A season’s end: Final Statements Made

To begin, I am Christopher Dagher, scorekeeper for FPFand I’ve had the honor and privilege of watching several flag-football games since January of 2019 up until now. From Junior to Co-Ed to Divisions E, D, C, B, I had the chance partake in a lot of football matchups as a a working spectator and I fully enjoy the process of watching players strive to show their talent and leave it all out there on the gridiron.

 

• My articles and power rankings mainly pertain to the games I collected data for.

 

This week’s Division E matchups presented a plethora of talented, hungry flag-football athletes craving their chances to make the most out of their final opportunity to leave a resounding impact on the 2019 Summer FPF regular season. As a scorekeeper shifting sideways along the sideline, I couldn’t help but get stunned by the deafening thuds players would make against the protective blue curtains at the Laval sports complex. Needless to say that despite it being the final game of the season, Division E ballers didn’t take that circumstance as an excuse to warp it up lightly.

 

Starting with Trailer Park Boys vs Chocolate Barracudas (40 – 24), for yet another game, it is inevitable to notice how effective the Meunier trio play in synchrony with Antoine at quarterback and Alexandre and Frederic as receivers. In fact, Alexandre Meunier has proven without an iota of a doubt that he truly is the offensive weapon of choice for the Trailer Park Boys’ offense added to impeccable defensive capabilities. In addition to his eight receptions, Alex Meunier scored a formidable handful of four touchdowns in this ball game, one being on an interception return.

Although, let’s not place his brother Frederic in the shadows as he scored a remarkable pair of touchdowns, proving that he and QB Antoine are just as worthy to be included in the conversation. Do the Trailer Park Boys have the best offense in the division? Will they win it all and bring the championship title home?

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Chocolate Barracudas haven’t been too shabby with star player Chris Williams scoring a whopping hat trick (3) of touchdowns added to huge defensive plays. This goes to show how important Sonny Elias’ arm is to this Barracudas offense. Another standout offensive performance was made by Jason Noel with two much needed touchdowns. Also, Lusson Pierre, being an incredible athlete, played very well as he caught the ball several times and recorded a number of tackles on defense but “ Luss really got loose” with a breakout play, catching a beautiful cigar shaped pass from Sonny Elias for a 36-yard gain. Added to that, Matthew Fernandes brought his talent to the table having noitably picked up YACs on top of YACs with each reception. On defense, Keenan Alleyne employed his speed to solidify his status as sack master with two QB sacks. Back to Trailer Park Boys, the biggest dual threat on their side was none other than Will Rcihard. Over the course of the season, he recorded several sacks thanks to his ability to couple speed with focus and he was also the recipient of several passes. This week he ended the regular season with many receptions and a Touchdown. (averaging around 7 yards per catch). Special mentions also go to Phil Ramsey (TPB) and to Zach Pesner (Chocolate Barracudas) for leading their respective teams in tackles on defense (7 for Ramsey and 4 for Pesner).

 

Moving forward, another attention-catching ball game was the Jean-Guy vs Mountain Goats match (32 – 6). At first, the casual division E FPF fan would gloss over this pairing of teams thinking it would be a indigestible squash match in favor of Jean-Guy given the difference in divisional standings (not to take anything away from the Mountain Goats who’ve really turned some heads around towards them in recent weeks by showcasing some impressive football). As a matter of fact, the Mountain Goats put up quite the fight in their faceoff with the 9- Jean-Guy (ranked #1 in the East.

Simon Provencher, continuing to pose a dual threat, intercepted Giovanni Siino much to the chagrin of the Goats. Henceforth, the blue team has to face the high-powered offense lead by this powerful quarterback. Provencher threw the ball to Emile Lamy for him to make some critical catches throughout the game, averaging 4-5 yards per pick-up per reception and that’s without including his yards after catch. However, another notable receiver that made a name for himself was Marc-Antoine Poudrette with 4 receptions totaling 65 yards and good enough for 2 touchdowns.

Despite Poudrette’s remarkable show of skills, Jeremy Cloutier was Provencher’s target with the most highlight reel worthy performance and this is to be praised because he showed everyone that his athleticism is off the charts. His off-the-edge and in-the-corner catches in tight spots are a thing of beauty. In other words, this player’s receiving ability are unbelievable which proves why he’s the player to keep an eye on in this Jean-Guy ball team. Cloutier caught the ball only 3 times but cumulated50 yards and scored a solid pair of touchdowns.

A third offensive weapon in Provencher’s arsenal was Jonathan Brule who sporadically caught the ball totaling 4 receptions for 25 yards serving as an exemplary utility player on the team. He would often make the catche when Jean-Guy needs it the most and he’s definitely a player to watch out for come the playoffs.

On defense though, Simon Laporte got unhinged and starting this off with a bang by sacking Goats QB Giovanni Siino for a quick early game momentum steal. Laporte also received a pass from Provencher to score a spectacular touchdown on offense.

 

In this particular game, the Mountain Goats defenders to keep an eye on were Alessandro Scali and Joseph Reino. Scali managed to record 4 tackles and 1 sack while Reino recorded 5 tackles to temper the Jean-Guy storm coming their way. More importantly, Scali solidified his performance by collecting 22 yards with those three balls he caught and score a very crucial touchdown for team blue.

