Reviews, Previews and More from Coed and the Women’s Division

The final week of the season is here but there is still a lot to play for. In Coed 1, the race for top spot is very simple. EZFun and Kiss My Outlaws both have two games left to play and have an identical 6-2 record. As long as EZFun win as many games or more than KMO they will secure the top seed. In Coed 2 the race for top spot is all but over. Kiss My End Zone are currently in first with a 7-0-1 record. Just one win in their final two games will secure them the top seed. Les Princesses are the only other team that can contend for the top spot and in order for them to finish first they would need KMEZ to lose both their games and for them to win both. Things get more complicated in the battle for first in the Women’s division. Les P’tites Miettes and Red Nation both have a 5-2 record. Clearly if one team wins and the other loses, the winning team will clinch the top spot. If both teams win, tiebreakers will come into effect. They have split their season record with one win apiece which means we will have to turn to the second tiebreaker which is points allowed (PA). Les P’tites Miettes have 88 PA while Red Nation have 96. What that means is Red Nation should not just be looking for the win, but they should be looking to shutout Strangers. Now that we have broken down the race for first in each division, lets take a look at our frontrunners, false kings and dark horse contenders as we enter the playoffs.

Coed 1

Frontrunner: EZFun

I know EZFun seem like the easy answer here because they are first in the standings, but this team is really the complete package. The team has five receivers with over 100 receiving yards. For the first time in EZFun history they also have a female player contributing to the mix. Veronique Beaudoin is fourth in terms of receiving yards. The only thing I would like to see this team develop offensively is a secondary female receiving threat. Outside of Beaudoin, they have not been targeting their female players very much at all.

False Kings: Kiss My Outlaws

Kiss My Outlaws have a bad tendency of making games closer than they should be. They have only won three games this season by more than a score and two of those came against Fitsquad. This team is great at taking the lead but awful at keeping it. If we look at their two games last week they had the opportunity to put both to bed by taking two score leads and were unable to do so. KMO need to start living up to their potential otherwise their championship dreams might be cut short.

Dark Horse: Les Petits Phoques

Not much has been said about this Les Petits Phoques team to date, but they are loaded with talent offensively. Dom Lefort has been a top level quarterback and has immediately understood the importance of involving girls in the passing game. Laurianne Bonin and Marie-Ève Vaudrin are both top receivers on this team. When you combine talented female players with male superstars like Alexis Ferrand and Vincent Granata you understand why this team is the top offence in the division. They are the only team to score over 300 points so far. The main reason this team is a dark horse contender is because with the number of points they score, a single defensive stop can give LPP the win.

Coed 2

Frontrunner: Kiss My End Zone

Kiss My End Zone silenced any critics last week with a resounding 33-0 win over 3HUNNAS. The most exciting part about this team is their offence. They lead the division with over 300 points scored and yet it still feels like there is room for improvement. James Drysdale only has 275 receiving yards. For a player who is on pace to have a 400-yard season in division B, you know he is not being used to the fullest extent. I am expecting Drysdale to explode in the postseason and for this KMEZ offence to keep on rolling.

False Kings: 3HUNNAS

After being shut out by Kiss My End Zone you have to wonder if this 3HUNNAS team is a legitimate contender or not. They lost to Les Princesses, struggled to beat Sneaky Snakes and their best performance of the season was a 31-31 tie vs KMEZ back in week 4. The question also remains as to whether Nykolas Pierre-Masse will be around when the playoffs start or if he will be at training camp for the start of the university football season. A loss this week to Sneaky Snakes could plunge this team all the way down to fourth place so their postseason really starts this week.

Dark Horse: Sneaky Snakes

This is a team that I have been sleeping on in large part because I have not seen them play this season. That being said, they are by far the best defensive team in the division. With only 119 points conceded across their first eight games they are on pace to finish off the season as the defensive leaders in Coed 2. Their strength comes from the number of contributors they have on the defensive side of the ball. Felix Lalonde, Marc-André Gosselin and Julien Proulx all have three interceptions on the season. Offensively, it is only a matter of time before this team starts clicking. Julien Proulx is an electric receiver and they need to get the ball in his hands a little bit more if this team wants to put together a long playoff run.

Women’s

Frontrunner: Les P’tites Miettes

This team has a little bit of everything and that is what makes them the favorites to win it all. Morgane Cosimano-Valois has been extremely solid under center. Despite failing to complete over 50% of her passes she has managed to throw 24 scores and for nearly 1,200 yards. While they might not have one standout receiver, the depth of their receiving pool is extraordinary. They have four players with over 200 receiving yards. Defensively, they have been producing turnovers at a herculean rate. Rachel Shea has six, Mélisande Guertin has five and the team has totaled 20 picks in seven games.

