It's Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., but that didn't stop 11
table hockey nuts from competing in the second-to-last regular season
round-robin tournament in the Lemont Table Hockey League. As usual,
the games were played on four Stiga sets side-by-side at the
Pytlewski Dome in Lemont, IL outside Chicago.
Jim Rzonca pledged earlier in the week to concentrate on defense, and
he lived up to that pledge, allowing only four goals all night en
route to a 10-0 record and first place. Five-time CTHL champ Mike
Lisowski, who wound up 8-2, certainly had a bee in his bonnet
tonight. Actually, it wasn't his bonnet.....it was the back of his
shirt. And it was a bit bigger than a bee....a hornet maybe? And when
Mike found out about it, he showed off the quickest moves of the
evening, doffing his t-shirt until the yellow threat could be
neutralized. Adam Thill felt for the bugger in Lisowski's shirt, and
squished it. Mike still put the shirt back on, and at least he wasn't
hurt. Scott Pytlewski also finished at 8-2, setting up a showdown
between the two players for second place. Lisowski only lost to
Rzonca and Pytlewski, while Pytlewski only lost to Rzonca and Eric
Krol, who ended up in fourth place at 6-4. There would be a battle
for fifth place as well, as Joe Salazar defeated Krol in the last
round-robin game to go 5-5, setting up a playoff against Jeff Thill,
home from Purdue University for the evening's games. Bill McDaniel
and Adam Thill were each at 4-6, with Commissioner Jerry Pytlewski,
using his trademark cheetah crouch, finished 2-8. So did proud papa
Rich Thill, who brought his two sons. Youngster Matt Soukup was 1-9.
Second place playoff: With Rzonca reffing, Scott got to pick the
table by virtue of his win against Lisowski in the round robin. Away
they went, playing some tight defense for nearly four minutes of the
five minute game. Scott had an excellent save on a Lisowski LW-to-C
pass with 2:04 left. Lisowski came up with a great save on a Scott
center shot with 1:30 left. Scott broke the scoreless tie with 1:16
to go by quickly running his RW up the slot and ripping a quick shot
past Lisowski's goalie's near side. But Lisowski tied it up with his
center with 50 seconds to play. The final seconds wound down as the 1-
1 game appeared headed for OT. But no....Lisowski hit his patented RW-
to-C touch pass with 7 seconds left to win the game 2-1, taking
second place. Scott finished third.
Fifth-place playoff: It was CTHL veteran Joe Salazar vs. Jeff Thill.
Joe was up 1-0 when Jeff tied it using a center trick, a play that's
not used successfully very often in the LTHL. Then, with 30 seconds
to play, Jeff went up 2-1 on a RW-to-C pass. That's how it ended,
with Thill, only playing his second week in the league, taking fifth
and Salazar finishing sixth, getting an extra 0.5 for his efforts.
In a game where pride was on the line, Bill McDaniel downed Adam
Thill 5-4 to finish 7th. Adam, who could stand-in for Jack Osbourne
on "The Osbournes," finished 8th.
The LTHL will take next week off, and will return for the final week
of the regular season on Sept. 14 in Lemont. All are welcome, and
many players will be jockeying for playoff seeding.
PLAYER W L PTS
Jim Rzonca 10 0 6.5
Mike Lisowski 8 2 5.5
Scott Pytlewski 8 2 4.5
Eric Krol 6 4 3.5
Jeff Thill 5 5 2.5
Joe Salazar 5 5 1.5
Bill McDaniel 4 6 1.0
Adam Thill 4 6 1.0
Jerry Pytlewski 2 8 1.0
Rich Thill 2 8 1.0
Matt Soukup 1 9 1.0
