Div C Playoff Recap and the Final 4; A Semi-Final Preview

Before we continue with the playoff race, if you are reading this, you are probably a team that is still alive and well into your post-season run. So before you take your time all the way until the finals to think about it, the Fall Cup season is right around the corner, so take a few minutes to think about who your playing with, what Tier you should sign up for and start recruiting free agents to round out your team!

Aight, back to this season’s playoffs. Let’s do a quick recap of what happened last time an article came out. To start, how about Iggy Magnets taking out the crystal ball in predicting the exact score line in the Vultures-AF1 game

Divisional Playoff Recap

Juwan Edghill has quietly been the teams unsung hero and it was him who would end up scoring the game winning TD. Edghill‘s 3 TD’s, McMahon‘s precision on the XP converts and Anthony Drysdale‘s last-play interception were key moments in the game to ice it for the Vultures.

The Stoics took care of Los Penetradores rather easily. Vincent Cheung was massive on both sides of the ball. Rushing Rocco Christiano, he had 3 sacks and forced Christiano into mistakes (3 INTs). Offensively, Los Penetradores had no response for Cheung, burning them twice on deep ball TD’s on his way to racking up 97 yards and 2 TDs on 5 receptions. The other key stat difference in this game was the 4th down conversion of Chris Rivest. He and The Stoics offense went 3 for 5 on 4th down, including a Touchdown to Kevin Boustany and 2 runs by Rivest for the clutch first downs. On the other side, Los Penetradores went 0/1 with an interception thrown on the 1 play (and a punt on another 4th down play).

As seen on GOTW, the Ravens went 6/6 on their possessions, as The Commission’s defense could not get Gino Di Fazio a stop. Flag Jesus himself, Mathieu Houle went 9/9/92/2, while Gab Wiseman and Vincent Pedneault added 2 touchdowns themselves as well an XP1 and XP2, respectively. The Commission made a game out of it on the heels of Brent Bodkin, Mike Pierrecin and Alexandre Blais, as all 3 had 55 receiving yards or more, with Bodkin leading the way with 85. In the end, the Ravens with 5 plays remaining scored in just 3 plays and Félix Gagné put an end to the game with his pick on Di Fazio.

Blitzed Budds neutralized the speedy Fafard with a combination of rushers in Mathew Simard and Nicholas Gomes-Risso. They combined for 3 sacks and limited Fafard to just 28 rushing yards on 4 attempts (an average of 7 yards per run instead of his average of 10.1 yards per attempt). While BBB scored on their first 2 drives, they went ice cold after that, unable to keep a drive alive 4 straight times. I talked about how AJ Gomes can take away what you do best after a drive or 2 and that was on full display on Sunday night. Offensively, Ale Barazzoni had his breakout game of the season at the right time, going 6/6/88/3 and the Beer Belly defense had no answer for him.

Quarter Finals Playoff Recap

The Ravens were coming off a great game offensively after struggling for a few weeks to end the season. Those offensive woes re-appeared on Monday night when going up against a very tough Infantry defense. Joel Houle threw 3 INTs, including a pick on the first 2 drives of the game and the third went for a pick 6 by Yvan Desjardins. Also, while Mat Houle went off in the Divisional Round, he was completely smothered by The Infantry, catching 0 balls on 2 targets in the Quarter Finals. While you can argue the defense won them the game, Corey Walwaski was his usual calm and efficient self, scoring on 6 of his 7 drives. The Ravens had no answer Sean Semerjian, as he caught 7 balls for 92 yards and a hat-trick of TDs.

Coming off their bye from the Divisional Round, Hot Sauce Sports, under the offensive Quarterback wing of Will Power, he played one of his best games of the season on both sides of the ball. He got things going with an opening drive INT that shifted the possession game in HSS’s favor and capitalized on it by punching it in for 6. Then, after scoring on 5 consecutive possessions, his only turnover (on downs) of the game, Power made up for it by picking off Goulet-Tinawi in the redzone for his 2nd INT of the game, in a moment where Blitzed Budds were down 1 possession, 25-33. If that wasn’t enough, he then took HSS on a 10-play drive, converting once on 3rd down and once on 4th down, capping it off with a 6-yard TD to Kareem Anthony Chilcott. If that didn’t seal the deal, his 3rd INT of the game on the next play did.