False Kings: Red Nation

This team worries me for a very simple reason: their turnover rate is awful. Allyson Sobol has thrown 16 TDs this season, but they have been masked by her throwing 13 interceptions. A ratio of nearly 1-1 is not good enough to win a championship at any level of FPF. This team has two saving graces. Offensively, it is Geraldine Cabillo-Abante. She leads the division with an incredible 510 receiving yards in seven games and has caught over a third of her team’s touchdowns. Defensively, Rachelle Vallieres has been otherworldly. She has 12 interceptions across her first seven games and has returned six of those for scores. More than just being an impressive statistic for the Women’s division, this is one of the most impressive interception totals in the history of FPF.

Dark Horse: Strangers

I have been waiting all year for this team to put things together and it has never quite clicked. Offensively, it feels like they are focusing on too few receivers. Sarah-Maude Mathieu and Kailey Delia have both had fantastic seasons but there has been a lack of production from the other receivers on this team, namely because they are not being targeted. However, the reason this team is a dark horse contender is because they have the pieces to explode and contend for a championship at any moment. Somehow, Lory Ouellette is amongst the leading receivers in Coed 2 and is yet to catch a pass in the Women’s division. Simply put, she could be a star in this division and is being severely underutilized. If this team starts spreading the ball they could go on a deep playoff run.

Week 6 Game of the Week

Kiss My Outlaws (41) vs Les Petits Phoques (40) – Coed 1

This was one of the most entertaining games of the year in Coed 1 and personally one of the most thrilling games I have ever played in. From interceptions, to hail marys and dramatic comebacks it had a little bit of everything!

Coming into this game, tempers were already high. Les Petits Phoques were fresh off the heals of tying Fast Not Furious, which they considered to be as bad as a loss. Dom Lefort was fired up and in the mood for a win. He got the game started in dramatic fashion with a 40-yard rushing touchdown. You could tell that the Kiss My Outlaws offence was shacky from the get-go. It took a 24-yard completion to Joey Notaro on 4^th down for them to score on their first drive. On the very next drive, Lefort was once again unable to make things work with his arm so he ran on fourth down and that was a great decision. He scampered for 32 yards, making defenders miss the whole way, and found his way into the end zone for a score. After being embarrassed on the first two drives, KMO’s rusher was out for blood when Lefort was back on offence. More than just stopping Lefort from rushing, Notaro sacked him and stalled the LPP drive. Two plays after Notaro’s sack, LPP turned the ball over on downs. With just a few seconds before the final five plays of the first half, KMO regained possession. That drive was capped off with a five-yard touchdown pass to Sanders Armand. With just two plays left to go, KMO were up by a score, and they were going to get the ball back to start the second half with the opportunity to score and go up by two scores, but LPP had other plans. On the very next play Lefort aired out a beautifully arced pass that found Alexandre Bresse at the back of the end zone for a 40-yard score. The half ended with LPP up 20-19.  

The start of the second half could not have gone any worse for KMO. Just three plays into the second half, Stephen Harripersaud threw an interception and on the next play, Lefort connected with Vincent Granata for a 30-yard score. After failing to convert on their two-point attempt LPP had stretched their lead to seven points. Three plays into KMO’s next drive, guess what happened. If you answered Alexandre Bresse intercepts Harripersaud again, you would be correct. To make matters worse, Bresse ran that interception back for six points. LPP converted on the extra point to stretch their lead to 14. At this point, KMO needed one defensive stop to get back into the game which is a big task, but not impossible. Things were about to get a whole lot more complicated. Two plays into the next KMO drive Harripersaud was intercepted for a third time by Bresse. At this point KMO was looking absolutely defeated. They knew that if LPP turned the final Bresse interception into points it was game over.

