Week 9 Weekend Games

Hey FPF community,

Welcome to the week 9 edition of my article. Sorry it’s a little late, I was hosting trivia this past week, and that takes some of my extra time (and sleep) away from me. But rest assured, I had the time to see some games last weekend and have some detailed recaps to share with everyone. I caught Chocolate Barracudas facing off against Clinkers, Past Our Prime battling Junkyard Dogs, and finally saw Pineapple Express taking on the Greendale Human Beings.

Also, you will be hearing more of it in the next few days, but I’m excited to announce that the media team has decided to change the current format of the weekly articles as early as this Saturday (week 10). Not only have we listened to player suggestions, but going back to a divisional analyst and article format at this point in the season will better allow us to go into details about the state of the division and discuss the playoff picture. We will be able to provide details on the key divisional games with playoff implications and analyze potential playoff matchups more in depth than what the current article format allowed us.

Things on my mind this week:

• Those on Facebook will have already seen my shoutout, but for those who prefer to skip the Facebook world, shoutout to Believe The Hype for coming out to Honey Martin, the bar on Sherbrooke this past Tuesday during trivia night, as I was hosting the weekly event. They crushed it, participating in 5 rounds, winning 2 of them, and making it to a 4-team tie-breaker final in another round.
• The parking on Catalogna on Sunday nights is insanity. If you’re playing on Sunday night in Lachine, make sure to get there well before your game.

 

Don’t forget to catch all the content FPF has to offer this year, from all the articles released weekly by FPF media members, including Peeze’s Saturday article which has the Power Rankings and Game Picks for all the Men’s divisions (which will now appear in each analysts article), to the Calling The Audible podcast, live on Thursday nights, the fantastic Game of the Week videos on YouTube, to all the field snapshots posted up on the FPF Instagram page.

 

Weekend Recaps

 

Chocolate Barracudas vs. Clinkers (Div 5B)

This was a battle of 2 teams near the very bottom on 5B, but was an important game for both teams’ playoff hopes nonetheless, as both the Barracudas and Clinkers were looking to make a push for the playoffs. The loser however, would really be hurting their playoff chances.

Like I mentioned, the parking in Lachine had me missing a few drives, so while I wasn’t there to see it, Tony Khoury was sure to let me know that the game’s first play started off with his with first career pick 6 in 247 FPF games.

Sonny Elias, the Chocolate Barracudas didn’t let this faze him however, as 3 completions later, Jackson Roy-Hebert, a last minute substitute and trivia champion, caught his first of 3 TD’s on the night. This game was great to watch for those who like to see the offenses move with ease. If FPF had defensive coordinators on the sideline, someone would have gotten fired on Sunday night. Without giving up too much about their offenses, both Chocolate Barracudas and Clinkers would repeatedly run very similar plays and would drive the ball down the field with ease. After Marc-Andre finished off a drive with Charles Presser’s first of 2 touchdowns to put his team up 12-6, the Choco Barracudas were able to score in just 3 plays. Not to be outdone, however, Marc Andre hit Phil Aussant in stride on his wheel route up the left sideline for a 1-play, 40-yard touchdown. All the converts after all 5 TD’s had gone unsuccessful, giving us an 18-12 score in favour of the Clinkers.

Sonny Elias never deviated from what was working, starting in his Quads left formation, hitting Chris Williams for 17 yards, and on the second play of the drive, sent Lusson Pierre on a hook-and-go that went for a 23-yard score. Finally, able to convert the first extra point to snapper Mat Fernandez catching a bullet from Elias to go up 19-18.

Marc-Andre was in much more a groove this week vs last week against Blackouts. After missing Alexi Dubois to open the drive, he hit Khoury, Aussant and Presser for 3 completions in a row, which ended with back to back Khoury dump offs for the 1-yard TD. Still unable to convert their XP, the Clinkers went up 24-19. 

 

Halftime score: 24-19 Clinkers

 

Marc-Andre started the 2nd half the way he ended it, driving the ball, this time with Aussant and Cantin as his primaries. The drive wouldn’t go the distance however, as Lusson Pierre came out of nowhere for the endzone picks, a huge play for the Barracudas to avoid going down 2 scores.

Elias and his WR’s were also able to continue their first half offensive dominance, scoring quickly on another 3 play drive and taking advantage of the turnover caused by Lusson.

The star of the next Clinkers drive was Charles Presser, lining up wide left or in the left slot, he often made catches on outs and hooks to body punch the Barracudas, and eventually took his hook and pranced his way like a gazelle for a 12-yard score after getting a pass out wide left, juking back to the middle for the score. Score stood at 30-25 with Clinkers leading.

The next Barracudas drive was aided by a Vincent “C3-PO” Lajoie UR penalty who tackled the Barracudas receiver to the ground. Clinkers had a tight red zone defence but even after getting sacked on 3rd down, Sonny found Lusson Pierre on his right side in a quads right formation for the go ahead TD. The convert XP again went to Fernandez to go up 32-30.

