Khan Job

All wins and all losses are technically created equal, in that they count the same in the standings, but some wins and some losses just do not ‘feel’ equal through the lens of circumstance. A late season win to push your team to playoff safety, or loss to drag your team to the brink of elimination certainly ‘feels’ weightier than an early season result with ‘nothing really on the line’. Similarly, a standard issue 4-1 loss, with the outcome well settled before the final minutes come and go feels quite a bit different than a 1-0 loss, with that lone stake driving through your collective hearts with just 0:31 to play. Such was the fate for Captain Hima Joshi’s Gold, who had been locked in scoreless strife with Captain Ryan Karns’ Purple for 29:29, fully expecting to keep the L column clean, only to have a very weighty ‘1’ appear on the Purple side of the scoreboard, and a (seemingly) even weightier ‘1’ fall into said second column of their early season record. Chuck Bender (10/10) provided a perfect performance to set up the late dagger, and super sub, Jon Cima (21/22), was heroic, but ultimately haunted in the gut punch loss. Darin Cerasuolo played hero/villain (depending on your aforementioned lens) tucking a loose ball under Cima’s outstretched pad with 0:31 to play (Leah Gonzales & Geoff Downes) to send waves of joy through Purple’s bench and shuddering shock through Gold’s as a mutually agreeable 0-0 tie snapped to a 1-0 lightning strike win for Purple. Both teams now sit in the top half of the standings at 2-1-0, but this sort of leaden loss/weighty win can often alter the course of the season for one or both teams. There is plenty of season left to play (two thirds, to be exact), but this one ‘felt’ huge for both sides…

The ebbs and flows of any given season are always intriguing (to me, at least). Week One of the Fall League 2025 season saw thirty total goals scored, with just one of the five games decided by fewer than two goals. Week Three…thirty-nine total goals, with again just one game decided by just one goal. The opening game of Week Four seemed to serve as the standard for the rest of the slate, with the (very) low scoring trend bleeding into the 5:00 tilt between Captain Joel Gattey’s Lime and Captain Rob Gaudio’s White. A scoreless first meant that four periods of October play would pass with just ONE goal scored (and only just barely scored, at that). Lime did carry at 10-3 edge in shots through the first, but it was Captain Gaudio who would strike first early in the second, forcing a turnover in the slot, and wristing his fourth of the season past a surprised/confused/bemused Chris Tran. In line with the logic of the first recap, this was ‘just another game’ for both teams, but it was definitely a ‘special’ game for Lime’s Silas ‘The Silencer’™ Perks…sadly the final game of his SDFHL career. On cue…Perks drew Lime even just 1:01 after the Gaudio strike (Maureen Ruchhoeft)…another speck of sparkle on his legacy…you have to love it (although, I suppose White’s ranks did not). Craig Russell more than atoned for a late second period slashing penalty by snapping home his first of the season at 4:18 in the third to wrest the lead back for White (Jackson Tomaszewski & Captain Gaudio), but Perks was primed to save Lime with a poetically perfect career exclamation point. With Dan Jurgens in the box for a pair of roughing infractions behind Lime’s goal line, Gattey & Company would enjoy a player advantage for the remaining 2:11. With 0:34 to play…Silas F Perks…from his buddy (Brennen Abel)…2-2 game…another layer of cement on the SDFHL legend of ‘The Silencer’™. CONGRATULATIONS, SILAS…and thank you for being such a great part of this league over these past three or four years. You are a class act, and will be missed greatly! That final bow for Perks would (fittingly) be the last act in the 2-2 tie, with both teams settling to a sample platter 1-1-1 on the season. Chris Tran (16/18) was sharp as ever in another sub stint for long lost cousin, Don, while Jon Cima (22/24) capped one of his strongest career nights (to this writer’s recollection, anyway) with another sparkler, finishing with a 43/46 two-game body of wonderful work.

The Week Four middle game held to the meager offensive mold of of the 4:00 and 5:00, with Captain John Boddy returning to Blue’s lineup to lead his team against Captain Bao Nguyen’s Green in another tight, low-scoring scrap. The first ten minutes of play were (finally) graced with goals, as Eli Schonbrun put Blue in front at 4:23 (Captain Boddy), and Jon Zygelman responded for Green at 1:01 (Joe Malki). Because ‘slow your roll, you two relentless goal-scoring gangs’, the second would come and go as the fourth scoreless period of the first eight on the slate, leaving both teams just a second strike from a lead (and, given the paucity of pop to this point in the evening, a likely game-winner). That second strike came in Blue’s favor off the stick of Captain Boddy at 9:05, with Weston Oakley and Erin Plone collecting helpers on the go-ahead goal. There were plenty of ticks left on the clock, but the goal embargo continued to hold, as both Chris Tran (11/12) and John Kushneryk stunt double, Chuck Bender (16/18), would yield nothing further. Lo and behold…a pocket pair of goals is a winning hand in Week Four…the board was no help to either player. So…a 2-1 bounce back win for Blue/second straight stinger for Green, and yet another easy-on-the-scorekeeper’s-wrist game in the books in Week Four. Just eight goals scored in nine periods of play…likely record low pace for a given SDFHL Sunday (not something I have the patience to look up…just guessing). Whatever the case, the win moves Blue to the top half of the standings, and Green to the lower decks through the first third of the season. Blue will look to continue their ascent against a winless Teal this Sunday, while Green hope to even their record against a tough and tested White side.

