Low Hanging

As we begin our gentle slope into the playoffs, a subset of teams scramble to stay clear of the cut line cliff. While no teams are in ‘must win’ mode just yet, the matchups in the middle ground of the standings take on almost as much meaning as those in the dreary depths. Captain Wendy Enright’s Red came into Week Six on an upward swing, having tied Green in Week Four, and beaten Royal Blue in Week Five to finally even their record at 2-2-1. Captain Mason Holcomb’s Purple, by contrast, were on the down escalator, with losses to Neon and Brown dropping them to 2-3-0. So, the second half of the season kicked off with one team looking to continue their upward momentum, and the other looking to arrest their fall. Andy Strathman had Red on the front foot first with his first (!) goal and first (!) point of the season at 5:13 (Jon Zygelman), but Joe Malki provided an unassisted answer less than a minute later. In an eerie coincidence, 5:13 would also be the time of the first goal in the second period, with Dorothy Kline’s first (!) goal/point of the season (Tim Vick & Trevor Vick) wresting the lead back for Red before Joe Malki (this time a little over a minute later) responded (Chris Malki & Shawna Hamon). Trevor Vick kept the back and forth scoring pattern going with his first (!) of the season at 1:57 in the second (Tim Vick & Payam Sazegar), but that is where the pattern would abruptly come to an end. Jon Cima (17/19) made his team’s three tallies stand with a perfect 8/8 third in Red’s 3-2 win, while Captain Holcomb’s perfect 7/7 third (in a valiant 17/20 effort) could not save Purple from a third straight loss. The win propels Red into the top half of the standings at 3-2-1, and with the 1-4-1 White up next, they may well punch their playoff ticket this Sunday. Purple’s road is considerably rockier, with powerhouse Pink up next. A fourth straight loss, combined with a win for either White or Royal Blue, would plant Purple below the cut line with just two games to go.

Captain Sean Bathgate’s ‘Turd Burgenson’ were circling the bowl after a tough opening pair of opponents in Pink (6-2 loss) and Neon (3-1 loss) had wiped out their first two efforts, but had since mustered wins over Baby Blue and Purple to arrive at Week Six at 2-3-0. The only unaccounted for loss in the previous sentence…a disastrous Week Four flushing at the hands of then-winless Royal Blue. A loss like that certainly saps the expected confidence a team would/should have against other struggling teams, and Captain Nick Meglich’s White certainly falls into the ‘struggling team’ category. Coming in at 1-3-1, White were as close as any team to ‘must win’ country to start the second stretch of the season, but a win over Brown would move them above the cut line, and indeed above Brown with three weeks to play. Rob Gaudio put White on the path to realizing that rally to redemption, notching his second of the season just 0:36 in (Eric Willard & Maureen Ruchhoeft), but Mark DeGraffenreid equalized at 5:32, completing a nifty passing chain from Captain Bathgate to Austin Szymanski. The gorgeous backdoor feed was Szymanski’s first SDFHL point…CONGRATULATIONS, Austin! The intensity remained high in the second, though the shot counts (a mere 4-2, in Brown’s favor) were meager, and the scoring stripped down to a single strike…a sweet and subtle five hole tip on a centering feed for super sub, Hima Joshi. Marc Lapointe was the primary on the Joshi goal (Chris Tran the second), with his yeoman forechecking efforts leading to a hard-fought 2-1 Brown lead going into the third. The shots and scoring ratcheted up in a wacky final period, with Chris Tran padding Brown’s lead at 4:39 (Erin Plone), then tucking home and empty-netter (Mark DeGraffenreid)…the presumptive deal-sealer to make it 4-1. Jerry Gonzales had other ideas, cashing in at 1:04 (Gaudio), then 0:36 (Vance Morra) to cut the lead back to one and leave the Brown bench stunned and sweating to the final buzzer. That final buzzer did come with no further heroics, however, with Mason Holcomb (11/14) preserving a vital 4-3 win for Brown in Matt Henderson’s absence. Captain Meglich was also absent, but Will Heinl (20/23) was his more than capable stand-in in the losing effort. The win has Brown level at 3-3-0…smack in the middle of the standings going into the final third of the season. They hope to keep their distance from the likes of their next opponent, the 1-3-2 Grey, and push closer to a playoff perch in the process. White will need to start their playoff push in earnest this Sunday, as Captain Meglich returns to lead his team against a resurgent Red.

