THE GENTLEMEN’S RUN ENDS IN FINAL VERSUS CATANIA

      The NYTHL’S eleventh season continued on Saturday February 24, 2026 at Rab’s in Staten Island.  It featured twelve competitors from four different states.  The day also presented the debut of Eric Reinagel from Syracuse, NY and the return of Walter Zissler. This month’s road warriors were Tom Kearns from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as Dan Henner and Eric Reinagel from Syracuse, New York.  This day’s dozen players competed in a twenty-two game double round robin then were ranked according to the day’s standings.  The top four players would receive a bye into the Quarter-Finals in the end of day League Date Five “A” playoffs.  The remaining eight would do battle to see which four would advance to join them.  The four who lost would participate in the “B” Playoffs.   At the conclusion of round robin play, it was Vinny Catania who topped the field with a 17-4-1 record.  The Vinner didn’t emerge unscathed as he took various lumps on the day.  The most surprising included one from the debuting Eric Reinagel of the Syracuse table hockey league.  The Gentleman Anthony Sciacca finished just three points behind the Vinner for second, with a 14-4-4 mark.  Len “The Mechanism” Mecca also finished 14-4-4, but lost out on the head to head tiebreak with Sciacca thus landing Len in third. League Champ George Slater finished fourth at 13-5-4.  Chris D’Andrea finished fifth at 12-5-5 as his day ended there.  He was not able to compete in the playoffs.  The Bob O - Bob D’Addario finished in sixth with a record of 11-6-5.  Larry Durham had a better round robin this time around as he finished round robin play in seventh with a 10-9-3 tally.  The returning Walter Zissler fought his way to an 8-11-3 mark which put him eighth.  Dan Henner, organizer of the Syracuse Table Hockey League played to a 7-11-4 record for ninth.  Traveling Tom Kearns of Pittsburgh was in tenth with a 5-14-4 finish.  The aforementioned Eric Reinagel struggled with a 3-19-0 finish.  He did however earn a sweep over Hank Librandi and a split with The Vinner, aside from playing many close games.  Hopefully this is the first of many appearances for this man with a promising future on the board.  Hank Librandi did not record a win or a tie as he finished in twelfth.  The players then went on to the playoffs.

     The League Date Five playoffs were underway with The Vinner, Anthony, Len, George and Bob all receiving Preliminary round byes. Because Chris D’andrea didn’t participate in the playoffs, an extra bye (Bob) was added to the round with the bottom six competing to see who joined them.  Once underway – Now six seed Larry Durham swept eleven seed Hank by scores of 4-0, 6-2 and 7-3.  Seven seed Walter Zissler needed five games to eliminate the upstart Eric Reinagel.  Eric took game one 4-1.  Walter battled back winning games two and three by scores of 2-1 and 4-1 respectively.  Eric was resilient as he tied the series at two with a 6-3 game four victory.  Walter put the series away in overtime of a nail biting 3-2 thriller.  If that wasn’t enough the eight seeded Dan Henner and ninth seeded Tom Kearns also had a five game battle which featured two overtime games.  Tom took game one in O.T. by a 4-3 score.  Dan then tied the series with a 2-0 shutout in game two.  Henner then went ahead with a 5-4 overtime victory.  Tom then tied the series with a 5-4 win of his own to force game five.  In the end Dan Henner was just a little too much for Tom as he edged him by another 5-4 score to take the series and move on to the next round.  It was then time for the Quarter-Finals.

     The Quarters were played next.  One seed Vinny Catania took down number eight Dan Henner in a sweep by scores of 6-4, 4-0, and 6-2.  The two seed Ageless Anthony Sciacca had to work a little harder in his series versus seven seed Walter Zissler.  Walter took the opening game 3-2.  Sciacca then really clamped on his famous box style defense.  Anthony then won three straight by tallies of 7-1, 2-1 and 4-2 to advance.  Third seed Len Mecca then swept past rival six seed Larry Durham by scores of 4-1, 2-1 (O.T.), and 6-5( O.T.) to earn his spot in the semis.  The fourth seed - league champion George Slater matched up with fifth seed Bob D’Addario.  The Bob O eliminated George a month prior in the Quarter Finals with a three games to one victory.  George obviously learned from that as he took no prisoners this time around.  Slater swept D’Addario by scores of 2-1, 2-1 and 5-1.   The Semis were now set.

          The Semi-Finals were then underway.  One seed Vinny Catania took on Champion George Slater.  The Vinner jumped out with an impressive 3-0 shutout in game one.  He followed that with a 4-2 victory to go up 2-0 in the series heading to game three.  Slater struck back with a late goal to win game three by a 3-2 score.  George with a chance to tie in game four, fell victim to a very stingy Vinner defense as Catania wrapped up the series with a 5-0 shutout to take the 3-1 series win.  In the other Semi-Final it was the two seed ageless Anthony Sciacca versus the three seed Len ‘The Mechanism” Mecca.  These two have one of the oldest rivalries in the league dating back to the New York City Table Hockey League days.  Mecca took game one by a score of 3-1, and then won game two by a 4-1 margin.  The Ageless one then struck back.  Sciacca rattled off a 5-3 game three victory.  Then Anthony tied the series with an exciting 4-3 victory in overtime.  With a trip to the League Date Final on the line, The Sciacca Box Defense made victim of the Mechanism as Sciacca defeated Len via a 3-0 shutout to earn a spot in the Final versus Catania.

     In this year’s only playoff meeting, The Vinner swept past Anthony Sciacca in the Semi-Finals of League Date 2.  This time would prove to be a harder task for Catania, as Anthony is playing some of the best table hockey of his career.  Catania edged Anthony in a well defended game one by a 2-1 score.  Catania had an easier time in game two as he scored seven times for a 7-3 triumph.  Game three was back to being another tightly contested struggle.  The Vinner had to work hard, but did prevail by a 3-2 score to win the series in a sweep, three games to none.

     In the “B” Playoffs nine seed Tom Kearns received a Semi-Final Bye. The ten seed Eric Reinagel battled eleven seed Hank Librandi.  Eric easily defeated Hank in game one 6-0.  Hank tied the series at one with a 3-2 victory.  Eric again took the lead in the series with his second shutout of Hank by a 3-0 score.  Reinagel closed out the series with a close 2-1 victory in game four to take the series three games to one.  It was now time for the “B” Final.  Nine seed Tom Kearns battled ten seed upstart Eric Reinagel.  Tom started the series with a solid 3-0 game one shutout.  Eric bounced back with a convincing 6-2 victory in game two to knot the series at one.  Tom edged Eric 3-2 in game three to go up by a game.  Eric again bounced back with a convincing 5-2 triumph to tie the series and force a deciding fifth game.  With the series knotted these two did battle and fought their way through regulation tied at one.  The Championship was decided when Eric scored in overtime to earn a dramatic 2-1 victory to capture the League Date 5 “B” title in his debut.  Great job Eric!

     One more exciting league date is in the history books.  As another season rolls on, new players are creating new rivalries and even greater matchups.  As always we welcome new players as we grow our expanding league.  You too can join us.  I close every month’s review with the same question, and again dare to ask.  With great games to play and great people to compete on them – what are you waiting for?  Get behind the rods and Join the NYTHL.  Like so many others, you will be glad you did.  See you at League Date VI on Saturday March 14, 2026.

See you next month - God Bless!