On offense, to reiterate some of last weeks comments, Giovanni Siino once again proves to be a consistent threat on his feet as a scrambling quarterback as he’s able to pick up solid yardage on the ground and Will Roche continues to be a prime receiver for the Goats making big time catches in big time situations.

To end things here, a special mention has to go to Kien Pieton who’s a consistent athlete for Jean-Guy and who, in this game, was accountable for 1 interception. I can definitely see this gentleman as a potential top tier safety in this division if that’s what he plans on doing.

 

In the X-Sterminators vs Brewers matchup (13 -12), both teams had players that eager to collect some late season stats and with good reason. Both teams wantedto leave some final markings on this 2019 FPF Summer season. For starters, Mike Knopp didn’t miss an opportunity to show how effective of a quarterback he mostly occupied the receiver position when I started scorekeeping and taking stats for teams he’d play for. He was able to connect the ball wth receiver Brett Rosenberg for an 8 yard touchdown score early in the game. To keep his versatility juices flowing, he was also able to pass the ball to a plethora of different targets on his ball squad; from Alex Finkelstien to Adam Guillemette to Cory Friedman to Ryan Castiel, Knopp was able to mix things around with those guys and everyone had a chance to touch the ball and therefore make an impact on the field. Knopp also intercepted Jeffrey Lefebvre, the opposing quarterback, at one point in the game. Neverthless, Lefebvre doubled the payback as he intercepted two of Knopp’s passes and deflected two other ones. Here we see that, he acted as a double threat for the Brewers as he lead the offense at quarterback and on defense as defensive back. He wasn’t the only one to record an interception for the Brewers as Steven Lawrusik got an interception of is own at one point. At QB, Lefebvre, was able to throw to key receivers such as Christopher Morin and Eddie Laronde, the latter scoring a touchdown early in the game. Likewise, Frank Iantosca also caught a touchdown pass to keep his Brewer buddies in the game and highlighting his quarterback’s ability to come up big in critical situations. However, the X-Sterminators came out on top with Cory Friedman being an absolute machine on defense recording 6 tackles, 2 pass deflections and 1 interception. In the end, Mike Knopp really sealed the deal with 3 runs late in the game to run the clock down to a victorious ending. Also here, special mentions go to Chris Morin for his exemplary 7 tackles and pass deflection with proves his on-the-field leadership.

Next on this list, we cover Mambo vs Bozy Boyz (30 – 13). Despite a lot if incomplete throws, I couldn’t help but hear the thunderous thud sounds every time a player would plow into the protection screens. It got the point where the referees on my side would comment about it and laugh. Thi goes to show how intense a Division E ball game can get. Starting with quarterback Nick Papich, there’s quite the story to tell about this Mambo ball team who, according to vocal leader Joseph Kano, have known and been around each other since childhood, thus fostering a healthy team chemistry from an early age.

Early on, Papich successfully completed a touchdown pass to Kyle Pedvis but the best out of this game was still to come. Indeed, with 3 touchdown catches, Tim Horner fully deserves to be handed the MVP award for this game and added to that, he caught 2 interceptions and collected a few tackles to secure that title.

Flipping over to Bozy Boyz, George Zergiotis stood out on his team with 1 interception and 2 touchdowns added to multiple catches and tackles (respectively 4 and 1). His performance proves that he’s the go-to guy on team light-blue. However, Nick Richard also had quite the performance splitting his time by playing both at quarterback and at receiver. It was at the latter position that Richard shinned the most with more than one key reception and a touchdown delivered to him by Mathew Hartman who stepped in to fill his spot at QB for the remainder of the game. Richard also intercepted a pass from the defensive back position to keep Bozy Boyz in the fight.

Back to Papich, this terrific superstar quarterbacked his Mambo ball squad pretty successfully but also made 2 important tackles on defense, just behind Kyle Pedvis who lead the Mambo team with 4 tackles. On top of that, Papich intercepted one of Richard’s passes in the first half and went for a 10-yard run before getting tackled by Daniel Spina who was in a tie with Nick Richard for most tackles for Bozy Boyz in that game (3 for each).

Spina probably flexed his deltoid muscles after that tackled as he often does after making an impactful play. Stopping a standout player like Nick Papich is no exception here and I could totally understand the urge for a quick celebration.

Additional credit for this game goes to Declan Montague for his interception late in the game, anchoring the proverbial “final nail in the coffin” to end this ball game.

 

In summary, with playoffs just around the corner, a lot of action is to be expected from Division E and we’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds in the coming weeks. Players will have a an ample amount of opportunities to showcase how badly they want to win and the most eager, hardworking and focused team will come out on top and earn the right to call themselves FPF Division E champions.

 

Chris Dagher’s Top Eight Power Ranking for Division E

1. Trailer Park Boys

2. Jean-Guy

3. Mambo

4. X-Sterminators

5. Los Siete Amigos

6. Blackouts

7. Chocolate Barracudas

8. Brewers