‘MacBlueber’ made the front page in Week One, after pulling off an incredible 2-1 coup at Red’s expense, in spite of being outshot 34-12, and in spite of the absence of their top two offensive weapons in Kalen Hunter and Luke Wolmer. Captain Rob LaVigne & Company have continued to strut through the summer season after that stunning start, even toppling the seemingly untoppleable Pink in Week Four after suffering their own (and only) shocking loss to Brown the week prior. Their 4-1-0 mark coming into their Week Six middle match with Captain Bao Nguyen’s 2-2-1 Green was good for a share of first place, and having already vanquished one of those shareholders (Pink), really anything but a loss would make them the first team to punch a playoff ticket. Green’s last outing was a 6-3 loss to said supercharged shareholder (Pink), and the Week Six hope was not just a bounce back, but a big win over a clear Cup favorite to make a strong statement, push into the lead pack, and draw closer to a playoff berth of their own. Four small problems fulfilling that hope…the absences of Brennen Abel, Dave Bourgouin, Mostafa Azab, and Nick Vacchio. So…short bench and long odds for Green, but…you never know. The favorites came out firing in this one, with Baby Blue outshooting Green by a 10-2 margin, but Sean Kelly was absolutely on another planet in another solar system somewhere in the Amazeballs Galaxy in this one. Will Heinl did manage to find a sliver of space (Amazeballs Galaxy callback, for the win) to slide home the first goal of the game for Baby Blue at 7:38 (Captain LaVigne), but that would be all Kelly would allow through that 10-2 first, and the FIFTEEN TO ZERO period to follow. I repeat/clarify…Baby Blue racked up fifteen shots in the second to Green’s zero…and yet this remained a 1-0 game going into the third. LaVigne & Company had to be feeling confident going into that third, but might also have felt a tinge of fear that they could have a much-deserved win snatched from them, just as they had snatched a much-deserved win from Red in their season debut. Luke Wolmer finally provided an opportunity for a collective Baby Blue exhale with 3:38 to play (Gary Peters & Kalen Hunter), and while the lopsided shot count continued (14-2 for Baby Blue), one of those two Green shots did find twine at 0:05…Steve Goncalo (Captain Nguyen). When the dust (mainly from the relentless flurry of Baby Blue shots) settled, Chris Tran (3/4) would collect his team’s fifth win…perhaps the easiest of his career…2-1 over Green. At the other end…an absolutely ridiculous 37/39 museum piece from Sean ‘Da Kid’ Kelly…probably one of the most heartbreaking regular season losses of his storied career. The win, combined with other Week Six results, locked Baby Blue is as the first official playoff participant. Their Week Seven opponent, Neon, will likely be the last true challenge to their quest to finish at the top of the pack. Green, meanwhile, remain in stable playoff condition in spite of the loss, especially given that two of their remaining three opponents, Royal Blue and Grey, are below them in the standings, with each having managed just one win to this point in the season.

