Div 5A: Group B Mid-Season Report Card
Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo
12-02-2023 07:28 PM
Since there are multiple bye weeks built into the schedule, not all teams have played the same amount of games. In Div 5A, Group A only has 2 two teams that have reached the 5 game-mark while the majority of Group B have played half their season. That said, we’re gonna break the mid-season report card into 2 articles, where Group B will get their report card grade this week and Group A the following week.
As for 5B, we’re gonna break down the midseason reports for Group A and Group B this week, but in the coming days. Group C and Group D in 5B will be next week.
The Grading Scheme
Let’s break down how the grading scheme works since it might be a TAD different from your usual expectations of what you are used to when it comes to grades. First thing, the grades will be based off of pre-season expectations. If, for example, you are 5-0 and are expecting an automatic A, that’s not how to the grading scheme works. If I expected you to be 5-0 at this point you’ll likely get a C, maybe B-, but definitely not an A. Likewise, if I expected you to struggle and are 1-4 or 0-5, you won’t be getting an F. In fact, you might receive a B or C, depending on the second thing to look for: the quality of your opponents, and even, how you’ve held up in your games (Are you getting blown out or losing by 1 point?).
Each team will get a blurb on their season performance, their grade, the key players that have been involved so far, and a record prediction to close the year. Note: The key players are not the players I like best or who I believe are the best players on the team but rather it is based on their usage and how they are contributing this season. The letter grade reflects the following scoring system:
A – You’ve exceeded pre-season expectations. I never would have thought the team in question would have performed this well.
B – The team is surpassing the expectations that I placed on them ahead of the season, or perhaps you meeting expectations with your record, but have lost close matchups against tough opponents.
C – I was right, and the team is performing exactly as expected.
D – The team is underperforming. Huddles are strained and it feels like the season is slipping away. We’re a losing streak away from missing the playoffs.
E – Evil, this team is full of people I consider evil. This is a socially constructed grade that no one gets and fills in the gap that the school system has failed to classify.
F – Your team is really underperforming. This is abject failure.
OK so let’s get started! Enjoy.
Division 5A
Big Fat Bats (5-0)
Starting their FPF careers under the title of Oscar’s Hockey School in Spring 2021, Big Fat Bats are your classic FPF tale of a team struggling out the gates, taking their punches to more experienced, but sticking with the program and becoming an ever-dangerous team with each passing season. Mathew Zeppetelli has impressed with his QB development, with a clear focus on improving as a passer. He was your prototypical 300+ yard rushing QB with a 3:1 TD-to-INT ratio, which honestly, for your first season as an FPF QB is really, really good. With each passing season though, he’s improved that ratio, from 3:1 in Spring ’21 to 4:1 in Spring ’22 and is now throwing a crazy 10:1 ratio.
The season expectations were sky-high for this team, especially when I saw they added the Division 1 stud Sam Mashtoub to their offensive arsenal. With big wins over No Friend Zone and Tip Top Shape, putting up 99 points combined in Weeks 2 and 3, it looked like they were on their way to outscoring any defensive woes they would face. That is, until the team got the devasting news that Sam Mash was pulling the plug. I could tell it deflated the team a bit and it showed in their game against The Tokyo Sandblasters. Given how their season was going, they were on pace to putting a 50 burger on them. Instead, they squeaked out a 1-point victory that saw them give up a TD with 4 plays remaining after they could have taken a knee off an interception to ice the game. The win required a key sack from Luca Leccese and a stop on the 2-point convert at the end of the game. Needing to replace Sam, Daniel Curiale was fired up on IG that Jordan Lessard was officially joining the team, once again putting them as a favorite to win the division. While offense has never really been an issue and has improved with each season, defense was not the forté of this team. 102 points against in 5 games though is great, especially now that they’ve moved up in FPF, where the offenses start becoming more consistent and prolific.
