Division C: Kickoff Review, Statements Made, Cancelations, and Zion

Welcome to Week 2 of the FlagPlus Football Spring Season.

Week 1 is in the books, and what a week it was in Division C. We saw some teams and players make a statement, others take their lumps, a few upsets, and a schedule conflict, that saw four games get pushed to later in the season.

As far as teams that got off to a strong start, Game Changers, arguably had the best season-opener of them all, as they Scored a Week 1 high forty-four points, in their (44-12) win over The Huffmen.

Game Changers Quarterback Anton Sakiz, had the best opening week of all QBs, as he threw for a Div C high seven touchdown passes, to five different receivers, including two apiece to Jordan Panetta, and Louis-Philippe Paquette.

The Game Changers defense, made sure they had some fun too, as they were able to generate two interceptions, and three sacks, from Rusher Brian Eudoxie.

The Huffmen Quarterback Terry Tam, wasn’t terrible by any means in his season debut, as he connected on 17 of 30 passes for 137 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions.

Unfortunately for the former receiver, he couldn’t help bail out his defense, that gave up numerous big plays, partly due to the fact that they were on the field way too long, when their offense failed to generate long drives.

Speaking of inexperienced passers, James Donald, led Gym Class Heroes, as they took on All Hooks. The result wasn’t pretty, as Donald completed only 9 of 24 passes, for 82 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.

On the other side of the field, All Hooks Quarterback and Defensive Back Charles-Olivier Lavigne, had a phenomenal game, as the former All-Star, threw for 4 touchdowns, ran for another, and turned a Donald INT into a pick six, in his team’s ( 38-14) win.

The duo of Lavigne, and Jeremy White, made their presence felt, as they single-handedly outscored their opponents, connecting for four times for 61 yards, and three TDs.

As I said last week for both Tam and Donald, the more reps they get, the better they’ll become. In the meantime, both passers, will need to find a way to limit the interceptions, if they want to give their respective defenses a chance to compete.

Another Quarterback who had an impressive Week 1, was Jean-Félix Marquis of The Commission. The veteran QB, threw 5 touchdown passes, and ran for another score, in his team’s (38-32) victory over the Stoics.

The biggest beneficiaries of Marquis’ performance, were receivers Nicolas Gendron-Vallée, and Kevin Donnet, as the duo combined for five touchdowns, and made a number of key plays for their team, on both sides of the ball.

Opposing Quarterback Chris Rivest, had a solid outing as well, with five touchdown passes of his own. His connection with Wide Receiver Will Power, was in full effect, as the duo connected seven times for 76 yards, and 2 touchdowns, and came within about a yard of adding a third score.

In my Season Preview last week, I predicted that the Stoics, would finish with a (3-7) record. While their defense needs to tighten things up a little bit, their offense, has the potential to be lethal.

 

Gino Di Fazio, jumped back in the time machine, as he looked like his vintage self, throwing for 4 touchdowns, and 113 yards, on 16 of 22 passing.

The Hall-Of-Famer’s performance, helped lead his Mercenaries team to a surprising (32-12) blowout victory over Sweat & Beers.

Although the Mercenaries, got help from FPF veterans Kendal Mayers, David De Andrade, and the aforementioned Di Fazio, it was the play of some relative newbies, in Zion Love, Olivia Sormany, Alexandre Blais, and Pablo Chausse-Cossie, none of who have more than three seasons played, that really carried the team.

Blais, led all receivers with 8 receptions, for 49 yards, and 2 TDs, while Zion Love, proved that Zion Williamson, wasn’t the only Zion that deserved attention this week, as he registered 3 catches for 24 yards and 1 TD on offense, and a pick six on the other side of the ball.

For Sweat & Beers, the loss more than a little surprising to say the least, given that as I wrote last week, this is the same team that not only won 5 out of their last 6 regular season games in the Winter Season, but they also averaged 35 points in the process.

While this year’s version of Sweat & Beets, elected to go with last season’s backup QB Rocco Christiano, as the starter this time around, the young passer, has experience, as he went (2-0) last winter in the absence of Robinson, and finished the campaign with a more than respectable 11 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, along with an impressive 20 carries for 231 yards and 5 TDs.

Christiano, looked nothing like the winter version of himself, as he struggled mightily, completing only 10 of 23 passes, for a career-low 67 yards (he has thrown in lower divisions as well), 2 TDs and 2 INTs. What makes it even more alarming, was the fact that he did it against a team with a lot of new parts that were mostly playing for the first time together, and was without the services of arguably their best player in Shawn Haney.

Robinson, played in the game, but only as a Receiver. He finished with 3 catches for 15 yards.

Although it is only one game, if Christiano puts together another bad performance or two, how long will the team wait until they decide to make a switch at QB?

 

Past Our Prime, looked anything but, as they pulled off a (38-33) somewhat of an upset win over Jagerbomb.

P.O.P Quarterback Craig O’Brien, showed that no matter division he is in, the veteran QB can spin the rock with the best of them, as the 3-time champion threw 6 touchdown passes to lead his team to victory.

Last week, I talked about some of the weapons that this team has on offense. Two of the names I mentioned, were Receivers Matt Kirouac, and Angelo Kalaidopoulos, and for good reason.

Kirouac, had a fantastic night, with a game-high 8 catches for 114 yards and 4 touchdowns, clearly placing himself in the very early conversation for WR of the Year. The Hall-Of-Famer, would also add an interception on defense.

Kalaidopoulos, was stellar as well, with 6 receptions for 91 yards and 1 touchdown, to go along with 4 tackles on the other side of the ball.

Jagerbomb, has nothing to hang their heads about, they nearly went score for score with their opponents.

