Final Score: 14-14, tie game between the opposing goombas.
Game Rating (out of 10): 8 - one to remember.
Offensive Player of the Game: Danielle. Shrugged off her last game as one to forget, and came out blazing. Never letup, had few mahoneys and challenged James' second place TD per game record for a while. Would've had it had she not left a few minutes earlier.
Defensive Player of the Game: Tommy. He's back folks. Tommy solidified his claims to be defensive player of the month with a dominating display. He was the one who made the critical stops, and had two brilliant interceptions at key moments to turn the tide in favour of the blues.
Special Teams Player of the Game: James. Was dominant on kickoffs, allowing Maciej to make yard gaining runs, and blocked effectively for Danielle when she got the only kickoff touchdown of the game.
Pitch and Weather: Wet. Tommy sang a song that went something like, "it's wet and wonderful here at Fern." I kid you not. It's quite a tune, actually. I was hoping he'd post it up on the 'net so I could download it and make it my computers opening theme. It was a solid plus temperature outside, and a lot of players took off their coats (because of course, they were cool). Danielle mentioned that the endzone closest to the baseball diamond was a swamp, and many nodded, implying that rather than disagreeing, they agreed with her. So coo.
Summary: The game started off slowly (how many times has that been said already!) but picked up near the end, with the momentous trade of James for Lenward. James, who had previously been a nonfactor for the greens, became a true blue, scoring 4 times. Despite the wet pitch, the game had a decent speed to it and there were some memorable plays. Maciej made a couple of super dekes off kickoffs, Danielle was dominant in the air, Tommy decided that his knee would make a good receiver, Alex D. complained of a lack of passes, Owen was a sporadic ninja, Lenny spent more time on the ground than on his feet, and Matthew Soegtrop showed everyone his silver tooth. The game looked to be blowout for the blues, until the arrival of the aforementioned Mini Soegtrop, who gave QB Robb (who had been pestered with a hurting wrist and a complaining receiving corps up to that point) another solid receiving option. With Matthew now a serious threat, Rob rekindled his chemistry with Patrick, who played a very good second half. The blues normally solid defence became one under severe pressure, and despite giving up some good runs and catches, they held their lines relatively well. Tommy for one was absolutely dominant, bailing out his team on numerous occasions. On his second pick of the game, he was so excited that he decided that he'd drop the ball and throw his hands in the air, like he just didn't care: just like the song says one should do. Owen had a very good kickoff run near the end of the game, and looked to go all the way, but either slipped on the snow or decided that running with ones face was the way to go, and fell earlier than he had intended to.
Bogus Moment of the Day - Lenny's decision to go to the cornerstore during an important defensive play for his team. Did anyone understand that? No coincidence that Alex D. scored on that possession.
Player Ratings (out of 10, 4 being the lowest):
Tommy - 9; the Hand of Tom is not only back, but its also freakin' pissed.
Matthew S - 8; made an immediate impact after a late entrance.
Patrick - 7.5; a good second half, but lacked finish in the first. 5 touchdowns.
Robbie - 7; didn't have the arm, or decision making, he usually has.
Alex D.- 7; good defence, but was well subdued by James on offence.
James - 7.5; had a very poor first half, but was reenergized after trade.
Danielle - 9; back in excellent form with 8 TDs, a handful for green defenders.
Maciej - 5.5; the spiral reared its head for only a few plays. Poor defence.
Owen - 7; generally good, but how did he manage to mahoney so much?
Lenny - 6; always a character but not always a contributor. Good first half.
