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Well the Spring 2019 season has come to an end. We had a great day for championship weekend and some new champions now roam among us. Aside from some shady activity with some teams, which I’m sure The Build will talk about, all things went swimmingly this Saturday and good times were had by all. I know our friend Lenny was watching from above and smiling down on another successful season in the greatest league around. Let’s talk about what went down.

In Breakfast Club, Schilling Em Softly took the victory and the championship over Hot TaMolly’s after the latter had a slow start. Throughout the game, emotions ran high due to numerous picks for both teams and some questioned calls. Garrett had a rough start but was able to connect with his receivers as the game went on. He continued to try for the deep ball but the defense of SES was on to their tricks and had 3 guys covering deep. Brandy had a huge game for them as well despite fracturing her finger in the second half. SES took the win and the champagne with a score of 24-13.

In C1, Eyes Downtown played Marketing Mayors for the semifinal match-up. I should say, 5 actual members of ED played as Jeff, Joey, Taylor, Beth and Joe were the only regular players from the team to show up against a full MM squad. As expected, the game was well over by half time. The quarterback ED brought in could not hit any of his receivers and when he did there were a lot of drops, particularly from the subs brought in the fill the vacant spots. The game ended early as there was no point in continuing and MM walked into the championship game with a 38-8 win.

Over on the other field, Public Enemy played a much closer game against Tight Ends in Motion. Alex started at QB for TE which had many people on the sidelines nervous. Seth showed up after the first drive which TE failed to score on. PE were not their usual offensive machine and were stopped multiple times. Cole was able to take what they were giving him and use the short passes across the middle. TEs had a lot of miscommunications on defense which let PE get an early lead. They did try to get fancy to end the half which ended with Cheryl throwing a pick. The girls of TE easily outran PE but it was not enough to get them the victory. PE moved on to meet a well rested MM after a 20-9 win.

In the championship, it was a much closer match up. PE and MM have some of the best play callers in the league so it’s always fun to see these teams go at it. Kevin Zack always does but he really put it all on the line for this game. Dalfanso was hitting all his targets and Corey Turner’s genius was put to work. PE continued their offense that had not failed thus far. They marched down the field, hitting Jon McGrath and Paul Johnson on the sidelines. Once again, the speed of MM’s girls gave PE trouble. Carissa, Molly and Jordan played excellent and some uncharacteristic drops on the part of PE cost them the game, the title and their streak.

In C2 Gryffindor had their way with Energy Buff, easily winning 35-8. Joey Batts was in form despite some miscommunications with brother Anthony. EB had no answer for the speed and play calling Gryffindor threw at them. Amanda Werth is quickly becoming a rise star of the league and showed some of her athleticism on multiple occasions in this game. There was some drama at the end of the half when Gryffindor used 2 time outs yet failed to punch it in for a TD. “Glasses” rushed on defense which drastically cut EB’s QBs vision down. EB was short as we suspected they would be but honestly, the end result would still have been the same.

Bullet Club took A&A out of the championship with a 36-32 win. A&A just could not get their chemistry following some dropped plays and missed routes. BC looked to be firing on all cylinders. Todd Hallas made some spectacular catches and Travis finally utilized Paul Neiman like he should have been all season. The score indicates this game was close but BC had a commanding lead and eased off the accelerator to conserve some energy for their next game.

In the champion game, Gryffindor’s female stole the show. Amanda, Jill and Emily (I believe that was her name) played lights out. BC could not find a way to stop them and continuously needed to adjust their defense to do so.  It was a back and forth game with both teams answering score for score. BC faltered first when they were unable to score in the second half, allowing Gryffindor to drive down and make it a 2 score game. On their next possession, a deep pass sailed and Burr picked it off. BC was able to battle back to make it a 7 point game with time winding down when a defensive breakdown led to a TD that put the final nail in the coffin for BC. Gryffindor took the championship 44-30. Rumor has it Burr started thinking up excuses why they can’t move up to C1 during half time.

In the R1 semifinals, All We Do Is Quinn pulled out a narrow victory over Sticky Bandits, 42-36. SB were missing Amy and Christine which hurt their game significantly. Mike Thomas played well but they were outmatched by a faster AWDIQ team. AWDIQ played like they wanted it more. They have the speed, they have the athletes and looking at this team, losing was not an option for them. They came out swinging and SB did not have an answer. Alex was on the sideline rooting for his team but his positive energy was not enough to bring them to the championship.

Slytherin that Endzone and Peachy Platoon in my opinion was one of the best games of the day. It was back and forth with each team trying to prove they deserved to be there. Neither team could be stopped on offense. Abby of STE did an amazing job rushing, keeping Dean in the pocket. The deciding factor in this game appeared to be experience, or lack thereof. PP did not know that the clock ran on conversions allowing STE to score with 1:15 remaining in the game, complete the conversion to go up by 1 and the game ended with PP still having all 3 of their timeouts remaining. You live and learn guys.

That left us with SITE vs AWDIQ in the R1 championship. Once again, it was an offensive battle as no team could get a stop on defense. It came down to the end, when Rawdog scored to bring his team within one score. However, due to a penalty on the play, Taverna decided to accept the penalty and try to score a gender TD instead as they lacked the confidence in themselves to stop STE. They were unsuccessful in this attempt, as STE played tight defense on the girls and the ball was knocked away, securing the victory for STE. It appeared there was some magic in the air as both Gryffindor and Slytherin went home with championship titles, but who won the House Cup?

