Division B: Regular Season Wrap-Up and Guess Who’s Back!
With the big man Zack Alberts-Gill on vacation, I am filling in for him on the Division B article. It’s been about a year since I’ve written for Division B, so hopefully I haven’t lost my touch.
I score-kept the game between EZW and Kiss My Inlaws last night in Brossard. From the precision passing on deep touchdowns passes by Quarterbacks Ignacio Valdes Manzanedo and Jeremy White, to spectacular leaping grabs by Fritzgerald Cenatus, Nathan Desjardins, Sanders Armand, and Manu Allard-Roy, the speed shown by Xavier Couture, Charles-Olivier Lavigne, and Jules Regimbald, to the playmaking ability and toughness provided by Jean-Christophe Ferland and Brady Ohanessian, this game was full of big catches, clutch throws, physicality, and highlight plays.
As is the case in most games, conversions made the difference in this contest, as Kiss My Inlaws were able to record three while EZW only got two. The backbreaker for EZW came after they allowed Jerome Hovington to score a 33-yard touchdown, they also gave up a 1-point conversion to Sanders Armand. The score allowed the former to go up by nine points with five plays remaining.
EZW got the ball back, but they needed to score and then go for an onside pass attempt. White moved the chains on first down as he connected with Snapper Ferland for a gain of 10 yards. After an incompletion on second down, White found Ferland for eight additional yards.
The comeback was stopped short on the next play, as Hovington intercepted White, ending a fantastic game.
The loss extended EZW’s losing streak to four games, as they finish the regular with a record of (5-5). It also leaves them in a two-way tie for fifth with the Heavenly Sons.
For Kiss My Inlaws, the win has them sitting at (8-1), and seals the top spot in Division B, as they prepare for their regular season finale Thursday night in Laval against the Beer Bely Brigade. This will be a rematch of the Week 3 showdown that saw Kiss My Inlaws blowout their opponents (44-19).
The only negative for Kiss My Inlaws in the victory last night, was that they lost former All-Star Charles Verreault, who left the game just after halftime with a leg injury. Taking himself out of the game was more of a precautionary move by the veteran as he said his leg didn’t feel right, but the situation will be worth watching.
In the earlier game yesterday, The Infantry used a 26-point scoring outburst in the second half to break open a (20-20) tie and knock off OneStop (46-32).
The Infantry were led by the duo of Quarterback Will Power, and Receiver Rory Semerjian. Power was phenomenal as he threw seven touchdown passes and only two incompletions. Semerjian was the biggest beneficiary of his QBs performance, as he caught three TDs.
The duo was joined by Snapper Marc-André Lapointe, who had a solid game of his own, as he caught all 10 passes thrown to him for a team-high 106 yards and a touchdown.
The OneStop offense got a superb performance of their own, as Receiver AJ Zeppetelli had a game-high 135 yards and four TDs on 10 catches, but it wasn’t enough.
Missed opportunities came back to bite OneStop. Except for scoring a 40-yard touchdown the first play they touched the ball after halftime, and an eight-play drive later in the game, OneStop couldn’t score on their third and final possession of the game. That, in combination with their turnover on downs to start the contest contributed in a big way to the loss.
The defeat for OneStop ended their 5-game winning streak and left them with a (7-3) record to finish the regular season. It also might have shown the rest of Division B a recipe to slow down the team’s high-scoring offense that averaged 46.8 points per game over the span.
The victory for The Infantry sees them finish the regular season with a (7-3) record and runs their current winning streak to five games in a row. It also avenged a (37-31) loss to OneStop in Week 3.
We have three games left before the playoffs start. Tomorrow night in Brossard we have battle of the winless teams in the Hateful Eight versus Beer Belly Brigade. Based off the fact that the Hateful Eight have only taken the field in two of their nine games, it’s a safe bet that they will forfeit this game as well. Every year no matter what division, there is always a team that registers above where they should go. This is clearly the case with this squad.
Whether the Hateful Eight show up or not, Beer Belly Brigade will get their first victory of the year. The BBB will try to make it two wins in a row as they take on the first place Kiss My Inlaws two nights later in Laval.
Both teams met in a Week 3 matchup that saw Kiss My Inlaws cruise to a (44-19) victory on the shoulders of seven-touchdown outing by Iggy, that saw him toss four of them in the second stanza. The team’s receiving combo of Jerome Hovington and Charles Verreault shredded the Beer Belly Brigade defense, as the duo put up a combined 190 yards and four touchdowns on the evening. Verreault also made an impact defensively, as he led all players with five tackles and three pass deflections. As I mentioned earlier, his status for the game is up in the air.
The Beer Belly Brigade got a strong outing out of Nicolas Curotte, who led his team with seven receptions for 80 yards and two TDs. Unfortunately for the team, they would need much more than that to pull off the upset.
The Silent Ticklers versus the Bruins showdown should be good game, as the former looks to complete the regular season sweep, having beaten the latter (34-23) in Week 8.
The (6-3) fourth-place Bruins come into the game riding a two-game losing streak, as they fell to The Infantry last Thursday in Laval, the week after losing to the Silent Ticklers in Week 8. A win for them would leave them tied for points with both The Infantry and OneStop. They lost to the former last Thursday but beat the latter by one point in a thriller back in Week 4.
Sitting at (4-5) a win for the seventh-place Silent Ticklers would leave them in a three-way tie with both the Heavenly Sons and EZW. The Silent Ticklers can leapfrog EZW due to having the points differential advantage over EZW, as they beat them by 31 points in Week 2 and lost to them by nine one week later.
Unless the Silent Ticklers give up more than 70 points, they will slide into fifth place due to points allowed and point differential, despite the fact that they lost to the Heavenly Sons (41-34) in their lone meeting last Tuesday in Brossard.
Picks
Hateful Eight vs Beer Belly Brigade – Beer Belly Brigade
Bruins vs Silent Ticklers – Bruins (My pick for game of the Week)
Beer Belly Brigade VS Kiss My Inlaws – Kiss My Inlaws
That is it for this week. Zack will still be away, so I will be writing next week’s article as well.
Good luck to everyone tomorrow night and Thursday.
If you liked the article, hated it, or simply felt like I left something out, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], or on the FPF Facebook page.