Talking to Marc-Andre on the sideline, running with 4:30 left on the clock, I asked him how he would approach the game, either slowing it slow it down and milking the clock on his way down field, or if he takes the quick tempo approach to try and get another possession. He said it depends on the result of the first play, which ended up being a Charles Presser post route that went for 34 yards and ended with the Eric Canton touchdown that was captured on FPF’s Instagram page and had the quote of the year as M-A let out his infamous Touchdown celebration shout, which was responded with Sonny asking him “What’s wrong with you?” and M-A responded with “I’m winning, that’s my problem!” as the score gave Clinkers the 36-32 advantage.

Like most of the game, the Barracudas scored right after on a SICK touchdown catch by Lusson Pierre, with Alexi Dubois covering him tightly underneath. The Clinkers gave up the 2 pts to save time and get an extra play in, as the Barracudas even with the 2-pt conversion, went up 40-36.

I love how in a pressure game both offenses showed up, not wanting to go 2-6. With the last drive of the game, the game was on the line for M-A and the Clinkers, who started forcing it too much on the 1st 2 plays, but then hit Dubois on the out for 7 yards and then quickly to Khoury for the key 1st down. The Barracudas needed their defence to come up big, after not being able to stop Clinkers all game. It didn’t look good when Lusson took an unnecessary roughness penalty, bringing the Clinkers to the 10-yard line. Not wanting to rush the last play in panic, Khoury took the time clock violation to go 15 yards from the endzone. With the last play of the game, MA threw it up to the middle of the endzone and it got picked off.

 

Final score: Chocolate Barracudas 40 – Clinkers 36

 

 

 

 

Past Our Prime vs. Junkyard Dogs (Div 3)

This game actually started off a little sloppy on both sides, with each quarterback’s 2nd pass of the game getting intercepted. Both were deep balls that seemed a forced by both Jason Rossie (picked off by Patrick Jazon) and Craig O’Brien (picked off by Shawn Haney). These mistakes however would be minor blimps in an otherwise highly effective offensive game from both sides.

Though both offenses were effective, they were slightly different strategies. While Craig O’Brien was more methodical in his drives, taking what the defense was giving him short, and then connecting on his deep shots when available, Jason Rossie and the Junkyard Dogs offense was more of a hurry-up, quick strike offense, so much so, I barely had time to write down the last play before Paul Lapierre was set to snap the balls. Good on the refs for allowing this tempo to play on, as they were very aware and quick to adapt to the flow of the game.

With the score tied at 6, and JYD with the ball, Rossie hit Paul Lapierre on a 40-yard corner route for the touchdown, who made a nice spin move on his way in (convert was no good). Lapierre was absolutely dominant in this game, running quick, crisp deep routes and is unbelievably difficult to tackle with his size, quickness and deceptive spin moves, showing you his front waist just at the right time to evade the tackle.

On the next drive, Craig O’Brien was able to hit Tony Lalla streaking down field, wide left, and Rory Semerjian was able to save the touchdown, tackling Lalla at the 1. O’Brien capped the drive off on the very next play, hitting Tyrel Hoas for his first of 3 TD’s on the night.  With Darnell Kevis Riley catching the XP convert, it put his team ahead 13-12.

Rossie evidently liked going mid range/deep routes on the opening play of drives, this time hitting Haney for 21. Unfortunately, the drive stalled after some great defensive PD’s from Hoas and Jazon (Jazon almost had a pick on 3rd down after Rossie put one a little too deep over the middle.

The next POP drive was really summed up in 2 plays. First, Hoas took a left slot hook for 17, and Patrick Jazon took his sideline hook the distance, as he too showed his front waist to the 1st defender, making him miss, cutting back to the middle, and slightly dipping in for the score. He made it seem so easy, so seamless, but Jazon once again showed his elusiveness to perfection. That 2nd play went for a 23-yard score, putting his team up 19-12.

JYD once again started their drive with Haney on the sideline for 15, and continuously moved the ball with ease, hitting snapper Lapierre for a quick 8-yard drag, and Rossie taking a designed run for 10 yards towards the left sideline. Now in the redzone, and Rossie rolling right, and the whole offense rolling right, he throws a dart…. that I have no idea how it was undercut and picked off by #3, Corey Cook, running it back for a pick 6! It was thrown so hard, that I seriously don’t know how Cook managed to both undercut and maintain possession of the ball, but he made a great play to close out the half and give POP a more comfortable 25-12 halftime lead.

 

Halftime score: 25-12 for Past Our Prime

 

POP opened the 2nd half with the ball, and were forced into a 4th and 1 situation after the first 3 plays, a key moment in the game for JYD. POP converted however, and a nice hook and slide route by Tony Lalla. After an 8-yard completion to Kalaidopoulous, O’Brien remained calm in the pocket and Hoas as he backed his way into the left endzone to go up big, 31-12.

JYD were forced from this point on to run a hurry up offense and did so successfully throughout the 2nd half. They managed to score in 3 plays, 2 receptions to Paul Lapierre over the middle and hit Sean Semerjian on his post route, even though it was a late throw, Sean had enough separation from defenders for Rossie to gun it in late into the route. On the XP for 2 points, it was worth mentioning Shawn Haney’s toe drag swag, extending his arms for the ball, with one foot planted, the other dragging, with the turf beads coming off the ground, it was one of the nicest catches I’ve seen all year. Definitely would make Nate Burleson’s Toe! Drag! Swag! Segment on GMFB.

With Sean Semerjian rushing O’Brien hard, and getting his second PD as rusher, O’Brien started to pump more and made Semerjian jump, and distributed the ball on the drive to Darnell, Hoas, and Tanner Burrell. O’Brien ended the drive with another hard Pump while moving to his right, which froze the entire JYD defense. Alone on his opposite side was Hoas, so O’Brien stepped up after rolling right and lobbed one into Hoas who planted his feet and caught it while his body fell to the ground. It may have been slightly exaggerated, but sometimes you lose position of how close you are to the sideline, so he stopped moving and simply caught the floater safely by bringing the ball into his body while falling down.

JYD had another 3 play drive go the distance, with all 3 receptions going to Paul Lapierre, starting with another 30 yard completion with that amazing spin move after a simple drag route. The stats show that Lapierre caught the TD, but I recall it being Haney coming down with another tip toe catch for the TD in the back of the endzone, but it very well may have been the XP which they again converted. The score at this point stood at 37-28 for POP.

Needing a big stop, JYD unfortunately started the drive with a minor unnecessary roughness penalty (5 yards) after Lalla caught his 3rd ball of the night on a 3-yard hook. While the JYD offense was doing everything they could to get back in this game, Craig O’Brien was just too good, too efficient in this one, and ended yet another drive with a TD, this time a 12 yard touchdown to Burrell on a corner route, back of the endzone, essentially closing out this game going up 44-28 with 4 minutes left in the game. Even with JYD scoring on their next drive, again in just 3 plays, and picking off O’Brien for their first stop of the 2nd half, it was too little, too late, as Past Our Prime took this incredibly entertaining battle, 44-34. I simply had a blast watching both offenses go to work, as both Jason Rossie and Craig O’Brien put up over 250 passing yards each, and 538 yards of total offense and 11 TD’s combined in 71 action-packed plays with amazing catches and steady quarterback play. This was FPF at its finest.

 

Final score: Past Our Prime 44 – Junkyard Dogs 34

 

 

 

Pineapple Express vs. Greendale Human Beings (Div 3)

I don’t think I could give a detailed game recap of this game like I usually do, because it would look like I would be copy/pasting the Greendale Human Being drives repeatedly, but I’ll do my best to give detail. I will mention it once though, and not throughout the recap that the offense runs through Alex Joltopuf, as many of you probably already know, and runs a deadly smash in/smash out from the snapper position. Even if you know its coming, its almost impossible to stop. 

As was mentioned on Calling The Audible on Thursday night, Chris Olson was awesome in this one. He was on target, patient, took his deep shots with 1on1 matchups that were in his favor and played an overall exceptional game. On his first drive, he pretty much took a 1on1 matchup that he like with Michael Malinaric getting in front of his defender and simply posting him up and boxing him out for the jumpball TD.

Danny Aylward, GHB QB moved the ball with Joltopuf, and put up his score with a 7 yard score on an out route by Kendal Mayers, whose concentration on the ball was 100% as the Pineapple Express defender was right there to contest the catch and even got his hand in between Mayers, but Mayers’ hand strength was too much, and secured the catch for the TD. The Community squad were able to go up 7-6 after Zach Zwirn was able to find the hole on his deep hook in the back of the endzone.

While I mentioned that Chris Olson was great in this one, he did throw an interception, but it was through no fault of his owns. The ball was bobbled by Domenic Benevento, tipped by a GHB defender into the air as Benevento tried to re-possess the ball, and landed into Alex Joltopuf’s arms, returning it to the 10-yard line.

Danny Alyward made Pineapple Express pay for the turnover, converting with Zwirn for the 1-yard TD on 4th down.

I loved the response by Pineapple Express on the very next drive, as Olson made great reads, hitting Joel Malkin on his out route for 10, went back to Benevento for 5, and put up another jumpball, this time for Joel Malkin, and came down with a 25-yard TD.

I also liked the following GHB drive, as they mixed up their receiving options to Zwirn, Joltopuf, got his brother Brandon involved in the game, and Danny Aylward himself rushed for 11 yards. While they got to the 6-yard line, the Pineapple Express’s redzone defense flexed its muscles, bringing the Human Beings to a 4th and goal situation. While Danny was able to hit Kendal Mayers, but a huge tackle by Nic Groppini stopped Mayers at the 1-yard line.

Olson, now backed up on his 1 had no trouble moving away from his endzone, as he, Groppini (hook and juke) and AJ Gomes (drag route) picked up 33 yards in just 2 plays. The next pass went to Malkin who made a jaw-dropping catch, with his outstretched hands on his out route from the left slot. This put his team up 18-12 for the last score before the half.

 

Halftime score: 18-13 for Pineapple Express

 

As the 2nd half began, Brandon Aylward got more involved in the offence, taking his hook for 7 and his fly from the left slot for 20, which was a perfect gunned pass from brother Danny. Now just outside the redzone at the 8, once again, the defensive storyline for Pineapple Express was their goaline/redzone defense. Anthony Lazarra batted down a sure touchdown intended for Joey Taylor in the back of the endzone, and Domenic Benevento, on 4th down had great coverage on Zach Zwirn, whose banana around the back of the endzone forced Danny Aylward to slightly overthrow Zwirn to ensure it was only a ball that Zwirn could reach. Trying to tip it to himself, even Zwirn could not come up with the acrobatic catch and Pineapple Express’s defense once again made a huge stop.

On the next Pineapple Express drive, the out to Anthony Lazzara on 4th down was short, but more critically on the play, Lazzara was greatly injured, with Joey Taylor playing a tight defence on him. It was not dirty nor any mal-intent on Taylor’s part; just what comes with playing tight defense, it seemed like a knee/leg injury to Lazzara that had the game whistled down for a few minutes. Meanwhile, while on the floor and in pain, all Lazzara could think about was how in the world Tara Mrakic didn’t give him the 1st down on the play.

Getting a big stop of their own, GHB’s wasted no time, converting the turnover into 7 points with Kendal Mayers 16-yard wheel route and Joltopuf’s extra point, putting their team ahead 20-18 over Pineapple Express.

Without any concern or panic, Olson and his snapper and main target on the drive, Domenic Benevento led their team down field on an 8-play drive that was capped with Benevento’s 4th catch of the drive, a 3-yard TD.

The action and intensity of this game was also high, as on the very next play, Danny connected with Brandon’s post route from the left slot for 39 yards, tackled by Poulin-Rioux. I wondered whether the Human Being’s were concerned about yet another redzone visit, after the first pass to Zwirn, lined up in quads left was stopped. My answer was quickly answered, as Danny finally connected with his brother to score in the redzone. The score at this point was 26-24 for GHB’s with about 4 minutes left.

And then, just like lightning in a bottle, the AJ Gomes show arrived. He made an INCREDIBLE, INSANE 30-yard touchdown, as he had a defender draped all over him, pulling him down to the ground on his fly down the right sideline. Although his body was in an awkward position, almost in an abs crunch position (back to the floor, knees bent), he stuck out his arm as Olson’s deep ball was on its way down. AJ was able to get his hand (singular, please) under the ball, cupping it with no bobble. It was quite the touchdown to witness in person, and hope I did it justice with words. Score was 30-26 for Pineapple Express.

The Human Beings had one last drive to score, with about 2 minutes left in the game. The drive was what I thought it would be, with back-to-back targets to Joltopuf. Not to be outdone with his own crazy catch, Kendal Mayers made a NASTY one-handed catch, running towards the sideline with Poulin-Rioux closely defending him from behind, and maybe even holding his left hand, preventing the use of his 2 hands for the catch. The Human Beings once again made it to the redzone, where the game was going to be won or lost. On the 2nd to last play of the game, Brandon had a lot of contact/shoving on the line (not called) and he makes a play in the corner of the left endzone but CAN’T get his 2 feet in as he attempts for the diving catch (but man, was it close!). Ref Tara Mrakic was in great position to call it though, and saw Brandon’s toe on the sideline to call it out-of-bounds with confidence. While I did not mention it much, Malinaric was having a pretty decent game rushing Danny, and ended with probably the biggest play of the game, batting down the last attempt with his 6-foot-2 frame, and giving his team a huge winning celebration.

 

Final score: Pineapple Express 30– Greendale Human Beings 26

 

 

If you made it ’till the end, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the analysis and detail as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m always open to new ideas, suggestions, or shoutouts, so feel free to email me @ [email protected], or message me on Facebook (I’m pretty sure I’m the only Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo on FB in Montreal). If you feel like you prefer talking FPF over a pint, I sometimes host trivia, and often attend trivia as a player at NDG’s own local pub, Honey Martin, on Tuesday nights. Come swing by and we’ll analyze divisions, teams and game strategy!

Cheers,