It was the week of the “6 pointers” and some teams got big wins.  A “6 pointer” is a game in which the two teams are very close in the standings and a win either way can have an impact of 6 points.

Red Bulls started the week 5 points behind Direwolves and if the gap increased to 8 points then 1st place would be out of reach.  Direwolves weren’t too worried so they sent 6 of their players to help out other teams in the 6 pm game.  It didn’t seem to affect them in the first half as they carried the tempo.  They were rewarded with a nice volley from Kaveh off of a corner.  The half ended that way but not without a minor kerfuffle.  Red Bulls started the second half on the power-play and scored through John Di Re who made it 1-1.  Shortly thereafter Di Re scored again off an Altinian cross from midfield which Di Re headed in past Bonner.  Late in the game Direwolves were pressing hard and pulled the goalkeeper.  Mohit forced a turnover and clinically finished into an open net.  Red Bulls are now within 2 points of Direwolves and the battle for first place is on!

Lightning needed to win in order to keep pace at the top and that’s just what they did.  Emeralds were in tough this game as they were missing half of their team.  They did however score first as Scott Thompson rose majestically to meet a cross and power the ball into the net.  Unfortunately the good news stopped there as Lightning scored 3 times through Valeria, Hamid and Dillon to go into the half up 3-1.  In the second half, Emeralds lost Sam due to injury and after a couple of own goals later, they lost 6-2.  Lightning reminded the league that after a mini-slump they’re back and still aiming for first place.  They have their sights set on Red Bulls next week.

Vaders showed their teeth with a 4-2 win over Nightmares.  This was enough to get them to 5th place albeit on goal difference.  While this writer only saw a portion of the second half, Nightmares looked like it was their first game together.  It was an uncharacteristically disjointed performance.  That’s just my opinion.  For another opinion we turn to Captain Fernando who said that it was his machismo which caused Nightmares to crumble.  Winnett, Victor C and Bob T took advantage of the fear and scored the goals for Vaders.  Theo and Adrian did not get the memo and scored for Nightmares.

Now the gamesmanship begins.  Most teams are less concerned with where they finish in the standings and more concerned with who they’ll play in the quarter-finals.  The team that everyone wants to avoid is Direwolves.  Should they drop to 2nd place ahead of the quarter-finals, then all of a sudden ending up in 6th place doesn’t look so bad.