The winning streak keeps going
Coed 1
The IG Team 18-42 Plenty of Fish
It’s hard to see a team that has been very successful in the past seasons that are now losing most of their games. Unfortunately, having a steady QB with experience is very important, especially in high divisions. Seeing that Jeanslee Alexis is not present at the moment, for sure hurts the team as they had to find another QB. Jourdain Alexis is doing his best, getting touchdowns here and there and completing passes. The IG Team is going their best while missing their key player and we appreciate them for it, hopefully they are still going out there on the field and having fun.
While for Plenty of Fish, Maude Lacasse wasn’t present either, it was Dylan Taylor who threw this game. He completed 15/19 passes and got a total of 6 touchdowns. He did a good job at distributing the ball and not only focusing on 1-2 specific players. ⅚ of his receivers got a touchdown which created a diversity in passes, you never knew where the ball could’ve been thrown and with the athletes this team has, for sure they would catch it and gain lots of yards. Plenty of Fish is now on a 3 game-winning streak, let’s hope they can keep up with it as they play against Kiss My End Zone and Les Porcinets next.
Kiss My End Zone 38-43 EZFun
First actual lost for Kiss My End Zone, since their first game was a tie. I’ve heard their roster needs a little help, more particularly towards the female athletes. They seem to not have a steady roster as there is always 1 woman missing which makes them need replacement every game. Honestly, finding female athletes to sub is pretty hard as they need an athlete who is good to play in the highest coed division, which most of them already play in the division.
That being said, this was a very close game. Both QB’s such as Jeremy White and Ignacio Valdes Manzanedo had 6 touchdowns and 1 interception each. The difference was the fact that Jeremy White ran to gain a touchdown. Although Iggy did have a good game since he distributed well the ball to his receivers while Jeremy White was more biased towards Jean-Christophe Ferland this game. However, he did not disappoint, he indeed got 10/10 catches for more than 100 yards.
Les Porcinets 38-24 Les Petits Phoques
Another win for Les Porcinets this week. Having scorekept their game I have analyzed their way of playing. Kristopher Verreault is really good at reading the defense quickly and throwing the ball where it needs to be. He sometimes scrambles to buy time which works. His receivers are open and run their route well which makes it easy for their QB to throw to them. He knows what Les Petits Phoques’ defense is gonna look like and adjusts to it when calling his plays. It happened a couple of times where the defense on the wide receivers dropped to which his receiver ran a short route and was opened.
Someone I will point out is Béatrice Bouchard, the rusher for Les Porcinets. We don’t acknowledge enough the work rushers do during games but she was indeed a big factor in why Dom Lefort wasn’t able to run. She wouldn’t just run full speed towards him to get the sack. She indeed ran at a fairly good pace up to him and would always leave around 3 yards between her and Dom. She would never attempt to grab his flag, she was more focused on following him when he would try to scramble back and forth, she contained him the whole game and only allowed him to run once for 3 yards. When Dom took his time and wasn’t able to throw the ball quickly, is when we knew that Les Porcinets’ defense was well defending their players/zone.
For Les Petis Phoques, Dom Lefort keeps throwing to a variety of players, never focusing on only one. This proves that he can trust every single one of his receivers to run their route and catch it. One remarkable touchdown was the one from Frédérique Morneau, she made a quick comeback on the sidelines to which her defender was really close but she never took her eyes off the ball and caught it for Les Petits Phoques’s first touchdown of the game. Way to focus on the ball even with distractions around her.
Coed 2
Coed 2 was pretty short this week with only having 4 games played, to which there was some field problems at Dome Hebert so they had to cancel 2 games. This resulted in only having 2 games played for this division this week. They will be scheduled another time during the season.
You and I 32-33 Balls Deep
With Alexi Labonté throwing against Balls Deep, he got 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Another QB who made ¾ of his receivers get a touchdown and a lot of yards this game, i’m sure his receivers appreciate him for it. Having a quarterback that manages to throw the ball to everyone equally is always nice to have. Defensively, some players are getting a couple PD’s here and there, it’s a way to be where the ball is so great defense.
Benjamin Carli who also got 5 touchdowns, however, was very biased towards a specific player during the game. Nathan Vezina is a very speedy and agile receiver. He got 143 yards and 3 touchdowns, I’d understand why Benjamin throws to him often as he can outrun the defense and even move his hips enough for them to miss the flags. Defensively we got the siblings, Thomas and Emma Langlois, who both got 3-4 tackles, a PD and an interception each!
Flash 26-20 Balles Profondes
A game of interceptions! No but really, it’s interesting as there were 7 interceptions total scattered throughout the game. This seemed to be a very defensive game for both teams as there were also a lot of tackles and PD’s.