Down goes EZW! The Vultures D came up big, in particular Anthony Drysdale in back-to-back playoff games. He had the game-ending INT against AF1 and added another 3 INTs against Sam Emilio Pelchat. Juwan Edghill added a 4th INT and Kevin Donnet had 2 sacks as, and this is not often said, the Vultures defense carried the team to victory. Of course, Ben McMahon did his thing on offense, but notably, did a very good job at distributing the ball evenly. All 5 receivers caught a TD pass and receiving yards ranged from 24-45 yards amongst 5 guys. Now with the #1 seed from the regular season ousted from the playoffs, the Division title now runs through The Infantry.

The Stoics pulled off the first true upset of the playoffs. The match was very tight all game and very limited in possessions. Chris Rivest made the most of his, as he took all 5 of his possessions the distance. In this one, snapper Omar Chavez was clutch offensively with his 7 receptions, 80 yards and 1 TD. With both teams scoring on every possessions (minus one with 2 plays left in the 1st half), it was the last TOPSZN possession where Shawn Mcgrath had difficulty moving the ball against a stingy Stoics defense. On that final drive, Vince Cheung had 2 knockdowns, Seth Galina had 1, Justin Blackie had 2 sacks and Cheung had the game-ending INT that propelled his team to the Semis.

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Semi-Final Playoff Previews

Alright, we made it this far. The Final 4. Congrats to The Infantry, Vultures, Hot Sauce Sports and The Stoics, you have so far, survived the monster that is Division C. Two of you, however, will fall victim and your season will end on Tuesday night in Loyola. But before that, let’s break down the final 2 matchups in the Spring Season.

Previous Matchup: None

This is a high-powered offense that the Vultures have not played against since I’d say Tough Lungs or TOPSZN, and even then, The Infantry pose a bigger threat than either of those teams with the best Quarterback they’ve faced and a highly skilled receiver set. Yes, I’ve acknowledged that the Vultures defense has stepped up its game in the postseason, but they will need to prove it to me and the division that they can stop one of the top 2 offenses (after their own). After EZW (which wasn’t the same offense under Pelchat), the next best offense was The Infantry’s, and you best believe the points will be plentiful in this game.

Start with the Semerjian brothers. Not only do they bring Division A/B experience to the fold, they are explosive and incredible high-pointers of the football that only a James Drysdale can rival, and last time I checked 1 guy can’t cover 2 receivers. But the depth at receiver continues, with Yvan Desjardins, Ben Nolette and Dilan Daoust, all of which had over 230+ receiving yards and 6, 6, and 4 TDs respectively. It’s surprising that Corey Walwaski underutilized snapper Mike Collard, as last year he had 27 receptions for 215 yards and 7 TDs compared to this years 14 receptions, 93 yards and 3 TDs. Walwaski himself had a dip in his quarterback numbers, throwing for 7 less TDs (47 vs. 54) and more INTs (14 vs 12) compared to last spring season. The thing that has me a little concerned for The Infantry’s offense is that those 14 interceptions are a little high, and if either Kevin Donnet or James Drysdale can force Corey to throw a bad ball off his back foot, the Vultures will absolutely need to capitalize. No time for dropped INTs, bad passes need to be turned into turnovers for the Vultures D.

On the flip side, the Vultures possess a high-flying offense of their own. While Armand Balla has come alive as a rusher this season with 13 sacks in the regular season (and 1 in the postseason), I’m not sure he is the answer to containing Ben McMahon. Like I mentioned on Calling The Audible, McMahon likes to scramble in the backfield and will take it up field when the opening is there, but when it’s not, he’s not shy to sling it downfield either. Most of the time, his receivers can get open with defenders worried about the run, but these Infantry defenders can come barreling down FAST on receivers. That means the windows will be tighter and the accuracy on balls thrown on-the-run from McMahon will need to be on point. Balls thrown slightly behind or in front of receivers can lead to turnovers, so McMahon will need to ensure he takes that extra split second to step into his throws and make sure they are as accurate as possible. Ultimately, Ben might need to have a big game on the ground. I can see an 85 yard performance on the ground with 1 or even 2 rushing scores (hey, last time I predicted something for the Vultures I was dead on, so Infantry beware).