Grade: B-
Key Players: Mathew Zeppetelli, AJ Zeppetelli, Luca Leccese
Prediction Record: 9-1
Save The Turftles (4-1)
I would have given this team a B- grade like Big Fat Bats above them, but ouf, I’ll admit there’s hardcore recency bias, but that was a stinker of a game against West Island Boys on Monday night in St-Laurent and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
That said, STT are coming off a Finals appearance in Tier 4 of the Fall Cup and expectations were high on this team with the usual cast. Like Big Fat Bats, this is a team that started their FPF careers in the Spring of 2021, where they saw immediate success in Div E, going 7-3 in their first season. In reviewing their careers, I would have guessed that they never had a losing season, but that was far from true. In the Fall of 2021 they did go 6-2, but then went 4-6 in W22 in 5B, where they split passing duties between Simon Imbach and Seb Noël and followed that with another 4-6 season in the Spring of 2022 in Div D. All that said, this team has definitely been competitive every season, has never looked lost out there and are genuinely good guys having fun playing football.
Focusing on this season, Seb Noël‘s season has been very average overall. However, if you break it down game-by-game, he’s actually had 2 great performances, scoring 6 TD’s in each of those games (with just 1 INT per game), and 2 poorer performances, throwing 3 TDs in each and 8 combined INTs in those 2 forgetful games. He looks the part at QB and simply needs to work on consistency, and not letting games get away by going deep and picked off when down by 2 possessions. Defensively, Tony Vo is a sack-machine as he takes great angles, doesn’t get rattled by a QB spin move and doesn’t miss when he has a QB dead-to-rights. He sets up the defense in favorable positions, but like last Fall, they need to do a better job putting teams away by not letting them convert on 3rd and 4th-and-long situations.
Grade: C
Key Players: Guilaume Dubois, Thomas Chaussé, Vincent Cheung, Tony Vo
Prediction Record: 7-3
No Friend Zone (4-1)
Like Save The Turftles, No Friend Zone is coming off a somewhat disappointing game, where, despite winning 26-20 against Les Petites Carottes and playing a great 1st half, the 2nd half performance was by-far the worst this team has put forth with myself present. That said, it was a game filled with adversity where they came out victorious and the rest of the season has been very good so far. They did lose big to BFB in Week 2, but with a sub QB playing a different style offense with unfamiliar receivers.
Are we surprised that Felix Boutet, now featured in Division 2 of FPF has over 300 yards and 10 TD’s? That Alex Noel has 230 yards, 5 TDs and 4 INTs? What is always nice is the distribution this team has offensively. All the receivers are reliable targets with great hands, which speaks to the 73.6% of passes that have been completed. With 5 receivers already over 100 yards, and a 6th receiver 17 yards shy of joining that crew, it’s hard to defend this team when the ball can go to any receiver, at any depth of the field (short, intermediate, deep). The one area of concern, if any, has to be the points against. While averaging 26.8 points against is pretty standard for playing in 5A where the offenses are competent, I would have guessed this roster would have an average between 20-24 points. That said, they have played BFB and West Island Boys, 2 highly-skilled offenses, so it does make sense it’s slightly higher. If the offense is averaging 34.4 though, that should win them more games down the road.
Grade: C
Key Players: Felix Boutet, Alexandre Noel, Lucas Quenneville
Prediction Record: 8-2
The Process (2-0-1)
While they’ve only played 3 games, we can’t fault The Process on this for their evaluation. That said, they have yet to lose a game so far, and the biggest question mark has had a good answer so far. With this being his first season at QB, there was no question Noah Groper came into the position with a great understanding of the game, which takes care about a quarter of the role. As for the other 3/4’s, he’s shown he can protect the football and shown he is capable of scoring TDs. Now, he doe have a 2 INT game and another game where he only posted 2 TD’s, but for the first time playing QB, I’d give him personally, a B grade at QB. Playing QB is HARD, especially in FPF, and especially in 5A. I like the 11 to 2 TD:INT ratio, but not the biggest fan of 334 passing yards in 3 games. He does though, make up for the low passing yard number up with 145 yards through the run. The offense is tending to lean on Ariel Librati a little too much, but I would too if I was playing QB for the first time, playing with a Division 2-3 caliber receiver. That said, 13 receptions on 24 targets is a low catch percentage, and only 2 other receivers have more than 10 targets. The average reception for each receiver is suggesting that the offense is heavily favoring the short game. Which there is nothing wrong with that at all, it does need to be complemented by being able to hit the deep ball once defenses come crashing down. That is still a question that remains to be answered.