I could mention something to help out the teams playing against Flash in the upcoming weeks, take it or leave it, up to you. Their number one receiver, defender, or player overall is Jeremy Murphy. He is a great athlete and it shows that he has a lot of experience in that sport before flag football. He is also very favoured by his quarterback, Juliette Beauvais, and I believe she puts a lot of trust in him to make plays. So if you play against them I think it’s a good idea to take away her main read on offense, if you can cover him obviously, we’ll see who takes the challenge. But if you are successful at taking him away, it will force Juliette to throw to others and make quick reads. I’m not sure how she does under pressure but most QB’s when you make them hesitate, the ball thrown afterwards are more likely to be picked off. On defense, honestly just don’t throw towards Jeremy Murphy’s side and you’ll be good, but you also have Alexis Gaumont to watch out for, so it’s not an easy defense to play against.
Quick Segment – Interview
Quick segment since coed 2 is pretty short this week. I reached out to a player who has experience in the league, I asked him questions about flag football in general and the FPF league. Shelder Valéry is an athlete who knows what he’s doing and is smart when playing, he knows what to do and where to be. I’m including a little french portion as he was more comfortable answering that way, enjoy!
1. How long have you been playing flag football? Have you played any tackle football prior?
Je joue au Flag-Football depuis 12 ans et oui j’ai également jouer au football contact pendant 6 ans.
2. How long have you been in the FPF league?
Je suis rendu à ma 8e année cette saison.
3. What positions do you play on offense and defense?
En attaque je joue la position de receveur, sois wide ou slot et en défense je joue généralement demi-défensif. Ça arrive parfois que je suis rusher.
4. What’s one thing about the FPF community that you enjoy?
Le fais que tu peux entretenir de saine rivalité avec tes adversaires. Sur le terrain, sa joue à 100% et ensuite à la fin de la partie tu serres la main et tout est beau en dehors du terrain.
5. What’s one thing about the league that you like? A specific rule, the road show, how much they include in the finals, etc?
J’aime bien les podcasts. Je l’écoute a chaque semaine, c’est devenu un rituel. J’aime bien entendre les points de vue de Moe et Iggy sur la ligue. Ils sont capables de bien break down les matchs up et de faire un bon résumer de la semaine.
6. I know you started the flag football program at the school of St-Jean-Vianney, what motivated you to start it?
Tout d’abord, je n’ai pas commencer le programme de flag football au CSJV. Vincent Sabourin était là avant moi, il a fait un excellent travail et le programme est devenu ce qu’il est aujourd’hui, J’ai simplement pris le flambeau tout en continuant de l’améliorer.
7. Since you are also a coach for flag football, how do you motivate your kids to perform better and be better versions of themselves?
Je motive mon équipe par rapport aux objectifs placé au début de la saison. Je m’assure que leur objectif reste frais dans leur mémoire pour les pousser d’avantage. C’est facile de dire ont veux être #1, mais il faut agir comme #1 sur tous les aspects et tout au long de la saison.
8. What’s one mistake you see from athletes that start in that sport?
L’une des erreurs que je vois souvent en attaque est le fait que les receveurs/receveuses arrêtent de courir leur tracé.
9. If you were to give a word of motivation to all the young ones who are starting flag or who wants to start, what would you tell them?
Au début, pour certain c’est plus difficile pour eux de soit attraper le ballon ou de retirer un flag. Il ne faut pas se décourager et continuer. Avec le temps et de la pratique tu vas t’améliorer.
10. Finally, we are only 6 weeks into the season, what’s your prediction for your team this season? How will the rest of your season go?
Pour l’instant, notre équipe va bien, nous sommes présentement 4-1. On a des victoires avec des gros écarts, mais aussi une victoire plus serrer par 1 point. Il en faut des matchs comme sa, cela garde l’équipe sur terre. Lors des séries éliminatoires, ce sera très utile. Ma prédiction est qu’on va finir la saison 7-2.
Un gros merci a Shelder d’avoir répondu à mes questions et de nous avoir donner un autre point de vue sur certains sujets.
Game predictions for week 7
Coed 1
The IG Team vs Les Porcinets
Plenty of Fish vs Kiss My End Zone
Les Petits Phoques vs EZFun
Zerosub vs Party Mix
Coed 2
Kiss My Christmas Balls vs Team Meow Meow
Fitsquad vs Pig 6
Kamikaze vs Flash
Balles Profondes vs Kanikule
TIGRES vs Pass Whoopin’ (Can’t pick)
That being said, another week is in the books. We are approaching the half way mark of the season, week 7. To which there is a total of 14 weeks this season, with a couple bye-weeks here and there for every team. Good luck to every team out there!
If you didn’t know, Flag Plus has a podcast that comes out every week, they talk about every divisions, news from the league and many other fun stuff. If ever you are curious you can click on the video underneath to check it out.
Calling The Audible – Winter 2024 Episode 6
Thank you for reading the article for week 1, hopefully you liked it! If ever you have any questions, or recommendations or you want me to talk about a specific team, you can contact me via email [email protected].
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