A Shot At The Double Championship Or FPF History In The Making

Isn’t it fitting that a team with the word Baby in their name is playing against the youngest team to have ever made an FPF Finals who have the word “Men” in their name. More like Men Rays vs. X-Baby. I’ve been high on the X-Men since early on in the season, whereas as soon as I heard the Rays core was playing in Div 6 with a USports QB, I knew they were Finals bound. That said, you never know with Div 6. You never know the competition, and how tackle quarterbacks will adjust to the game of flag, as they truly are different games using the same ball.

In the Division 6 Finals, the Rays core have a chance to be crowned double champions, while the combination of on-field youthful bliss and sideline grizzly veteran coaches of X-Men hope to make FPF history as the youngest team ever to win a Senior FPF Division. Seeing as there are only 2 teams really reading this, and the clock is ticking, we’re going to jump straight to the Finals Preview and review how both teams got here.

Division 6 – Finals Previews 🔮

Baby Rays (2) vs. X-Men (5)

Position	Baby Rays	X-Men
QB		✅
Receivers	✅	✅
DBs	✅
Rusher	✅

These two teams did not meet in the regular season, so let’s take a look at how they got here.

Road To The Finals

The Baby Rays ended the season as the #2 seed at 10-0, facing little-to-no adversity all season. Their closest game all season was a 10-point (2 possession) victory all the way back on January 7th, when we were still believing we could maintain our New Year Resolutions. Their successful regular season meant they had a bye into the Divisional Round, where their defense completely shutdown No Fly Zone. In fact, the only points they allowed against were when the Baby Rays were on offense, conceding a safety. In fact, No Fly Zone had a 2-0 lead in that game. The offense didn’t have much to do, as the defensive interceptions, sacks and turnover on downs set them up in prime position to score. The offense then came to ball out against the Cinderella Slopes, as Olivier St-Onge had his best playoff game on their run, completing 75% of his passes and throwing 6 TDs with a clean 0 INTs. But it wasn’t just the offense, the defense once again smothered their opponents, with Jalen Wells leading the charge, intercepting Tro Atolikian twice, including on the 2nd play of the game. That, plus the ultimate difference was that the Rays defense stopped the Slopes to end the half and combined that with an opening 2nd half score. These are the type of critical game management opportunities the Rays take advantage of, and will be interesting to see if they can out-coach the X-Men in these scenarios. Against Maccabees, I’m not sure how to characterize the game. I’m not sure if a muddied game describes it well, but it was definitely a defensive battle that Baby Rays ended up winning in comeback fashion. Down 13-6 at the half, and the Rays unable to tie the game on the opening 2nd half drive, Tylar Bianchi got a clutch interception that the Baby Rays turned into 7 points to tie the game off the turnover. After matching interceptions, the Rays defense, thanks in large part to a huge 7 yard sack by Jared Arany, forced Maccabees to punt late in the game. The Rays scored in just 2 plays, with Curtis Ryan coming down with the huge game-winning TD grab that punched their 2nd ticket to the finals.

X-Men finished the regular season as the 5th seed and they too had a bye in the Wild Card round. That saw them face the Mountain Dew Babies where they simply had no answer for Daniel Devine as a receiver. He finished the night with 84 yards and 4 touchdowns. Justin Swaminadhan also had a big game, with 6 catches, 3 first downs, and 2 key interceptions on the Babies opening and final drives of the game. The X-Men would go on to play against the animated Wild Hogs and put in Devine at Quarterback for undisclosed reasons. The decision seemed to pay off as usual starter Noah Swaminadhan had a huge game at receiver, catching all 6 targets thrown his way for 62 yards and 2 TDs, with 1x XP1 and 1x XP2, accounting for 15 points. Noah is a true threat whenever the ball is in his hands, whether as QB or WR, and he showed that against Wild Hogs. While there were many drops from the Wild Hog receivers, the D was strong and Jackson Cooper picked off Armenti twice to never put this game in doubt. In their Semi-Final game against the bigger, taller Dak team, they were lucky to not have to face Oriola Poirier as a rusher, which would have limited the runs that Daniel Devine took off for. He ran 7 times for 52 yards and 1 TD which would not have happened with Poirier rushing. Still Devine completed 22 of 30 passes and threw 4 TDs, one more than Justin Gauthier of Dak To The Future. While the offense was churning, it was the defense that made the biggest difference. 3 interceptions caused by Ryan Whitehouse, Daniel Devine and Jackson Cooper forced Gauthier outside of his regular playbook and forced deep balls into 3-deep coverage. As many teams have felt this year against X-Men, the talented Dak receivers were frustrated and it took them out of the game mentally. That will be an interesting angle to the Division 6 finals; which team can stay more composed and show a higher level of maturity.