With Groper playing QB and also not rushing (it appears), this team is hard to predict how they will fare against experienced teams. I wonder if a game is close, or we’re talking playoffs, whether Groper goes in to rush to make the defense that much scarier. Already in Week 1, they squeaked out a 1-point win over a good West Island Boys team and took Les Petites Carottes to school. I wonder how they fare against the top of the division in Big Fat Bats, No Friend Zone and Save The Turftles. I think there’s another tie in the horizon. I think the team has exceeded expectations, but the QB play has met expectations, therefore:
Grade: B-
Key Players: Ariel Librati, Greg Castiel, Noah Groper
Prediction Record: 6-2-2
West Island Boys (2-2)
If the grading was purely on expectation, I think the grade would be either a D or F, but because they have played tough competition, and either outclassed or kept it tight in their losses, they salvaged a failing grade. It’s been a 1st half of ups and downs, but as mentioned, have been in the games in which they’ve lost (by a combined 4 points). Zack Stacey has progressed his QB play with flames and it’s clear he “gets it”. He understands what works and what doesn’t, he plays to his strengths, is careful not to turnover the ball and is both timely and accurate on his deep shots. Little seems to stress or fluster Stacey, whether it’s a sack to make it 3rd or 4th-and-long, a redzone interception, etc. He is poised in the pocket and is poised to lead his team to a 6-0 record down the stretch. The team has a 3-headed monster at receiver in the all-around star Skylar Bayliff, the speedy Nick Di Maulo and the sure-handed and veteran Mike Collard. It’s unclear whether Julian McLaren-Thompson is a full timer on the team, but when he’s there, he is another threat that can escape defenders in a flash.
Defensively, no one has created more turnovers than the West Island Boys, intercepting quarterbacks 13 times already. That of course sets up this potent offense in prime position to either stage a comeback or build on their lead, either way, when you can rely on your defense to give you 2.5 possessions per game where the opposing offense put up 0 points (in addition to 1 extra possession from turnover on downs), that’s 3 or 4 possessions a game where your defense holds their end of the bargain. If teams usually get 6 or 7 possessions, that means they are scoring only on 3 possessions, which checks out with their points against (99 in 5 = 19.8 points allowed per game — 3 TD’s and 2 XPs). That is a VERY good recipe to win in FPF. That said, the rest of the regular season for this team should be the time to new things that they can practice in case their baseline offense isn’t working in a playoff game.
Grade: C
Key Players: Zack Stacey, Skylar Bayliff, Nicholas Di Maulo
Prediction Record: 8-2
The Tokyo Sandblasters (2-3)
While the raw QB numbers look pretty bad, the numbers were simply disastrous to start the season. Losing by a combined score of 13-82 in their first 2 games, the season looked like it was going to be a walking tire-fire with an F grade written over the cover page of their essay. The team quickly picked themselves up, pulling off the upset against Him University in Week 3 and have now at least looked competitive in every game since, and have in fact won 2 of their last 3 games. In fact, the loss came to the 5-0 Big Fat Bats by a single point, with a chance to win it on the 2 point conversion at the end of the game. Seriously, I thought this was clearly going to be an 0-10 season filled with butt fumbles and other shenanigans. Instead, they’ve pulled it together VERY quickly and have put themselves in a good spot to fight for a playoff spot. The leadership of Rocco Christiano has proven once again why he’s a a great teacher of the game; able to transfer knowledge in a short amount of time. I’m not surprised he and Matthew Caponi are leading the team in yards, but the addition of Tyrone Hamilton is a nice piece to the new-ish FPF team. Despite only catching 6 balls, 4 of those have gone for touchdowns and he is leading the team with 4 INTs. His athletic ability has been in display, and has pulled this team from the depths of potential disaster. That, plus the addition (Full time? Part time?) of Sydney Gage is game changer. He has that game-breaking ability that Rocco does, making this team dangerous in yet another area of the field.
Where the team will need to improve if they wish to truly be competitive will be limiting the turnovers, like they did against Rico Ryders and will also need to be more efficient on their extra points, only having converted three 1-point converts on 12 TDs.