Quarterback Simon Duchesne, ended the contest with 5 touchdown passes, two of which went to Receiver Gabriel Moreau-Paquette, on his only two catches of the game.

The Jagerbomb receiving duo of Vincent Benjamin, and Francois Hogue, came through on more than a few occasions for their team, as they combined for 8 receptions for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Guillaume Miraval, stepped up for Jagerbomb, as he led his team with 5 tackles, and added a 6-yard TD catch on offense.

The only real mistake the team made, besides not converting on all of their conversion attempts, was the one interception thrown by Duchesne. While the loss definitely does not fall squarely on his shoulders, in a tight one possesion game like this one turned out to be, turnovers can comeback to hurt you in a big way.

The only option Jagerbomb has now, is to quickly get over the loss, and get ready for their matchup with Pineapple Express, tonight at Stade de Montreal.

 

Speaking of Pineapple Express, they looked a little rotten on both sides of ball, as they got run over by Simon Says (27-6) last Sunday.

Credit to their defense for shutting down Simon Dagenais and company in the first half, as Pineapple Express only trailed (7-6) at the break.

The second stanza was completely different, as the Simon Says offense woke up, and dropped 20 points on their opponents, and kept what some thought would be an aggressive PE attack, especially with the presence of sub Zach Zwirn, off the scoreboard.

The star of the game was Justin Lerner. The Wide Receiver had a team-high 4 catches for 53 yards, to go along with a touchdown. The 5-time All-Star, would also add an interception, 1 pass deflection, and 2 tackles on defense.

Teammates Justin Blanchard, and Jean-Daniel Joly also had a solid games, as the former recorded 2 receptions for 37 yards, and a game-high 2 TDs, while the latter put up 3 grabs for 35 yards, to go along with 1 INT, 1 PD, and 3 tackles.

While missing Eddy Lee on the Pineapple Express defense, most likely hurt them, the absence of AJ Gomes, for Simon Says, definitely made the final score a bit more flattering for their opponents.

As most of you know by now, four games were unfortunately canceled last Wednesday, at the Bois-de-Boulagne complex, due to a scheduling conflict.

The games that got canceled were:

GloGang vs Dream Breakers

A-Squad vs Junkyard Dogs

KGP vs Keyport Lock

Backyard Bullies vs Easy-Jake-Oven

When I spoke to Rob, this morning, he said that the league and the complex, will be coming to a resolution very shortly, on when they will reschedule the lost games. Stay tuned.

In other news that has nothing to do with FPF, for all the basketball heads out there that turned into the NBA draft lottery this past Tuesday, and saw my Knicks get robbed of Zion, I have to say that it SUCKS being a Knicks fan, especially over the last two decades.

Getting the first overall pick in this June’s NBA Draft, and getting Zion, wouldn’t have erased all the suffering, James Dolan still owns the team after all, but it would have healed a lot of wounds, gave us something lasting and long term to cheer about, and it would have helped a lot of NYK fans, including yours truly, fall in love with the team again. That hasn’t been the case since Patrick Ewing, was patrolling the lane at Madison Square Garden.

Don’t get me wrong, R.J Barrett, is a great player, and might even turn into an All-Star, and in all honesty, there’s no real discernible difference between him and Ja Morant.

Yes, Morant can shoot like Steph Curry, but he can’t play defense. Barrett’s shoot selection isn’t always the greatest, and he NEEDS to work on his free throw shooting, but he plays solid defense, can get to the basket seemingly at will, and he goes through stretches when he can shoot the lights out as well, when his mechanics are good.

Naturally time will tell, who will be the better player. Chances are, they both become studs.

Regardless, neither will be Zion. We tanked this season to get him, and it backfired. Despite that, I agree with the NBA changing up the draft rules to avoid tanking like the NHL does, although I think the worst 3 teams should have better than a 14% chance at getting the top pick. It should be more like 20%, because teams like the Pelicans despite the unfortunate Anthony Davis drama, don’t deserve the #1 selection, especially when they won nearly twice as many games as NYK (33 to 17), and surely would’ve won more, had they chosen not to bench Davis, in virtually the 4th quarter of all their games, after AD demanded a trade.

The Knicks, brought out Ewing, as their representative at the draft lottery, 34 years after they won the same lottery, and earned the right to choose the Center as the number pick in the 1985 NBA Draft. How fitting is it, that the Hall-Of-Famer, one of the best to ever play his position, and arguably still the face of the franchise, who despite bringing us to within an inch of a championship, but never got it done, failed (though it clearly wasn’t his fault) to help deliver us the next GREAT Knick.

God, I hope we get KD this summer…Note to self, and other Knicks fans, don’t hold your breathe.

 

Picks

Stoics vs Gym Class Heroes – Stoics

Simon Says vs All Hooks – Simon Says

Pineapple Express vs Jagerbomb – Jagerbomb

Sweat & Beers vs The Commission – N/A

A-Squad vs Game Changers – Game Changers

The Huffmen vs Easy-Jake Oven – Easy-Jake Oven

P.O.P. vs Mercenaries – P.O.P. (My prediction for Game of the Week)

GloGang vs Keyport Lock – Keyport Lock

KGP vs Dream Breakers – KGP (Upset Special)

Junkyard Dogs vs Backyard Bullies – Backyard Bullies

Last Week: (3-2)

Season: (3-2)

 

That’s it for this Week. I’ll be back next time with a Week 2 re-cap, and a Week 3 preview.

Enjoy the much-needed long weekend, and good luck to everybody in their games tonight, and later in in the week.

If you loved the article, hated it, or simply felt like I left something out, feel free to contact me at [email protected] or on Twitter@BADNEWSB51

Cheers!