Very much unlike their lighter blue brethren, Captain William Teglia’s Royal Blue have finally made the front page…for all the wrong reasons. With White’s loss earlier in the evening dropping them 1-4-1, the cellar door was ajar and ready to be kicked open. A win would allow Teglia & Company to cross to the safe side of the cut line threshold, and improve their record to 2-3-1 in the leadup to their Week Seven matchup with a 2-3-1 Green. In short, this was THE chance to turn everything around…they just needed to climb the stairs to that door and…SLAM! I forgot to mention that Captain John Boddy’s Pink was guarding that door, and while already sitting pretty at 4-1-0, Pink was pumped and primed to keep pace with Baby Blue in the race to the top seed. Jackson Tomaszewski put Pink on top first with his fourth of the season at 2:21 (Ryan Loughran & Captain Boddy), but Jon Salt answered on the power play at 0:40 with his nearly-league-leading eighth (Janet Goins). It was all Pink in the middle frame, with Tomaszewski snapping home his second of the game at 8:25 (Elyse Shattuck), and Geoff Downes adding some padding at 3:59 (Loughran & Tomaszewski). You’re (almost) always in a game with Silas ‘The Silencer’™ Perks as your last line of defense, and even with a lopsided shot ledger (28-11 in Pink’s favor from start to finish), and a short bench (Captain Teglia, Gordon Schmidt, Jason Northrup, and Steph Palomo Schmidt all out), Royal Blue still had a chance to rescue at least a point with ten minutes to play. Enter our POTW, newcomer Jenna Chercoe. Chercoe was still in search of her first career SDFHL point, and having that first point come in the form of a goal would be golden. Lo and behold…Jenna Chercoe at 8:36 in the third from Brendan Jew and Jon Salt…CONGRATU…wait…Jenna was serving as a sub for Steph…so while her goal would bring Royal Blue a step closer in a rally to tie, it would not actually count as her first career goal…*sad trombone*. Still, with plenty of time left on the clock, Royal Blue were still in it to win it against a powerhouse Pink…until that ‘plenty of time’ became ‘a few minutes’, then a ‘few seconds’, then…buzzer. Will Heinl (9/11) would hold on to seal Royal Blue’s losing fate, 3-2, while ‘The Silencer’™ (25/28) was left making plans to meet up with Sean Kelly at the local chapter of the Lack Of Goal Support Support Group™. The win books playoff passage for Pink, and drops Royal Blue to 1-4-1. A win over Green this Sunday is now as close to a must as it gets (without being a true ‘must’). A nasty Neon waits for Teglia’s crew in Week Eight, and (as the SDFHL fates always have it) the final game of the final week of play will be Royal Blue v White…the two current cellar dwellers. Either (or both) teams may still have a shot to survive at that point, but they will both need points between now and then or the point will be moot.

Jenna Chercoe scored ‘her first career SDFHL’ goal in a sub role for Royal Blue, but of course that *sad trombone* signaled that ‘sub goals do not count toward career numbers’. No one likes a sad trombone, but Jenna apparently hates them. Just TWELVE seconds into the nightcap, with Chercoe and her Grey mates desperate for their first win of the season against a very tough Neon side…BANG…*happy trombone*! It’s comical, if you imagine that someone tapped Chercoe on the shoulder to inform her that her goal for Royal Blue would ‘not count’…then she dons the shirt for her true team, scores a ‘true’ goal, and struts off with a ‘count THAT’ expression on her face. That’s how I want to imagine it all unfolding, but I am sure Chercoe was much more demure (as the kids say) about the milestone strike to put Grey in front at 9:48 (Josh Tran). However it went down…CONGRATULATIONS, JENNA! It should be noted that this was the first lead of the season for Grey! Captain Winstead was so inspired that he followed with his first of the season at 5:12 (Jeremy Copp) to double that lead and send shockwaves through Neon’s ranks. After all, Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s Neon came in as heavy favorites at 4-1-0, and with the return of ‘The Albatross’, Justin Hepler, all of the smart money was on the (considerably) brighter clad brigade. Hepler did answer for Neon later in the first…JUST beating out the final tick of the clock to cut the lead back to one with a gut punch goal at 0:01 (Captain Vankoughnett & Ryan Karns). Jordan Pynn lit the lone lamp in the second, converting at 2:36 (Mark Scelfo & Dan Jurgens) to restore Grey’s two goal edge, and check off another modest milestone…the first time Grey had managed to score more than two goals in a single game. Neon pushed back hard in the third, racking up a 9-1 edge in shots en route to a 28-12 show of shot dominance, but alas…in the absence of their true superstar, one Patricia H Gladstone, the most Neon could muster in the way of response was a solitary strike from the stick of rookie sensation, Darin Cerasuolo. DC’s fifth of the season (Hepler) came at 5:48, but Don Tran (26/28) would finally get the offensive support he needed to lock in a Grey win…a massive 3-2 coup over Neon. Chuck Bender (9/12) shouldered just his second loss in six tries, but now at 4-2-0, Neon are still a virtual playoff lock with three games to go. They do face two titans in their final stretch in Baby Blue and Pink, with a desperate and potentially dangerous Royal Blue in that mix, as well. Grey can only bask in the glow of their first win for so long…they still have a lot of work left to do to make safely into August play, with three tough, but beatable teams remaining on their slate in Brown, Purple, and Green.