Uncle Rico’s played a close game against Puckett All Stars in the R2 semifinals but came up short, losing 32-24. Tim had a couple errant passes he most likely would like to try again but what it came down to is that PAS have a very solid team that seemed to have hustled everyone this season. Their athletes showed up at the right time making them look like a formidable R1 team. Not to take anything away from UR who also have solid receivers, particularly in their female players. Jackee is always a consistent player and did not disappoint this week. Unfortunately they couldn’t get the stops they needed and PAS moved on the championship.

Buffalo Solar Solutions dominated Indecent Exposure, taking the win 46-23. IE had no answers defensively and Andy looked dialed in. They looked unorganized and made very avoidable mistakes that cost them more points than they could account for. BSS on the other hand was smooth sailing. Andy hit deep passes and utilized his females like so many veterans of this league do. IE’s QB needs to be more patient and allow plays to develop. BSS moved on to play PAS in the championship.

The R2 championship was much like the semifinal games in this division. Both teams were not afraid to let the ball fly and send their receivers up to go get it. TJ Ferguson showed what he can do when he has receivers he trusts. They utilized their height advantage and their females made some solid catches. BSS played a great game on offense. Dan continued to be open all.the.time. Defensively they struggled to make a stop and as the saying goes “Defense wins championships”. PAS walked away with a shiny new championship title, 47-36.

In R3, Matty’s Angels took on Pink Pteratacos and won a decisive victory 61-20. Their defense even looked good, complete with a couple picks and numerous stops. PPs had trouble adjusting on defense and Matty took advantage of the mismatches he saw. Mark and Co played a solid game overall but could not finish on multiple drives. Kelly Mazur had a great game and Lindsey was all over making catches. The game was called early after the Angels took another pick and wanted to rest for the championship.

The Cunning Stunts played Ugandian Warriors in a closer game but another that was over before the actual game ended. Blasé and Co continue to struggle against gender teams, although their females were able to match up with the ladies better than in years passed. Joey Batts’ new favorite receiver, Amanda Werth, was injured during the game but prior to that gave the UW fits all along the sidelines. Katie Keller continued to be a popular target as well and the Stunts marched over the championship field with a 44-29 win.

Prior to the semis, both gender teams met and did a collective “Who run the world?” cheer in order to show support for each other and give the people what they want, an all gender championship. Well at 3:00 that is exactly what we had. Both teams had their main roster with the exception of Budda for the Angels and the Clarks for the Stunts (Brandy was injured in the aforementioned BC game). The game started off slow for the Angels. They failed to score on their first drive, allowing the Stunts to march down and take an early lead. Then a series of drops put them behind even further. From the sidelines, it appeared several members of the Angels had a little too much to drink while waiting for this game. The Stunts, however, were rearing to go. Amanda returned, made the catch of the season and Kelly Liddle had huge targets as well. The Angels had their usual troubles on defense and the Stunts walked away with the win 50-26.

In R4, top seeded Jabronies fell to 5^th place pAssless Chaps led by Coach Jay, in a close game 27-25. The Jabronies were without some of their top receivers but had a solid sub for their missing female. Jeremy played a great game and looked stylish with his flower headband. Unfortunately they couldn’t find a way to score, which is a problem unfamiliar to this team. pAssless Chaps have had a roller coaster of a season, being on both ends of blow out wins and losses. Some teams would have felt discouraged starting the season 0-4 but Coach Jay and his squad preserved and shocked the world by taking the W to move on to the semis.

Earlier in the day BiPolar Express played the Bambs for the play-in game rescheduled from last week. Though I did not see the game, official word is that although BPE lost to the Bambs, the latter used an illegal player and therefore had to forfeit the win. BPE moved on to face Practice Squad in the semis. Practice Squad came out guns blazing. Renee played a great game and the QB looked dialed in. Practice Squad got off to an early lead and as a result of too many drops, BPE could not get enough drives going to make a comeback. The final was 36-16. The game was low key and there was plenty of light hearted joking going around while PS most likely anticipated their match-up with Jabronies.

Little did they know it would be pAssless Chaps waiting for them in the championship game. The teams were much more evenly matched in this one and the game was close. Unfortunately, Coach Jay’s magic could only take them so far and they could not generate enough offense to gain a lead on PS. PS continued to play the style game that has been working for them all season and it paid off big as they took home the R4 title with their 36-28 victory.

Top 3 of Championship week:

1.      Marketing Mayors- the team to break Public Enemy’s win streak and shut Cole and NAW Tommy Hughes up for a little while deserves to be #1

2.      Cunning Stunts- they straight up wanted it more and finally got their first win over the Angels (plus all the non-gender teams) at the right time

3.      pAssless Chaps- even though they didn’t end up winning they came back from a rough start to the season to prove to teams that it ain’t over til it’s over

And that brings us to the end of the season. I know I speak for the majority of us when I say I had a great time this season. As always, things were run incredibly well thanks to Topper, Rameer and all the others who contribute in big ways to the league. The bar was always a good time but after some drama to end the day stay tuned for possible after-the-games relocating next season. Take the next few weeks to enjoy the summer with family and friends. I have heard talks of some league-wide outings to keep in touch in the off season. Also bear in mind that this is a quick turnaround before the next season begins. Usually we started up for the Fall season end of August, early September but Topper, et al have made the executive decision to start earlier (August 17) so we don’t have to freeze our butts off in November. That being the case, it will be an even shorter break than before so if you want to make adjustments to your team, find a new one or get a new one together the time to start is yesterday. The wine tournament is a great place to try out new players and scope out talent but I’d suggest getting it settled before then. I’ll be watching…

~ courtesy of...The Sentinel

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