Captain Grant Goins 'Maroonraker' really never left the launch pad all season, and Captain Jeremy Copp's 'Dye Another Grey' finally found the sweet release of playoff death after a five game plummet into the abyss, leaving us with 008 teams ready to embrace the SDFHL playoff mantra that 'you only live twice'...
Captain Emily Bennington's Green had been watching...waiting...safe and dry from the rains in a secret place with secret plans to sneak about, slit throats, and save their season. After dumping Grey's lifeless body in a trunk in Week Eight, Bennington's agents picked off Pink, then choked out Charcoal in Week Nine to complete their rise from clueless klutzes to playoff suspects...
Captain Grant Goins' 'Maroonraker' have been a failure to launch all season, but a huge Week Eight win over previously unbeaten Charcoal has them approaching playoff orbit with three games left in their regular season mission. Gabe Davenport secured POTW honors with his first career shutout, and while Maroon have plenty of work left to do to reach cut line escape velocity, this win may be the booster they need to shoot for the stars...
Captain Ryan Karns' 'Karsino Royale' were heads up with Captain Grant Goins' 'Maroonraker' in a high stakes Week Seven matchup, with the winner moving safely above the cut line (at least, for now), and the loser remaining in danger of being flushed out of playoff contention. The chip stacks remained even heading into the late going, but Jenna Chercoe and her Blue mates dealt Maroon yet another losing hand and shuffled up the standings with three games left in their schedule.
Captain Bryan Ossa's 'REDACTED' entered the third period of their Week Six match with White down two goals. The lead was down to one with one minute to play...thirty seconds to play...twenty seconds...ten...five...one...GOAL! Owen Perks made every second count, scoring a goal for the ages with one tick left to tock, and in doing so kept Charcoal's loss column clean as a whistle through five games. It remains to be seen what impact (if any) this will have on either team, but it is certainly another feather in Charcoal's confidence cap, and it keeps the Week Nine matchup with Neon set as the last potential Battle Of Undefeated Teams...
Captain Grant Goins' 'Maroonraker' are still in plenty of peril, but their precarious position (suspended, and trying not to sweat above the standings floor) improved ever so slightly with the procurement of their first point in a wild Week Four battle with Captain Mason Holcomb's 'Mason Impossible: Pink Ops'. The captain himself collected two assists and scored the game-tying goal to keep his team hanging in there as we hit the midway point of the season...
Two of the three remaining undefeated teams met in Week Three, with Captain Dorothy Kline's Teal taking on Captain Bryan Ossa's Charcoal. The two remain undefeated, which of course means that this was the equivalent of the proverbial 'early brush with the villain where nothing really happens, but the tension is ratcheted up for the big finale to come' from every Bond movie ever. Of course, there are no ties in playoff hockey (it's really no time to tie, after all), so we'll have to wait for the next film to see how this arc ends...
Three agents have completed their first two deadly missions successfully, dispatching all henchmen in their path, and shifting their sleek sports cars into high gear as they wend towards the lair where a secret, sinister organization is rumored to be hatching a plan to harness the power of 'The Cup' (an ancient artifact said to grant the holder eternal bragging rights). Three other agents are strapped to a table with a laser inching towards their collective junk (now, that's an image), and the remaining four have found some success, but will likely need to find some better gadgets if they hope to survive and thrive in this high stakes spy game...
I probably shouldn't be typing this out in plain text...this headline blurb may be intercepted and completely compromise the mission, but....the SDFHL Fall League 2026 season went off with a bang in Week One, with five operatives completing their deadly directives, and five meeting a spy's (disavowed) demise. With 008 weeks to go, there is still plenty of time for wild chases, spectacular escapes, and maybe even a tense and torrid romp with a seductive counter agent...
Josh Wirt - Karnsino Royale
Once again...plenty of notable performances from the final week of regular season action, but the POTW nod hinges upon the importance of the effort, and Wirt's 2 and 1 powered Blue to a 4-2 win over Charcoal to finally punch a playoff ticket for Karns & Kompany. Of course, Grey sticking the landing on their five game nose dive in the late game rendered all of this moot, but the win also moved Blue to the seven seed, thereby dodging a first round meeting with Neon.
Kalen Hunter - coVert AgedGents
Per usual, there were a number of worthy candidates for POTW in Week Nine, but at this point in the season, it is really about the impact of a player's effort(s). Kalen scored the lone goal in Green's 1-0 winning coup against Pink, then served up assists on the go-ahead and GWG goals in the conclusion of a rained out affair with Charcoal. Green now sit above the cut line for the first time all season, and STILL hold a game in hand over all but one other team...
The first shutout of Gabe's young SDFHL career could not have come at a bigger and better time for Maroon, with his efforts securing a HUGE 3-0 win over previously unbeaten Charcoal to keep Captain Grant Goins' & Company alive in the playoff hunt heading into their final three games of the season.
Jenna Chercoe - Karnsino Royale
The ever-chipper Chercoe assisted on a pair of Brendan Jew strikes in the first and second period, then produced the game-winning powerplay goal at 3:49 in the third to lift Blue past Maroon in what could prove to be a season-saving victory for Captain Karns & Company.
Owen Perks - REDACTED
Owen is no stranger to big games and big moments, but his spin-out-of-the-corner-literal-last-second-SUPER-snipe-top-corner-game-tying goal was mind-blowing to see first hand. It capped a hat trick for Charcoal's humble hero, and kept their loss column spotless as we enter the downhill to playoffs.
Grant Goins - Maroonraker
The youngest captain in SDFHL history is looking to write a brighter future for 'Maroonraker', with the '1' in his 1 and 2 effort coming as the game-tying tally against a potent Pink side in a truly wild 6-6 shootout. Goins' gritty gem secured a possibly pivotal first point in the standings heading into the pivot point of the Fall 2026 season...
Chuck's trademark nonchalance, even in the face of repeated golden chances by the likes of Owen Perks just tickles me so much. It was likely more of an irritating, persistent itch-that-can't-be-scratched for Charcoal, who fired twenty-seven shots at the stoic veteran only to come up empty on all but one. Bender's 26/27 heroics kept Teal undefeated (and in lock step with Charcoal, fittingly) through three weeks of play at 2-0-1.
Kyle Snyder - Mason Impossible: Pink Ops
Snyder (quite literally) did it all for Pink in a 6-3 Week Two win over Grey, scoring all six goals...most in standard Snyder coast-to-coast with taters and toast fashion.
Erin Plone - REDACTED
Erin played for Charcoal at 5:00, then kept score for the 6:00 game, then served as an emergency sub in the 7:00 game...where she went 1 and 2 to help pace Brown to a 5-1 win. It is this kind of selfless dedication from so many of our players that have made this league (and keep this league) great.
Jon Zygelman - Gilda Redner
JZ setup both Red goals in the opening game loss, then scored two of his own and assisted on a third in the big second game win to complete the Cup crusade for Captain Enright's 'Gilda Redner'.