Division A/B Midseason Report

Last winter, I had a quick exchange with Dave Allen in Brossard shortly after he had taken over the duties of writing the 35+ Divisional article that went a little something like this:

 

G – Great first article Dave, loved it.

D – Thanks – and I plan on writing another one!

 

I laughed, but it’s kind of a given at this point that I’m not the ‘releases articles on a weekly basis’ kind of FPF employee that the other media members are. Being that person that struggles to focus and transfer my FPF knowledge and observations to the page, I continue to have a ton of respect the divisional writers who put out that content on a weekly basis with everything still going on in their lives. That being said, I’m pretty glad that Simon is off in Jamaica this week. Not only was the podcast a fun change of pace (check it out – Moe, Eagle and I were joined in the studio by Alex Holowach and Stefano Berardi) but I get to scratch that ‘one article per season’ off my list this week.

 

Game Recap: Khan Artists 55, Freshmen 33

 

In a season where every matchup is a David-versus-Golliath type of game, Freshmen were tasked this week with Khan Artists. To come out with the win in this one, Alex Holowach would have needed to play turnover-free or the Freshmen defense would have to step up and stop the red-hot Khan Artists offense. Unfortunately, neither happened and Khan Artists took this one with ease. That being said, it wasn’t a particularly bad game. AJ Gomes put up 3 TDs to make a total of NINE touchdowns in Week 5 across 3 teams in a ridiculous effort. AJ however also found himself beaten on a 1-on-1 play for a TD by Xavier Sauvé of the Freshmen, who definitely showed that he and his Freshmen peers can ball out against the strong Division A competition and that the Freshmen’s struggle might not be for as long as expected. 

 

Lazzara went 21/27, putting up 8 TDs and a ridiculous 143.1 QBR. Khalil Kerr joined AJ Gomes in the 3 TD club and also had an electric INT where he came out of nowhere to shut down a driving Alex Holowach and make sure that the game would stay out of reach. 

 

Midseason Rundown

 

You’ll probably get another one from Simon when he gets back. It’ll probably also be more in-depth and insightful than mine is; he’s seen more Div A and B games this season. I still decided to do a recap of A and then started B and got distracted (more on that later.) Since you’ll be getting another one from Simon in a week, I don’t feel TOO bad about just having recapped A. 

However, I took the lazy way out and ranked them based on their results after 5 weeks – don’t read too into why any team is ranked higher or lower than another one. Here’s a quick look at each team and what I consider to be some of their strengths and weaknesses. 

 

Division A

 

8 – Freshmen: FPF is an unforgiving league in general when it comes to new teams adapting to the style of play of the league. Throw in a team that didn’t set themselves up for success by registering in a ferocious Division A, and it’s understandable that the results will be ugly. In Freshmen’s Week 1 game, Ocean’s 12 took their foot off of the gas early, and it only got worse from there in Week 2 conceding 66 to Braves. However, after having brought in Alex Holowach for help, this team is trending in the right direction. It’s safe to say that this season won’t be about making playoffs but more about learning how to survive in FPF. That being said, as I mentioned earlier I don’t think that the Freshmen’s struggle in FPF will be a long one – as Alex Holowach told me, this is easily a competitive Division 3 team next winter with some direction and structure.

 

7 – Monstars: After having finished with a solid 5-4-1 record in Division 1 last winter, the Monstars are under .500 after 5 weeks. I wouldn’t worry too much though – this is pretty much the same team and their roster is just as competitive as the top teams in A. Rod Mashtoub can make the case for one of the most improved players in all of FPF – having grown leaps and bounds from 11 TDs and 21 INTs in 5 games in Spring 2009 Division C to having thrown 45 TDs this past winter in Division 1. With the usual heart-and-soul of the Monstars in Jad and Ryan Aridi paired with the game-breaking play of McLaren, Brisebois and Bekelis, I think that this team shouldn’t be counted out of any game.

 

6 – Spitfire: I’m a big fan of teams that find talent in all sorts of places. Carmine Pollice has been a phenomenal quarterback in the highest divisions in FPF for the last THIRTEEN YEARS. He leads an offense that includes Andrew Carruthers and Patrice Berard who tore up the 35+ division this past winter having put up a combined 28 touchdowns despite having only played 8 and 7 games respectively. On defense the minds of Adi Sharma, Jeff Brown and Ryan Hector have probably forgotten more about football than some FPF players could even hope to learn. Crafty playcalling and smart defense keeps Spitfire competitive in A. Having struggled against the Outsiders and Khan Artists early on, they’re going to need to step it up against some of the top-tier teams in the coming weeks if they hope to play past Week 11. 