Breakdown by Position

QB – Interesting to see whether Noah Swaminadhan will take back the reigns or whether they ride the hot hand of Daniel Devine. For the Baby Rays, it’s easy. St-Onge is the clear starter and there’s no second guessing. Not just because it’s St-Onge’s first year Quarterbacking, but whether it’s Devine or N. Swaminadhan, both have more experience playing flag, having been pruned in the FPF grassroots of the Junior program. St-Onge might have the better deep ball and stronger arm, but as many of you now know, that does not equate to success in flag. The X-Men QBs have equally as good short and intermediate passing abilities, perhaps a better playbook and understand the game-management portion, as they have coached the younglings. They’ve been exposed when to go for 1, when to go for 2, when to concede the points to preserve time, etc, etc. Let’s see who can make the better half time adjustments and attack what the defenses are presenting them.

Receivers – I love the Rays receivers, like I spoke about in the Div 5 article, but they aren’t as deep as the X-Men. The BR’s can put out 4 quality receivers, but X-Men can do it 5 or even 6 receivers deep, as both Devine and N. Swaminadhan can play both QB and WR at a high level. The slight edge goes to X-Men as they are athletic and flexible beyond belief and the depth of that talent extends further than the Rays. The advantage I would say both teams have are yards-after-the-catch. Think Tylar Bianchi and his shiftiness, making guys miss x 5 for X-Men.

Defense – Here’s where the advantage goes to Baby Rays. They are taller, rangier, more disciplined and have faced better offenses in their careers than the X-Men. If the Rays are going to win this game, it will come off the hands of the defense. Jalen Wells, Tylar Bianchi and Curtis Ryan are all ballhawks and will be looking for overthrown or tipped balls as well as baiting whichever young QB sits in the pocket.

Rusher – I say advantage goes to Jared Arany here. He will perhaps have the single-most important job of the evening. Both X-Men QBs are guilty of trying to shake the rusher, and Arany is NOT the rusher to do that against. Let’s see how that matchup goes on all night, whether the X-Men QBs get frazzled or whether they stop running and just sling the rock around.

Baby Rays X-Factor: Aidan Lariviere – After “The Big 3”, Lariviere is often the forgotten man in the Baby Rays receiver set and he could be the guy that X-Men forget or put their depth DB’s on. This means Lariviere could be that Rays receiver to have a quiet 3/4/28/2 kind of game that goes unnoticed.

X-Men X-Factor: Jackson Cooper – I’ve called Jackson Cooper the X-Factor in the past and honestly, any of the guys can step up and be the hero for the X-Men. I’ve mentioned their depth and athleticism and any of the guys can make a big play. I think defensively, if they get 1 or more interceptions, it will be Cooper leading the charge.

Prediction: Baby Rays 27 – 31 X-Men

I could be wrong about this, but I think X-Men become the youngest team in FPF Senior history to lift a trophy and will be unable to celebrate with post-game beers.

Epilogue 👋

Alright Division 6, that does for the best of the best seasons FPF has to offer! It was a pleasure to write articles all season, and thanks fortuning in week in and week out, joining me on the wild ride that is the FPF Winter season. Congrats to the 2 finalists, but there can only be 1 winner! Goodluck and I’m sure we will see you in the Spring season! One last time, here’s CTA previewing the Finals in podcast format!