Grade: A-
Key Players: Tyrone Hamilton, Rocco Christiano
Prediction Record: 3-7
Practice Squad (5) (1-3-1)
After a decent season in Spring’s Division D with a 4-5-1 record, it appears this team likes to end games in ties. Ties are already a rare occurrence, and they have 2 in 2 seasons already. Alex Papineau‘s 3:1 TD to INT ratio is ‘just okay’ and he needs to improve it to at least 4:1. Also, only averaging 130 passing yards per game isn’t so great. If it weren’t for the running game complement, which boosts his yards of offense per game to 180 yards, I would be more concerned. That said, if they face off against a team with a shutdown rusher, he needs to prove that he can beat teams with his arm. That shows on their convert efficiency, converting only 19% of all converts (3 converts on 16 TDs) which is extremely worrisome in both: close games and playoff games. They’ve been a mix of up and down, beating teams they should and keeping it close against good teams, but also getting beat by slightly more athletic and experienced teams. Overall, the team has been competitive, but individuals have underperformed statistically and ultimately haven’t been able to win the close game, where converts are a problem that needs fixing.
From the receiving core, Stefano De Seta is averaging less than his spring season that saw him rack up 400 yards and 11 TDs. Now, he’s on pace for just under 300 yards and 2 TDs. I’m sure he will finish with more than just 2 TDs, but that’s his trend based on current stats. He’s too good to finish with just 2 TDs. Leading the way instead is FPF rookie Vincent Demers, taking his 18 receptions for 212 yards. Not only is he a weapon on offense, he’s picked up 3 sacks as well to contribute on both sides of the ball. Marc Antoine Martin has been a nice addition on D, but being the only player to have interceptions is problematic. The D has given up 30 or more points in only 2 games, which is great news for Papineau‘s offense as they’ve only been averaging 3 TDs per game. Those kind of offensive numbers just won’t cut it unless you have a stingy D that can stop opposing offenses.
Given that they are playing in a slightly better division than Spring’s Div D, and my prediciton to end the season with the exact same record, I guess that means they are exactly where I expected them to finish. I thought they could be 3-2 at best, more likely 2-3. That, coupled with the offense simply not producing enough as they should, is why I give them the minus in their rating.
Grade: C-
Key Players: Alex Papineau, Vincent Demers, Marc Antoine Martin
Prediction Record: 4-5-1 (same as Spring 21)
Les Petits Carottes (1-3)
After going to the Div E finals in the spring, I thought this team would slide in just right by moving up to Div 5. Now, being slotted in 5A due to their team cap may have been slightly high, but they are not going to get outclassed by any stretch. After being led by Jason Rayes at QB, it’s unclear what they are moving forward with at the pivot position. If I was evaluating the team with Rayes under centre, I think I would have given the team an F grade, since he was so good in the Spring season, that I would have expected much better numbers than what he’s put up so far. That said, he did rely on his and his teammates athleticism a lot in Div E, and once you jump into more competent defenses in the middle divisions, those breakdowns in coverage still happen, but less often. Their 2nd option has been Zachary Cloutier throwing, and to my surprise, he has statistically put up MUCH better numbers than Rayes. They both have a similar style of play, but Cloutier is doubling Rayes‘ QBR. Whatever route they choose to go, they should pick 1 guy and stick to them. That said, they made a switch against No Friend Zone and made a great comeback that came up short by a 50/50 call by a ref. So maybe they can go to the other option if the starter is appearing to struggle. What they should avoid though, are situations where everyone wants to jump in at QB, and only switch when the starter is advising the team that “they aren’t feeling it tonight”.
At receiver, Gabriel Jobin and Xavier Brault are monsters that are always a threat to make a big play in a critical moment in a game. It’s no wonder that they account for 62% of the yards and 75% of the offensive TD’s for the team. They would need a 3rd depth receiver, and Rayes showed he can be that guy that moves the chains on 3rd and 4th down if he isn’t quarterbacking. While top-end talent is not the issue, depth is. A wider cast of characters that defenses would need to be careful of would make this offense more potent than it already is.
As for the defense, the guys in coverage are athletic and clearly have a good understanding of the game. With 8 interceptions, they have the talent to bait quarterbacks to throw passes they think are open and undercut those windows in a hurry. Playing a zone defense isn’t their forte, and have the ability to man up well, but once quarterbacks know that’s what’s coming, they could be had with playcalling.
