Czikk’s Cover 3: Coyotes beat Dad Bod Squad in overtime to take D3 Championship

Andrew Langburt nearly ended Division 3’s Championship final when he dove towards the left pylon of the endzone for a Sammy Feder pass. It was the game’s final play in regulation before overtime, and Langburt ran a quick out pattern. Game over if he catches the football.

It didn’t happen. The pass fell incomplete and his Coyotes teammates and their opponents, Dad Bod Squad, headed to the three-session overtime.

Coyotes ultimately came away on top in OT, never letting Dad Bod Squad get a point. Most significantly, the first overtime session saw AJ Rashkovan deflect a Sean Avraam pass.

In the next play, Coyotes QB Sammy Feder hit Kevin Smuda for two points. Feder threw a high ball where Smuda had to outreach defender Vinny Gualano.

Neither team did anything during the next possession, leaving Dad Bod Squad with a last-chance effort for two points. Avraam fired too high for Rich Humes and the Coyotes stormed the field in celebration.

In the end, Langburt’s late-game drop didn’t matter. He was rewarded as the game’s MVP for his efforts making key defensive and offensive plays. Langburt finished the day with four catches, one score and seven tackles of defense.

It should be noted that the MVP award proved to be difficult to choose for the FPF decision-makers. The Coyotes’ win was a complete community affair with several players chipping in throughout the match.

The game started out quick with both teams putting up six points.

Down 13-6 with under two minutes to go in the first half, Langburt ran around Dads defender Alex Moreau to bring in his short, leaping TD catch. Langburt also caught the ensuing two-point conversion to make the score 14-13 for Coyotes. Keeping his feet in bounds to get the two-points was the more impressive play than the TD catch itself.

“It was a really tough game. They’re a really great team, they made us work for every play and nothing came easy,” said Langburt after the game. “They’ve seen everything in the league so we really wanted to switch it up on them and keep them guessing. They’re all really good players so we couldn’t shut them down completely, but we did our best to contain them.”

Sammy Feder and Sean Avraam both threw three touchdown passes and an interception. Both quarterbacks passed for modest totals of 173 and 180 yards.

For Coyotes, several players stepped up at key times in a game largely dominated by great defensive plays.  Shawn Steen registered a game-high 63 yards receiving on three catches, including the game’s longest play at about 39 yards.

Smuda intercepted Rich Humes with the game tied at 20 with five minutes to go. On the play, Dad Bod Squad elected to go for a dose of ill-fated trickery on a wide-receiver pass. It never stood a chance.

AJ Rashkovan caught Feder’s other two touchdowns while Adam Rockman made a few key defensive bat-downs nearing the end of the first half.

The championship win was a close game the entire way, and it was legitimately earned. The Dad Bod Squad defense made it tough on Coyotes to get yards, something they’d been excellent at all season having scored 374 points.

Matthew Petrone intercepted a Feder pass in his own endzone in the second half while Ryan Aridi made life difficult for the QB in the first half, sacking him twice.

But Feder connected with his receivers on several key third-down conversions.

On offense, Coyotes didn’t benefit from many large-yardage plays such as they were used to throughout the regular season. They still hurt the Dads with a couple big plays, including a 14-yard pass to Kevin Smuda and the aforementioned bomb to Steen that started the second half.

Outside of those chunk plays, both teams played it relatively conservative given the strong defensive performances.

The “dink and dunk” passing game was especially used by Avraam and his receivers, including center Anthony Da Silva (7 rec, 47 yards, TD) and young Jordan Allard (6 rec, 44 yards, TD). Vinny Gualano hauled in the Dads other touchdown, just crossing the line before Smuda snatched his flag.

And so it came down to a 20-20 tie at the end of regulation. Rashkovan got the clutch hand on Avraam’s one-point attempt and Smuda caught the two-pointer. Josh Feder intercepted Avraam’s ensuing two-point attempt.

Coyotes could have iced it right there when Feder went right back to Smuda on a one-point play, but the pass was too high.

Avraam had one last chance to tie the game up on a two-point attempt, but he similarly fired it too high to Humes. It was a trips left play with Avraam rolling left. Once the ball bounced out of the field of play, Coyotes stormed the field, took the trophy and made D3 history.

With Sammy Feder moving on to Boston to pursue his MBA, most of the Coyotes will now be free agents, so it seems this team is going out on a high note. I had a chance to chat with Coyotes after the game as they sipped on refreshing championship beverages.

My personal apologies for the quality of the video and my at-times horrendous questioning: