Categories: Co-EdFallWomen's

Vertigo, Upsets and Double Elimination

Hello complimentary divisions! First off, apologies for the delay in getting out articles, as this past week was riddled with dizziness, headaches, nausea and all other vertigo symptoms that wasn’t too pleasant to deal with. But alas, here we are, 2 and a half weeks into the knockout round and much has changed in the Co-Ed 2 and Women’s divisions. Some teams have left us, others are living in the single elimination bracket, while others still have the luxury of two lives.

Before we continue though, a shoutout to the Als and their Grey Cup Championship and of course, to certain members in the league that play and ref the game we love. Congrats to Allyson Sobol and Tara Mrakic as members of the Als organization! Continue the great work and good luck on the field!

Back in the FPF world, let’s get a picture of where we stand today, starting with the Women’s division, where we saw one of the giants in Vortex lose their double elimination status.

Women’s Recap To-Date

Red Bulls charged and then crash

Red Bulls were able to beat X&X in consecutive weeks, to end the regular season and then eliminate them from the knockout rounds, as the Red Bull defense came up strong in the Wild Card game, limiting Maya Di Fazio to just 1 touchdown on offense. While both teams drove the field for yards, Florence Brault completed twice as many passes and was able to put together one more touchdown drive that Maya. Magalie Ruel and Kayla Gauthier were the touchdown scorers for Red Bulls, but the game changing play was the safety from Eve Charbonneau, giving Red Bulls a 2-possession, 9-0 lead. Maya Di Fazio did her best to get her team back in it with an INT followed by a 40-yard TD to Frida Llaguno, but a late drive from Brault iced the game with a 1-yard TD to Gauthier.

As the lowest seed, Red Bulls were going to have a steep hill to climb this playoff run, so naturally, following their win, they were rewarded with a tough Vortex opponent. The Red Bull defense once again came to play, forcing 1 turnover via INT from Magalie Ruel and the team was able to get their hands on 9 passes, deflecting them away from the Vortex receivers. Overall, they limited what could be a high-flying offense, to just 17 points, something that they can hold their head high on. The problem that night was that the Vortex defense posed a much greater challenge than X&X, as Brault threw 4 interceptions and 0 touchdowns on the night. Virginie Aubut-Ménard had 3 INTs and Elodie Drouin returned her interception for 6 points. Not to mention, Annika Browns had 2 sacks for 2 safties and Rachel Giacobbe added another sack for good measure. Virginie Aubut-Ménard had the only offensive touchdown of the game, but the Vortex offense will need to perform better if they wish to make a deep playoff run.

BRUTES punching their ticket to the Finals, dropping 2 opponents to 1 life

BRUTES have bulldozed their opponents in their 2 playoff games. While Maude Lacasse has thrown 9 TDs in 2 games, she has thrown as many interceptions (3) in those 2 games as she did the entire Fall Cup regular season. I mentioned on Calling The Audible that while they were heavy favorites against Red Nation, that if RN could come away with even 1, not to mention 2 INTs and plant a seed of doubt into Maude’s offense, that that would be a win for Red Nation. The thing with BRUTES though, is that if you find one small crack, another part of the team fills that crack and attacks your vulnerabilities. For BRUTES, their defense attacks and applies pressure as much as you would expect an offense to. The BRUTES D have combined for 9 interceptions already this knockout round, with 2 of those picks going back for 6 points. Sabrina Gervais is likely the best defensive player on the field at all times and her 4 postseason INTs tie her for the lead with Virginie Aubut-Ménard of Vortex. Despite their 2 playoff victories, BRUTES have not seen the last of their opponents.

First, Wolfpack play Wildcats at 6pm on Saturday Nov 25th and Wolfpack look to avenge their Wild Card loss while Wildcats are set to play their 1st playoff game after a few weeks off. Like in their knockout round debut, we knew the Wolfpack offense would revolve around Carrie-Ann Auger and Maryse Paquette, and that was the case against BRUTES. Auger led the way for Wolfpack with 9 receptions and a whopping 121 yards and 1 touchdown. Expect either her or Paquette (or both) to finish the game with 100+ receiving yards. For Wildcats, the question will be whether the extended time off will have hurt or helped them come back stronger. They ended the season tough, putting up 0 points against Red Nation in a night where nothing went their way. Let’s see if they can turn things around or whether they will be stifled once again.

Co-Ed 2 Knockout Round Summary

Divisional Round

Subzero vs WYD Step Bro’s?

The single elim bracket got us started in the divisional round on Monday Nov 20th at Stade de MTL as both Subzero and Who’s Gonna Carry the Boats came away with convincing victories over WYD Step Bro’s? and Free Agents, respectively

After Step Bro’s started with a 4-and-out drive, their defense bent but didn’t break, as Sara Parker drove the field into the redzone, but also went 4 incompletions to turnover the ball on downs. After a dream stop from his defense, Nav Sharma must be seeing Laurence Pontbriand in his nightmares, as in back-to-back games facing each other, Pontbriand once again picked off the Step Bro’s QB, but this time brought it back for a 6-0 lead for her squad. After Subzero were able to stuff their opponents into another 4-and-out, a 33-yard strike from Parker to Moquin-Joubert put Subzero in familiar territory. This time around, Parker was not playing around, hitting Sara Cormier for her first TD of the night. Though, Michael De Gregorio was able to return the 2 point convert 40 yards back for the rare 12-2 lead for Subzero.

There were 2 things that kept the Step Bro’s in contention in this game. The first was displayed on the next drive, as Sharma‘s connection with Natan Nettel continued this playoffs with a 40-bomb TD to cut the deficit to 4 points (8-12). The second was Lucas Gimeno on defense, as he ended the Subzero drive and half with an interception.

The teams would exchange 7-yard touchdowns, with again Cormier and Nettel having a touchdown battle, tied at 2 each. The following Subzero drive must have been heartbreaking for the Step Bro’s, as twice they held Subzero to 4th down, and both times, Laurence Pontbriand burned them, the first time for a first time, the 2nd for a 21-yard touchdown. That touchdown, plu her 2 point convert put Subzero up 10 points.

After Subzero’s third 4-and-out turnover on downs on the Step Bro’s offense, it was once again Gimeno breeding life into the Step Bro’s team with his 2nd pick of the night on Parker. The drive was capped off with guess who, but Nettel‘s 3rd TD of the game. Down 4 points, Sharma would go for the onside pass, but it fell short. A final, matching Cormier hat-trick TD put this game away for Subzero, as they advanced to the Quarterfinals and are faced to set a TIGRES team waiting for them after losing their first double-elim game against At Least We Tried.

A boatload of Free Agents

With Alex Szalipszki entering his first ever playoff game under centre, he showed no nerves under the bright lights. Instead, he kept calm under pressure and had the game of the season, as he matched the season-high 5 TDs he put up against Free Agents No More, almost a month ago. He one again completed 68% of his passes, with every pass completed, averaging a first down. He not only passed for 169 yards, he ran another 6 times for another 53 yards on the ground. To boot, he picked off Gabriel Lemonde twice.

The game started with a deep shot completed from Lemonde to his favorite deep target in Eric Letourneau. Diana Janes-Landry would punch it in from 3 yards out on the very next play to put Free Agents ahead earl, 6-0.

Unphased by their score, Szalipszki‘s big plays came on 3rd down, first, with a 1st down to Cam Chaput and then with a 20-yard TD to Lazar Atanackovic to tie the game at 6. The teams would match scores once again, as it seemed like this game would be a shootout. Rachel Shea scored first for Free Agents, as their females were finding the endzone, followed by Red Bull teammate Kayla Gauthier. The key difference in the TD scores was that WGCTB’s were able to convert for 2 while Free Agents did not.

Szalipszki would end the scoring streak for both teams, as he got his first interception on the night after Letourneau brought them 29 yards downfield. Those 2 scores would unfortunately be the last scores the Free Agents would be able to score, as their fire simply burned out. On the flip side, Alex Szalipszki drained the clock with well-timed runs, obtained key first downs that sustained drives, showed an exemplary form of ball-distribution, and most importantly, capped the drives off with 6 points each time.

The Boaters now face off against Balls Deep on Monday Nov 27th for what should be a great battle in St-Laurent!