 

5 – Khan Artists: Without a doubt my favourite team name this season. Plus, it’s not that long ago that Daron Basmadjian Fan Club won a championship – let’s see if we can add Khan Artists to the ‘Championship Teams Named After FPF Media Members’ list. Looking at this roster from top to bottom, can you even find a weak link? Never one to shy away from telling you how good he is (and having the ability to back it up,) Daniel Lazzara has the right pieces for this team to succeed.  Size, strength and experience (as well as a backup QB) in Paul Lapierre is paired nicely with blazing speed. Individually, James Ohayon, AJ Gomes, Khalil Kerr and Zach Jauniaux are a nightmare to have to cover…Khan Artist’s opponents have to find ways to deal with all of them. As of now, the Khan Artists’ biggest problem seems to be keeping their tempers in check and staying out of their own way – so long as they stay disciplined they will be a team whose stock will continue to rise as the season continues.

 

4 – Ocean’s 12: With the Rainmakers name absent from Division A this spring season, Ocean’s 12 fill that missing piece’s Void. Ryan Kastner has a ton of weapons at his disposal this season. Pair the usual reliability of his brother Derek to go with a who’s who of FPF’s deep threats. Jacques Void, Anthony Vendrame, Mike Harrington and Justin McLean have all been consistently the top receivers on any team that they play on; putting them all together just seems ludicrous. Despite being a group of individuals that were pretty much all placed together, Ocean’s 12 already have the cohesion that even the most seasoned of teams struggle to achieve.  While their 3 wins have been noteworthy (especially a close battle against #NR) they’ve managed to allow 100 points in their two losses which is concerning. In order to make a deep postseason run, I think that this team is going to need to start coming up with some timely stops on defense.

 

3 – Outsiders: Possibly named after a book that was probably required reading for a great deal of you in 8^th grade, the Outsiders are probably the closest thing to a Finest/Big Dogg hybrid. FPF Jr and soon to be FPF star Kalem Ferdinand already looks right at home alongside some of the most decorated players on this team. Kevin Wyeth is here doing Kevin Wyeth things (the only QB in A to have played all 5 games AND only throw 1 INT) and he has the talent mixed with the heart and soul on this team to succeed as usual. Back that up with a stifling, physical and vocal defense, as well as Chris Milard who is likely the best rusher in FPF at this point and it makes a team that you can never count out of ANY game. I’d like them to adjust a little bit more when things don’t go their way, however – potentially moving Andrew Blevings to center would help with these woes? While SPJ (Serge Pilon Jr.) certainly offers an incredible option at snap, moving Blevings there forces opposing defenses to go into physical 1-on-1 matchups with him (especially in the redzone) while SPJ can wreak havoc in the slot.  

 

2 – #NR: With #NR now playing at the highest level of competition in FPF, the cycle is now complete. Like it or not, it is truly impressive to see what this franchise has done (and in such a short amount of time.) The best way to silence your critics is success, and that’s exactly what #NR have done. While the earlier addition of Cory Pecker has been phenomenal and newcomers to the team Theo Ojeaha and Jaylan Grandison seem like the best possible additions, it’s also been special to watch the core of the team throughout the years (Anderson,  Mayers, Moses and Moses, plus a returning Golebiowski) be amongst some of the top players of the division. If you think that the previous #NR celebrations had been a lot to witness, think about this: if #NR win the championship this season in A, they can claim that they conquered the entire league over 6 years. Let that sink in. {Also, if I had a time travel machine and but could only use it for ridiculous things, I think that at the top of my list would be to go back to 2012 and tell Theo Ojeaha that he’d be playing on #NR just to see the reaction that I would get.}

 

1 – Braves: Isn’t this a surprise. A ton of us (myself included) laughed when the notion was presented to us of this Braves team who were tired of dominating other leagues and were looking to come to FPF and tear it up seemed like a pipe dream and that Braves would be in for a reality check. Well, it seems like the reality check went to all of us. Braves have a D2 FPF championship and a storied FPF Cup Championship in which they dominated while playing 5 on 6, and now they sit atop of Division A. Jonathan Maheu is a ridiculous talent in this league who is in my opinion a true first-ballot hall of famer when he’s played enough seasons. The core of the Braves are their usual productive selves, but additions in Mathieu Lepage, Jarryd Tayor and Sebastien Crisi-Lauzon are just so ideal that it seems like they were there all along. My only knock is the consistency and reliability that this team seems to lack at times. While most teams struggle with attendance in the spring, only Mike Pierrecin has played in every game on this team. I worry that we could potentially once again find Braves in 5 on 6 matchups…

 

Division B

 

(Instead of writing the Division B midseason rundown, I ended up writing about the last time Division A was missing the Finest. Hopefully the content below makes up for ignoring Division B completely this week!)

