Two teams with two points apiece looked to double that number and skate out of cut line real estate in Week Five, with Captain Rob Gaudio’s Blue facing Captain Sean Bathgate’s White. A win for either team would work wonders, while a loss would leave the loser limp, and very much in limbo heading into the final four weeks of play. Emily Bennington got White off on the right foot with her second of the season at 6:32 (from Brandon Olsen and Ramsey Ksar), but Shawna Hamon fought female fire with female fire to even the score at ones at 2:10 (from Josh Wirt). Nick Meglich (19/20) kept Blue off the board the rest of the way, and Chris Tran (14/15) matched his macho at the other end to preserve the 1-1 tie, and send both teams home with luke warm fuzzies. With just one win between these teams in ten tries (fittingly, White does have the lone ‘W’), both teams must hunker down and bunker in for a second half fight for survival. Orange remains in dead last with just one point, but Blue and White join Black and Purple in the ‘danger zone’ just north of that nadir. This pack of playoff hopefuls will (barring more ties) begin to break up this Sunday, as White faced fellow 1-3-1’ers, Purple, and Blue looks to topple a 2-1-2 Grey.
Speak of the Grey, and the Grey shall appear. Well…Grey’s defense, anyway. Both Captain Zach Siemer’s side and Captain Tyler Winstead’s crew found their scoring punch somewhere in the picket lines with the Hollywood writers, while Don Tran (20/20) and Matt Henderson (13/13) flexed their star power in a 0-0 draw that had World Cup fans drooling. The result is actually something of a coup for Grey, as they can now boast that they are the only team to avoid a loss against Olive…a team that has (for whatever reason) downshifted from ‘high octane offense’ in Weeks One & Two (seventeen goals) to ‘narrowly enough neutral’ (three goals total in three games since). The point does keep Olive perched at the pinnacle, tied with Teal at 4-0-1, in spite of their recent scoring anemia (the fewest goals of any team in the last three weeks, by far). One could (and I would) make the argument that this makes Olive even scarier…they can coast, yet still conquer. Grey are now safely tucked in the middle of the pack at 2-1-2, with three of their remaining four opponents (Orange, Black, and Blue) currently sitting on ZERO combined wins in fifteen tries. Nothing is ever truly a ‘lock’ in sports, but…Grey is a lock for locking down a healthy playoff position come September…
Captain Josh Tran’s Orange were hoping for a reversal of fortune in Week Five, after the futility in their first four forays were featured on the front page of this fine publication. The gist of last week’s recap was that (perhaps) a good chunk of the woes for ‘Pulp Can Move, Baby!’ were at least in some part (and perhaps, significantly) due to an AWOL Matt Gottfried. Matt was (finally) back in Week Five, but unfortunately for Orange, they once again found themselves pulp free against fruit circuit rivals, ‘Little Cherry Seinfeld’. Kevin Dinino shoveled home his third of the season (from Matt Rogers) to stake Red to a 1-0 lead through one, a solo Jon Salt strike in the second built the lead to two, and a second from Salt (from Captain Geoff Downes and Mark Ennsmann) and a Downes empty-netter (from Ennsmann) were the beats of the scoring drum in Red’s 4-0 win over Orange. Jimm Reifsnyder (19/22) and Silas Perks (22/22) were equally tested (at least in quantity), but Perks is peaking again (.975/0.50/2 SO), and could very well be shouldering another strong contender as we close in on the second season. For Orange, it is very much officially ‘do or die’ time. As poorly as their season has gone, a Week Six win over a very beatable Black would have ‘Pulp’ right back in the playoff mix, and (finally) out of the citrus cellar. Week Six is proving ground time for Red, as they take on top dogs, Olive. A win would push them into at least a share of the top spot, and serve as a ‘statement’ that these ‘cherries’ belong on top.
Another week, another dose of bleak for Captain Ian Crooks’ Black. After opening the season with a 5-1 loss to Teal, Crooks’ & Company tallied a trio of ties (a heartbreaking 0:07 remaining non-win against Blue, an uplifting 0:04 comeback coup against Red, and a standard issue 3-3 stalemate with Purple). So, never enough to punch through to the win column, but slow and steady one point plodding. Black would snap that three game tie streak in Week Five, but not in the way they had hoped. Brennan Abel put Yellow in front with an unassisted effort at 2:18 in the first, and Dan Jurgens responded for Black at 9:05 in the second (from Mark Nagy), only to have Abel restore the lead late in the second (from Scott Wieland and Arnold Gonzales). Nagy put Black back in that familiar, knotted position at 4:37 in the third (from Mark DeGraffenreid and Jurgens), but that knot slid into their stomachs as a VERY unfortunate turnover in their own zone turned into a VERY pretty finish for Marc Lapointe with 1:59 to play, and a 4-3 finish in favor of our cover team, Captain Carl Vankoughnett’s ‘Yellooow, Newman’. As noted in the front page image blurb, the win is the third straight for Yellow–the longest active streak in the league. That streak, and the overall Yellow mettle will be truly tested against Teal in Week Six. Black cannot live on ties alone, and they REALLY need to beat Orange this Sunday if they have any hope of surviving past Week Nine.
The ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ are pretty well established by the midpoint in any SDFHL season, and the Week Five matchup between Teal (haves) and Purple (have nots) ended as you would ‘have’ expected. Captain Sev Brown’s ‘I’m An Eggplant’ had actually made a game of their last two games (a 6-5 win over Orange, and a 3-3 tie with Black), but those are two teams with no wins, and a combined point total barely better than half that of Teal’s seven points coming in. Oh, and the player responsible for five of the nine total goals in those prior two games for Purple, Zach Salt…not in the lineup, alas. So, not entirely surprising that Teal prevailed with relative ease in this one, 5-0, but Purple can definitely draw encouragement from a very strong outing from rookie netminder, Syd Costello (18/23). Costello was under duress from start to finish, but kept a severely outgunned Purple (ten shots for, more than double that against) in what should have been a lopsided game much longer than Teal might have hoped. A scoreless first saw Costello turn away eleven Teal tries, but David Schlatter finally found twine with 3:37 remaining in the second. It was Schlatter again with 0:23 in that same frame (from Chad Goins), and again to complete the hat trick at 7:33 in the third (from Vinny Santora and Captain Ryan Karns). John Boddy plumped the lead to 4-0 (from Schlatter and Joel Gattey), and Nadia Connolly netted the last straw (from Boddy and Karns) to round out the scoring and put the wraps on Teal’s fourth victory in five tries. Chuck Bender (10/10) recovered from his own team’s tough loss to complete a fine fill-in fling with no flaws, with the win keeping Teal in lock step with their big Week Eight opponent, Olive. Purple will need standard issue Salt, a stellar Syd, and a side of secondary scoring if they hope to put themselves on a winning track. Their Week Six showdown with 1-3-1 record twins, White, would be a good time to start their climb….a loss could spell the beginning of the end.