No surprise here that this game will be one hell of an offensive scoring arsenal. The scorekeeper in this one better stand close to that scoreboard because they will continuously be flipping the points. I think both Quarterback will score 7 TDs, and guess what, both teams have scored EXACTLY the same number of XP converts (17x XP1 and 7x XP2), so why not; this game is going to OVERTIME to decide who will go to the championship final.

Prediction: The Infantry 46-47 Vultures

I’m predicting the Vultures make it to consecutive finals (both consecutive Spring finals and back-to-back finals if you consider they made it this past Winter season in 4B).

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Hot Sauce Sports vs. The Stoics

Previous Matchup: The Stoics 33 – 34 Hot Sauce Sports

The last time these 2 teams faced off, Hot Sauce Sports held a 2-score lead at halftime that quickly evaporated. Rivest was able to score in a hurry and had a chance to go up by 1 after scoring a TD and then going for 2 points. A first down by Paolo Della Rocca won the game for Hot Sauce Sports. In that game though, Rivest, unbeknownst to him, targeted Marcus Lynch one too many times, as the latter came away with 2 INTs.

That was the Rivest of then. The Rivest today now has played against this HSS squad, which will be without Will Power, and has thrown 10 TD’s and 0 INT’s on his 2-game playoff run. He is locked in and primed for another championship run like last Spring. This season, like last year, he made a key mid-season free agent acquisition which has paid great dividends. Picking up Justin Blackie has proven to be huge, especially now that ex-rusher, Giordano Proulx is unavailable for the remainder of the season. Blackie has served admirably, including a 3-sack performance against Shawn McGrath in the Quarter Final game. Every time Rivest is doubted, he comes out with a big performance. This season there were games against The Infantry and even last week against TOPSZN that The Stoics were clear underdogs, and both times Rivest and The Stoics prevailed. But let’s talk about The Stoics facing a Will Power-less HSS defense. Rivest is smart and can, with his feet always bouncing, make rushers like Joey Notaro hesitate and jump. In fact, Notaro mentioned he didn’t like rushing a twitchy QB like Rivest because “you never know his next move”. Over the past year, Rivest has developed a strong chemistry with both Cesar Garcia-Diaz and Vincent Cheung, and he will once again, rely heavily on them to move the chains. He’s also developed a nice security blanket in Omar Chavez and can see him being a big part of the offense in the Semis. All that said, look for Justin Blackie to be a dark horse in this game, coming up with a late-game TD that can either put The Stoics up or tie the game.

As much as Rivest has learned from playing HSS, Mr. Della Rocca is not a terrible adapter himself. He too saw things from their first encounter that he will look to exploit. But will he be able to do it on a belly full of European delicacies? Hopefully all that inexpensive booze didn’t mess with his rhythm and timing developed over the Spring season. The Stoics defense will have a very tough time covering the HSS receivers. There is a perfect blend of speed, size, hands, route running and strength that it makes attacking defenses a fun quarterbacking job. They have speed in the form of Joey Notaro and Marcus Lynch, size in Kareem Anthony Chilcott and DonnDre Borden, and that’s just scratching the surface. Whether The Stoics are playing a 4-1 lock, Cover, Cover 3 or a man defense, Paolo Della Rocca has the playbooks and pieces on offense to exploit it all. You can expect Peeze to hit his golden rule of FPF playoff football: He will score a minimum of 5 TD’s in this game.

That said, can’t you see another 1 point game when the refs wave their flags? This game will come down to converts, and how well the HSS defense plays against The Stoics, who go for 2 point attempts very often.

Prediction: Hot Sauce Sports: 34 – 33 The Stoics

Hot damn, I see the same score line as the regular season… now that would be quite the eerie result, wouldn’t it? Peeze! Welcome to the Roadshow!

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Epilogue

Well, that does it for the Playoff Recap and Semi-Final preview article. Goodluck to the final 4 teams on your way to Brossard for the Roadshow!

Cheers!