 

Reflections on a Finest-Free Division A

 

As remarkable as the Montreal’s Finest dominance has been throughout the last few spring seasons (okay…more than a few – the Finest played in 6 of the last 7 Spring Div A championships and won 5 of them) it’s been pretty refreshing to see a Division A that’s been a bit more up in the air. At one point while writing this, I got sidetracked thinking about the last time that Division A was Finest-free and decided to reminisce about that 2010 spring season. Spring 2010 was definitely around the time that I first started paying attention to divisions in FPF that weren’t my own – here’s a recollection to the best of my abilities of what went on that spring season. 

 

Spring 2010 was dramatic. The previous year’s champions, the Shockers, were an existing FPF franchise that brought in Kevin Wyeth to quarterback them to instant success and the team’s first championship. However, before the 2010 spring season was set to begin, Kevin let the Shockers and team captain Ross Castleton know that he would not be playing the spring season. With Castleton on the FPF media team at the time, the rest of the league watched what looked like an ugly breakup – Wyeth joined a struggling One Night Stands team as of week 3. Feeling slighted, Ross likened Wyeth playing with ONS like driving a Honda Civic when he was given the keys to a Porsche. Of course, in true FPF fashion, this ended up being right before ONS and the Shockers were set to play each other in Week 4. After uncertainty at the quarterback position (Kishon Thompson filling in between the acquisition and then subsequent loss of Rick Nincheri) the Shockers brought in Fred Dupuis and pulled off the win against ONS as well as limiting Wyeth to only 7 points for the entire game.

 

Aside from ONS who finished 1-8-1, there was a fair bit of parity in A (the previously mentioned Shockers finished 4-6 despite their QB woes.) The team to finish with the next-lowest record was the Rainmakers. Now, for anyone who has questioned Ryan Kastner’s Hall of Fame status due to his lack of FPF championships, look for this Rainmakers team as an example to help prove his worthiness. There have been seasons where the Rainmakers had a lot of depth and were a force to be reckoned with… this was not one of them. Despite a lack of depth, Ryan was still able to propel them to a 3-7 record and managing to keep them competitive – 5 of the 7 losses as well as their playoff loss was at a defecit of one score or less. 

 

Also having finished with 3 wins that season (but finishing 2 games in a tie for a 3-5-2 record) were the Triple Sixers. The Triple Sixers received a ton of flak from pretty much everyone the previous Winter. After having won the Divison C championship in Spring 2009, the Triple Sixers registered in Division 4 with virtually the same roster. They made easy work of pretty much everyone in the division alongside the Warriors who registered in 4 with a roster of similar depth. Both these teams were called Division Dodgers by pretty much the rest of FPF, and likely set about the chain of events that would eventually lead to the rating system. That being said, the Triple Sixers instantly regained favour from the rest of FPF by moving up to Division A and making additions in order to compete at the highest level. Alongside them were a Rehan Sarwar-led Kingz team who had won the Division B championship the season before. What was pretty much the original Gladiateurs team, this group of consistent and familiar faces finished with a 6-3-1 record and even upset the eventual champions with a win over them in the regular season.

 

While there was certainly depth in A, the two teams that finished 8-2 were certainly on a level above. The Goodfellas were a scary team that had some of the biggest and strongest of FPF (Paul Lapierre, Jamal Pierre, Nathan Taylor and Ricky Martin) alongside the professor Rochdi Benabdelkader and the red-hot QB of Benny Goodfriend who had easily won the Division 2 championship alongside Taylor that previous winter. They would eventually lose in the finals to the Mercenaries. After not having played in Spring 2009 and not quarterbacking in Winter 2010, Carmine Pollice was brought in by Gino Di Fazio to quarterback the Mercenaries. In his return, Carm was the top QB in A and cutting up the rest of the division using an arsenal that included Donald Shepherd, Jamil Springer and Matt Norzil. The clash of these two titans started off slow with a 7-6 first half that saw the Goodfellas in the lead up until a pick-six that is probably still my favourite play in all of FPF.  Having left the Goodfellas huddle, Jamal Pierre yelled “Mismatch, mismatch!” to his QB Benny Goodfriend in regards to the defender, Matt Norzil, lining up across from him. After intercepting the ball, Norzil showed Pierre what he thought of the matchup with a middle finger pointed as he brought the intercepted pass back to the house. This took the wind out of the Goodfellas’ sails and gave the Mercenaries the Division A championship. The Mercenaries would win the following year in A as well (beating the Triple Sixers) and would be the only team aside from Roosters and Donkeys to challenge the Finest for a Division A title and win.

 

Until Next Time (/Season)

 

I’m fully aware that I opened this article talking about my struggle to put out consistent content, and that I ended up writing about something completely different than the Division B rundown. Aside from the relief of not having to talk about Spring Cleaning, I’m sorry that I let down those of you in B who would rather have heard about this season in B rather than times long ago. For now, please accept my apology alongside this article to be released at the last possible second. Enjoy Week 6, and happy Father’s Day to the fathers in FPF.