The scoring pace rose as the sun set and lights came up over the final two matches of the Week Four slate, and Captain Mostafa Azab’s Red had reason for raised spirits with Josh Wirt FINALLY gracing the lineup to help the cause against (now) the only remaining undefeated team in the league, Captain Luke Wolmer’s Black. Red’s two goals-for and fifteen against had them coming in at an expected 0-2-0, and while increased firepower is just half the battle, it was a half sorely lacking in their two losses to date. Amazingly enough, Red actually led 1-0 in their opener against Gold, and that lead came courtesy of Shawna Hamon. Hamon repeated the feat against Black, putting Red in front first at 3:21 in the first (Eric Caligiuri). Newcomer Riley Mann was quick to respond, however, lacing home his first career SDFHL goal just twenty-four ticks later to draw Black even (Trevor Vick). CONGRATULATIONS, RILEY! The second period was almost all Black, with Captain Wolmer putting his team on top at 6:22 (Mann), Mann adding his career/game second just seconds later (Wolmer), and Trevor Vick padding Black’s advantage with his fourth of the season at 3:46 (Wolmer). Captain Azab himself would cut the lead back to two at 0:12 (Wirt), providing a sliver of hope for a third period Red rally. Trevor Vick’s second of the game at 7:47 all but snuffed out that dream, and while Wirt did convert on the powerplay at 2:07 to cut the lead back to two, that would be as close as Red would get. Will Heinl (12/15) earned the win in his first action of the season in nets (for his actual team, anyway), while Gabe Davenport (11/16) was much steadier in his third career outing, in spite of the loss. It was another first for Riley Mann…his first ‘first star’ honors for his 2 and 1 effort. The trio of Mann, Wolmer, and Trevor Vick are now all nestled in the top ten in scoring, and at 3-0-0, Black have established themselves as ‘the team to beat’, in sole possession of first place going into an intriguing Week Five match with Captain Karns’ Purple. Azab & Company desperately need to find a way to win games (or at least tie them), and they will need Wirt and some extra will to find a way against a 2-1-0 Orange this Sunday.

Jeremy Copp is among the shrewdest, and certainly among the most seasoned captains in league history. Coming out of the Fall League 2025 draft, the consensus (or, at least, the one amongst my brain cells) was that Copp had created another strong contender. A nice balance of offense and defense, solid goaltending, and the ‘new hotness’ in Alex Giummo…a seemingly sure-fire recipe for a solid, if not super season. A Week One 6-3 loss to Green could be chalked up to as-yet-unformed chemistry and a breakout performance from young William Teglia, and a 6-4 Week Three defeat could perhaps be slapped with an attendance asterisk with Captain Copp, Jim LaGrossa, and Josh Tran all out, but there is no ‘asterisk’ column in the standings table, and a failure to launch against Captain Mark Nagy’s Orange in Week Four would find Teal in the unwanted cellar company of the 0-3-0 Red. There were ‘asterisks’ on both sides in the Week Four nightcap, with Teal missing Arnold Gonzales, Josh Tran and Kerri Sevenbergen (TK Mason in, in her stead), and Orange without Captain Nagy and Weston Nawrocki, but it was a pair of star performances that would carry the night, and both of those stars shined for Orange. A scoreless first felt par for the course in this, ‘The Night Of Scarce Scoring’, but a pair of second period snipes from Kalen Hunter (from Eric Willard at 5:15, then unassisted at 3:24) put Orange firmly in front heading into the final frame. The third remained quiet until the late going, when Hunter would complete his hat trick with an unassisted empty-netter at 1:40, seemingly sealing Teal’s fate in the process. Matt Henderson (10/12) remained on the bench the rest of the way, and Gordon Schmidt’s first of the season with 0:53 to play cut the lead back to two, but ultimately served as little more than a lone blemish on another dominant pipes performance for Nick Meglich (25/26). Kalen would add an assist on Willard’s empty netter to wrap the 4-1 win for Orange and cap his first star 3 and 1 outing, as Nagy’s Gang improved to 2-1-0 with a second straight win. The loss drops Teal to 0-3-0, tied for last place as we enter the ‘figure things out, or you’ll be figured out of the playoffs’ middle stretch of the season.