower advantage to a 12-3 edge in shots. That shooting edge was sharpened to razor quality in the second, with Brown producing TWENTY-ONE (!) salvos to another mere trio of Gold offerings. One of those Brown shots finally found a home behind an out-of-his-fucking-mind-feeling-it super sub, Nick Meglich, with Zach Salt tucking home his own rebound on a nifty fast break play facilitated by Mark DeGraffenreid and Robert Pietropaula. There is no doubt that Meglich was the best player in this game, keeping a team that was outshot 33-6 through two very much alive going into the final ten minutes of play. Andy Strathman brushed home a backhand at close range to give Brown some breathing room (from Tony Thinh) at 6:32 in the third, but it still felt at that point like Gold could make their way back. It was a (very) rare Strathman error that made it feel even more like a Gold shocker was in the making, with the stalwart defender fumbling a ball away to Brennan Abel, who made no mistake with the unexpected gift. Cory Brin (12/13) and Brown would hold on, though, surviving the late scare and a for-the-ages 41/43 Meglich performance to cash in the 2-1 win and improve to 3-1. The loss drops Gold to 1-2-0, smack in the middle of the cut line quagmire (giggity) with an important showdown with Grey looming this Sunday.

A catastrophic dearth of personnel sank Teal to 0-3-0 in Week Five, and with Captain Leah Gonzales forced to transfer power to Zach Siemer after breaking her thumb, it was really beginning to look like Teal was cursed…or at least destined to fail. We may be reflecting on Week Six as the turning point in this sad Teal tale though, as the roster reappeared against a hit-or-miss Grey side, and brought the previously AWOL offense with it. Joe Malki soloed a strike at 6:46 in the first, then followed with a second at 1:29 (from Chris Malki and Luke Wolmer) to match Teal’s entire offensive output to that point in the season (!), and finally give the troubled side something to celebrate. Justin Ker opened the second with his first of the season to make it 3-0, and Chris Malki pumped the edge to four (from Wolmer and Elyse Shattuck) minutes later. Kyle Snyder finally produced an answer for Grey on the power play, but Trice Harvey restored the four goal edge for Teal (from Ker) less than thirty seconds later. A pair of goals within one minute of each other for Grey (Vance Morra from Eric Willard and Snyder, then Willard from Janice Darlington) had Grey back in the fray midway through the third, but Joe Malki would complete his hat trick with 3:12 remaining, sealing Grey’s fate 6-3, and securing Teal’s first win of the season. Chuck Bender (15/18) earned his first win of the season (for his actual team, anyway), while Ryan Loughran (18/24) suffered another sour sub stint, this time in lieu of Jon Cima. Now sitting at 1-2-1, Captain Chad Goins and Grey are only slightly safer than (new) Captain Zach Siemer’s 1-3-0 Teal. As the scheduling fates would have it, both teams faceoff against teams in similar predicaments this week, with Grey taking on 1-2-0 Gold, and Teal licking their newly-blood-stained chops over a date with 0-4-0 Pink. So, more ‘turning points’ in store this Sunday, that’s for sure…

Captain John Boddy’s Black rolled into Week Six undefeated, with the asterisk on that adjective being a lack of ‘convincing’, let alone ‘dominant’ wins. A 2-1 squeak past Teal (in which Black was outshot nearly 2:1), and a 1-1 tie with a tough Olive side had SDFHL pundits waiting for the other shoe to drop…that shoe being Captain Boddy’s proven penchant for punishing performances. The metaphorical footwear, while not quite as heavy as we have come to expect, did indeed drop on Captain Ryan Karns’ White, with Boddy’s 2 and 1 pacing his team to a big 6-1 Black win . Josh Wirt actually put White in front first, completing a connection from Carl Vankoughnett and Mark Nagy early in the second, but Boddy evened the score later in the frame (from Dan Jurgens Sadie Hellstrom). A rare (and timely) goal for Bao Nguyen put Black on top exactly thirty ticks later, and Geoff Downes (from Brendan Jew) completed a series of three goals in 1:14 to give Black a 3-1 lead going into the third. Boddy’s second of the game (Downes and Jurgens) sparked more scoring for Black in the late going, with Hellstrom converting on the powerplay (Boddy and Jurgens), and a Jurgens solo effort serving as the the last line in a lopsided ledger. In spite of some struggles in the sub realm, Ryan Loughran (16/17) continued to sparkle for his actual team, pushing both his personal record and his team’s to 2-0-1 with the win. Black will put their undefeated record to the ultimate test in Week Seven against 4-0-0 Red, while White hope to rebound against 3-1-0 Brown.

Captain Janine Ulloa and Pink came into Week Six with an eerily similar back story to Teal, and certainly hoped to write an equally happy new chapter, now desperate for a win at 0-3-0, coming in. Ulloa…also injured and out indefinitely, could lend nothing beyond moral support to her squad as they faced off against a 1-0-1 Olive side (again the similarities between this and the game above are crazy). Outside of the injured Ulloa (for whom Pat Gladstone subbed), both rosters were fully represented, and the first two periods played out as a scoreless stalemate with similar shot totals. If you know your SDFHL history, you know that Silas ‘The Silencer’ Perks often needs just one goal to secure a win for his team, and unfortunately for Pink, that one goal came courtesy of a Jon Zygelman solo effort with 4:46 to play. Nick Vacchio (21/22) was valiant as ever, and very nearly matched Perks’ performance, but could only watch with dismay as an Aaron Cooney (welcome back!) unassisted empty-netter put Olive up 2-0 with 0:33 to play…and 2-0 it would stay. Perks (21/21), as almost always, was THE story in the win, keeping Olive undefeated in spite of rather meager scoring support from his mates to this point (five non-empty-net goals in three games). Captain Copp & Company will look to keep the loss column clean in an intriguing Week Seven matchup with Orange, while Pink face Teal in what has to be regarded as their last real hope to save their sinking season.

‘The J-Hole Express’ stayed on track in Week Six, but Captain Joel Gattey’s 4-0-0 freight train was very nearly derailed by a stingy Purple contingent. Captain Sev Brown’s ‘Plums’ handled their first two opponents of the season with relative ease, dispatching White 3-1, then Grey 5-1, but a Week Five 2-1 loss to Orange (thanks in large part to a monster Meglich effort) proved they were beatable. Of course, Red rolled in with no shortage of proof that they could win, and they had to have a growing sense that the SHOULD win every game. A scoreless first saw neither side realize many quality chances, with both Sean Kelly and Don Tran fitting their expected top tier goalie billing, but Alexis DaCosta finally broke through for Red in the second (from Captain Gattey and Jackson Tomaszewski) to put the pressure on a Jon-Salt-less Purple attack. The third period was merely a scoreless bookend for the lone goal second, meaning that DaCosta’s second of the season would be the only goal scored in a FIFAtacular 1-0 win for Red. Kelly (12/12) collected his fourth win of the season, and looks to be in cruise control so far this spring with a .944/1.00/1 SO line. Don Tran (9/10) suffered his second straight loss while facing less than a dozen shots in each…proof that scoring is usually more about quality than quantity of chances. Purple can rest, regroup, and enjoy a midseason bye week, while Red gear up to face one of only two other undefeated teams in Black this Sunday.