If you can't take the heat...

This past week was a first for the season: we played with the orange balls. Of course, with the temperature in the 80s they were probably somewhere between the yellow and pinks in regard to softness. But, at least we didn't have to worry about people slipping (or falling into puddles, right Lenny?)

The captains for this past week were Jared and Brett. Jared decided to pick first and went with Darrin. The way the teams ended up at first:
Jared's team (dark): Jared, Mike W, Griff, Steve P, Steve's cousin Bob, Brad, Darrin (G).
Brett's team (white): Brett, John, Nick, Matt D, Andrew, Cindy, Steve F (G).

We say that's how the teams started because we had an unexpected player show up. Fortunately it wasn't Billy or Mike D since they had their assembly. Anybody want to guess who it was? That's right - Brendon. Doing some math...his grandmother's memorial talk was at 2, he showed up at 3:15...he either left early, or ripped his suit off Clark Kent style to reveal his Martino # 86 Alliance jersey. Either way I hope she wasn't one of the annointed Brendon! All joking aside, it was nice to have you there this past week...well except for games 2 & 3.

So with Brendon joining the forces of good (I'm referring to the White team Reggie), a swap was made of Brad and Matt D. Game 1 was a 5-0 shutout for the White team. They had three different players with two points...guess who? Andrew (2 g), Brett (1g, 1a) and of course Riley (2 a). However, that is not our beloved protagonist (don't look it up Brad, it means hero) John that we are talking about. Cindy had 2 assists. John did have the gamewinner though so it was happy times for all.

Game 2 started out great for the White team, who had a sizable lead early with goals from Andrew, Brett, and John (2). However, Jared pulled out his secret weapon for his team: heavy complaining followed by a good helping of cheating. Yes, after Jared complained again about the team that he picked, there was a minor dispute over who shot the ball out of play. What followed was Griff just firing the ball down the rink during the stoppage in play and Nick telling Griff that he wasn't going to retrieve it. Suddenly Mike W runs down the rink, gets the ball, and scores on Steve. And, you guessed it: Jared counted it for his team. Even though we weren't even playing at the time, we had a big lead and allowed it to count just to keep Jared quiet. I mean, it's not like we were going to lose, right? Bad mistake on our part as the dark team rallied behind 3 goals from Jared and pulled off the win.

The dark team took it again to the white team in Game 3 due to some horrendous defensive play by the White team (not that we did much on offense either). The only highlight for the White team was Cindy's third assist, a perfect pass on a one-timer to our beloved protagaonist (which means what again Brad?). Speaking of Brad, there was debate over where he was for this game. Some say he was benched in favor of Cindy who played most of Game 3. Insiders say though that Brad sectioned himself off with yellow security tape and took a nap on the bench. The dark team won on a "slap shot" that Jared took from the Tobin. Steve said it was just too slow for him to stop. End result: 5-2 win for the dark team, a 2-1 lead in games, and lots of yelling by me.

Ah, but then came Game 4. 5-0 win by the White team, finished off by John a one-timer on a perfect feed from Nick.

Other Notes:

It was weird how it broke down: 2 5-0 shutouts for the White team surrounding two losses to the dark team. It was definitely hot, but manageable...and no puddles. Andrew was as bi-polar as our team, playing either very well, or awful. Maybe the injury he got walking into the rink (literally) affected him at times...Some great play by Darrin, especially one very nice glove save. Steve was pretty solid as well, that one terrible goal aside. I'll have the stats for Nick later today, but the scoring leaders roughly were:

John - 7g, 3a
Brett - 3g, 4a
Jared - 5g, 1a
Steve P - 6a