Overall, I like the team, but sitting at 1-3 after 4 games is a tad disappointing given the talent on the team and given that their only win came against a struggling Tokyo Sandblasters team without a quarterback in Week 2. The rest of the schedule isn’t particular easy, nor is it extremely difficult, so it will be interesting to follow this team. If they get it together, they can be a dangerous playoff team, but need the right matchups to fall in place for them to go far.
Grade: D
Key Players: Gabriel Jobin, Xavier Brault, Zachary Cloutier
Prediction Record: 4-6
Rico Ryders (1-4)
The first thing I notice about Rico Ryders is that they’ve thrown WAY too many picks. Mathew Yanakoulias had an extremely promising game against Tip Top Shape (7 TDs, 1 INT) in Week 2, and thought that coupled with the experience and talent of Justin Lerner and Daron Migdesyan, that this team could be very dangerous. Since that game though, and even in Week 1, the offense has been a turnover machine. When that’s the case, the defense needs to help out with the turnover battle. The Ryders have only produced 5 INTs of their own; as such, it is tough (not lungs) to win FPF games when you are losing the turnover battle 2:1. Other than that, the offense has been pretty decent, with the ball being spread very nicely amongst 5 main receivers. Especially when having the glitch that is Justin Lerner, it could be tempting and easy to simply throw him the rock 10 times per game. The offense has also been pretty good at converting on 3rd (42%) and 4th down (55%), so they are moving the ball, but eventually throwing drive-killing INTs. The problem really comes down to the volume and untimeliness of the interceptions. The receivers get a B+ grade for the work they’ve put in and the balanced attack they’ve proven to be. It’s a little hard to get the grasp of this team. They get blown out in Week 1 against a very good opponent, then rip apart TTS, lose by 13 to Save The Turftles, another good team, but then keep it close against Red “Not” Skins, but then lose to The Tokyo Sandblasters. It’s almost as if they play up to better competition and down to lower competition. All that said, results matter, and they are showing they can’t score when it matters to put away a team or take a late-game lead. That or they are messing up when to go for the onside kick. They need to clean it up, and if they do in the 2nd half of the season, guys like Greg Kritselas, Justin Lerner, Daron Migdesyan and potentially rookie Denis Koutavas are hard to stop when they are on fire, so they COULD be a dark-horse team if they string together enough wins to make the playoffs.
Grade: F
Key Players: Justin Lerner, Denis Koutavas, Dylan Scattolon
Prediction Record: 2-8
Tip Top Shape (1-3)
Inconsistent offense and QB play from David De Andrade is one reason why this team is sitting at 1-3. When Dave is having some games with 0 or 1 INTs and then games with 1 TD and 3 INTs and the QBR ranges from 34.1-125.1, it isn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing which game he will have that night. The distribution to receivers has been very good, but not yardage gained enough overall. At this point, the team should have a 200 yard-receiver and 3x 100-yard receivers, which the team is close to for the 2nd achievement. Another thing that has troubled the team so far, which is less in the captain’s control is the roster inconsistency. 5 players have only played 1 game so far, including Jeffly Julien, who was supposed to be a great free agent addition to the team. After a few seasons absent from playing QB, you want to be able to build chemistry quickly with your receivers, and that’s hard to do when you get a rotating cast of receivers. It’s clear that with such inconsistency, that Vincent Lajoie has made himself the security blanket for De Andrade, which was abundantly clear in their last comeback victory, for which I wrote a mini-recap for in last weeks article. He leads the team in all 3 major categories: Receptions (23), yards (138) and TDs (3).
While the offense hasn’t lit up 5A, well… the defense hasn’t either. Only producing 2 interceptions isn’t enough to help the offense. Not only that, they are allowing teams to score with too much efficiency. 82% of their opponents possessions finish in a touchdown. That is NOT good and puts a crazy amount of pressure on De Andrade to match that efficiency rate. The least they’ve given up in a game is 30 points 😦. Again, this is not a recipe for success. Their struggles on D were then amplified when they had the traumatizing experience of losing Sylvain Follenfant to a gruesome injury sustained in their game against Big Fat Bats that ended in a trip to the hospital. Hope you’re doing better Sylvain!
Grade: D
Key Players: Vincent Lajoie, Antoine Charlebois
Prediction Record: 3-7
Epilogue
Alright Div 5A, that’s your mid-season report card for Group B. Group A, you can expect your mid-season report card next week. For now, enjoy Week 5 of CTA!