Harmoniously predatory

In one word, Antoine Charlebois was: Efficient. He completed 89% of his passes, going 16 of 18, scoring 6 TDs on those 16 completions for 183 yards. He took advantage of the 4 interceptions forced by the team defense. Maya Di Fazio tricked Cesar Garcia-Diaz into throwing 2 picks her way, while Richie Mondesir took his to the house for 6 and Shanton Smith picked off the deep ball that was underthrown and ran it back to set his offense up in the plus territory. Back to the offense, Shanton Smith, Julien Provost and Lucas Piscopos were a 3-headed monster that the Predators had no answer for. They combined for 13 receptions of Charlebois‘ 16 completions, and 170 of the 183 passing yards, a whopping 93% of that yardage! Of course, they had all 6 offensive TDs as Y&Y still have not suffered a defeat all season.

For the Preds, Edouard Guimas did his best to keep them in the game with 9 receptions, 81 yards, a hat-trick of touchdowns on O and an interception on defense. Him and Magalie Ruel were the key cogs in the Preds offense, catching 16 of Cesar‘s 20 completions, accounting for 82% of the 164 passing yards on Saturday afternoon. Anthony Gentile contributed with a huge 18-yard touchdown at the time, on an important 4th-and-17 situation, but Aryane Boucher, perhaps the key factor and advantage for the Preds over the Y&Y defense, was kept in check with just 1 catch for 8 yards.

The key moments in the game mostly occurred in the 1st half and were the following:

  • Maya Di Fazio‘s pick on the Preds 2nd offensive drive.
  • A 40-bomb Y&Y touchdown to Shanton Smith that demoralized the Predators, after they clawed and scratched their way to an aforementioned 4th down touchdown to Gentile that had previously provided them a spark of life.
  • The Y&Y defense stopping the Preds to end the half, as the Predators had 5 plays to score. As shifty as Cesar is, running on the last play of the half from 28 yards out is a bad decision. Throw it up and give your team a chance to score from that far out.
  • Y&Y got the stop to end the half and scored on the opening possession of the 2nd half, after converting on 4th and 12 for a 25-yard Touchdown to Julien Provost.
  • A Pick 6 on the ensuing drive by Mondesir iced the game for Y&Y.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

If you open the box score for this game, you will see a combined 153 passing yards; seeing this might put a grimace on your face. But there’s an explanation, several actually. First, all the rushers in this one combined for 3 sacks, but notably, one from Lory Ouellette forced At Least We Tried to punt on their first drive and another by Alex Noel on a 4th-and-1 run situation by Darryl Dorcely gave the ball back to KMCB twice. That, combined with 3 other drives where At Least We Tried could not convert on 4th down, gave Alex Noel shorter fields to drive the field.

Second, with the KMCB defense stopping their opponents each time, driving the field and chewing the clock was just as valuable as scoring (and better than scoring quick). Noel did a magnificent job of driving the (short) field given to him, picking up first downs, killing 4-5 mins off the clock, and then being clutch in the red zone and putting up 6, twice to yours truly and another to Alexi Dubois and Laury-Ann Potvin. He also excelled in distributing the ball, as 7 different receivers caught passes for KMCB.

Third, on the ALWT side of things, their offense was plagued by many drops. Had receivers been able to grab some not-so-easy balls thrown their way, they could have picked up a lot more yards than the 45 yards they ended with. They were also missing 2 key pieces from their roster on Saturday afternoon, as both Carolane Larivière and Mr. First Down himself Jimmy-Lee Janvier were both absent for this mid-day affair. Those two are sure-handed options for Dorcely and it was evident yesterday, as the team had more drops than I can count. The team didn’t seem cohesive on offense, but being a double-elimination team, they could afford the loss. At Least We Tried will now play the lowest seeded winner between the single-elimination Quarterfinals bracket on Sunday December 3rd in the Loyola Dome.

And there you go, 153 passing yards explained, as the game flow dictated a slow-paced, but efficient offense for Kiss My Christmas Balls, as they played as close to a perfect game as any team can, looking very confident on both sides of the ball.

Up next for KMCB, they face the undefeated Y&Y, as that matchup goes down Monday night in Stade de Montreal, Papineau! Should be a great battle of two of the premiere teams in CE2!

Alright, that does it for this week to bring us back to speed in the Complimentary FPF world. Good luck in your playoff run and go out and ball out!

Until next time, cheers!

Iggy Magnets