KMO finally caught a break. A pass slipped through Charlie Brière-Couture’s hands and was intercepted by Alexi Dubois. The other Dubois, Erica Dubois turned her brother’s interception into points a few plays later when she got on the end of a 12-yard touchdown pass. LPP’s lead had now shrunk to eight, but they had the ball and the chance to score. Lefort got a little too greedy and decided to go deep on the very first play of that drive. Sanders Armand made a great play for KMO when he plucked that ball out of the air, giving Harripersaud a chance at redemption. If he scored, he could tie up the game and that is exactly what he did. He connected with Isiah Allard and then punched in the two point convert to tie up the game. With a few minutes left before five plays, LPP took back control of the ball. A few plays into that drive, KMO snapper Abigail Cockerton collided with the imposing figure of Armand and injured her shoulder. Since KMO only had two girls present at the game and you need two female players on the pitch at all time, Cockerton was forced to stand at the back corner of the end zone so that her team did not forfeit, but she was unable to participate in the play. Essentially, KMO were reduced to 5 players. During that injury timeout, KMO made the decision to let LPP score. They did not like their odds of defending the dangerous LPP with five players and would rather finish the game with the ball in their hands. Marie-Ève Vaudrin scored the go-ahead touchdown and LPP converted to go up by 7. With 6 plays left, Harripersaud took back the ball and a chance at redemption. After firing incompletions on first and second downs, he connected with Joey Notaro for a huge 33-yard gain. On the next play, he found Notaro for the score. KMO decided to go for two and the win and that was a great decision. Harripersaud found the sure hands of Isiah Allard for the go ahead convert. KMO took the 41-40 lead. LPP had two plays left and were unable to score which meant that KMO won.

 Week 7 Team of the Week:

Every week, I will name 12 players to the team of the week. If you make the offensive team of the week, you cannot be on the defensive one and vice versa. The team of the week will be compromised of players from Coed 1, Coed 2 and the Women’s division. Only stats will be considered when choosing players for the team of the week. That means 100 receiving yards in Coed 1 is equivalent to 100 receiving yards in Coed 2. In the spirit of the Coed division, every team of the week will have a minimum of two female players on the offensive and defensive team.

Offence

Quarterback: Ignacio Valdes Manzanedo (Kiss My End Zone) 23 completions, 253 passing yards, 7 TDs

Receiver: Eric Deschambault (The Justice League) 6 receptions, 108 yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Sarah-Maude Mathieu (Strangers) 6 receptions, 133 yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Geraldine Cabillo-Abante (Red Natio) 7 receptions, 110 yards, 2 TDs

Receiver: Lory Ouellette (Kiss My End Zone) 8 receptions, 115 yards, 3 TDs

Receiver: Jeremy White (EZFun) 9 receptions, 102 yards, 2 TDs

Defence

Rusher: Vincent Granata (Les Petits Phoques) 5 sacks

Defensive Back: Jennifer Pérusse (Sneaky Snakes) 2 INTs, 1 TD

Defensive Back: James Drysdale (Kiss My End Zone) 1 tackle, 3 INTs

Defensive Back: Rachelle Vallieres (Red Nation) 7 tackles, 4 INTs, 1 PD, 2 TDs

Defensive Back: Kevin Donnet (Kiss My Outlaws) 2 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 PD

Defensive Back: Alexandre Bresse (Les Petits Phoques) 5 tackles, 3 INTs, 1 TD

Week 8 Predictions:

3HUNNAS (6-2-1) vs Sneaky Snakes (5-3) – Coed 2

This is an extremely interesting stylistic matchup. On paper you might think that 3HUNNAS’ extremely stingy defence would cause problems to the Sneaky Snakes who have the least points scored amongst the top four Coed 2 teams. In reality, I expect the exact opposite to happen. This 3H defence loves playing man-to-man coverage when they get in the red zone and that will cause them problems. Simply put, there is not a single woman in this division who could cover Marilou Côté Noël one on one. 3H will need to readapt their entire defensive playbook in order to stop Côté Noël and changing the formula you have been using all season is never great. Also, morale is at an all time low for this 3H squad after being handed a crushing loss by Kiss My End Zone. Bad red zone matchups and low morale make this an extremely tough outing for 3H.

Prediction: Sneaky Snakes

Strangers vs Red Nation – Women’s

Red Nation need to do more than just win this game. If they want to clinch the top seed, it is essential for them to concede as few points as possible. If they are smart, they will slow down the pace of play and milk time as much as possible since it does not matter how many points they score, but only how many they concede. As for Strangers, they are going into this game with a lot to prove and very little to gain. It is too late for them to move up or down in the standings, but a win means they will face Red Nation in the quarterfinals so a win this week could be a huge morale booster. Overall, I do not like the direction Strangers are headed. After a strong start to the season their form has dipped as of late. On the other hand, Allyson Sobol is red hot for Red Nation. While I am convinced that Red Nation will win, I do not think they will be able to pitch the shutout they will need to take the top seed.

Prediction: Red Nation

Good luck to everyone as you close out your regular season and see you at the field!