(Pictured: Ben Cotsarelis moments before looking like a complete clown, also Kyle Patmore)
The first Friday in February brought the start of our fourth week for intrasquad sevens. A certain team member in charge of the website had decided to use that day to take new roster photos for the team, so naturally attendance was at an all time low. James Earl Jones had a whopping two healthy players in attendance. Nonetheless, this week brought some great games and startling results.
Game 1: Ross 24 – Canham 26
The day started off with a dangerously close Ross vs. Canham game. Canham scored the first try after getting a penalty kick ten yards from the opposing try zone. Justin Malin took the ball and quickly tapped it before deciding to take it in to the try zone himself. Ross scored the next try with the help of the beastly Andrew “can I see a birth certificate?” Stevick. Andrew broke the line and showed some surprising speed to outrun defenders and put down the try. Needless to say, he completely butchered the conversion kick, but c’mon you can’t have it all. The next score came shortly after the resulting kickoff from Colin Walters. Colin got the ball on the outside and was able to outpace the defenders and score the try. The game progressed scoreless from here until the half. The first score of the second half came from a familiar face. In a very similar score to his previous one, Andrew “down-ups in the gravel” Stevick managed to score another try for Ross. Showing drastic improvement, Andrew even made the conversion. After a miscommunication off of a scrum caused much of Ross to be offside, it looked bad for Ross. Andrew “Ron jog” Stevick managed to jog back onside in time to pick and go for a long 80 yard try. Canham attacked hard on the next kickoff and got the ball in the hands of Zack “Señor Senior Junior” Burns near the sideline. Burns used a great stiff arm to push a defender away before bolting down the sideline. He again faced a defender near the try zone but was able to drop his shoulder and truck through for the try. Ross quickly responded with their not-so-secret weapon. Andrew “yes he’s a coach” Stevick broke a tackle, delivered a vicious stiff arm, and ran a large portion of the field to score his third try of the game. Canham was not having it. They regrouped and managed to get another try thanks to the efforts of Albert Foo. Junior scored the try after an offload from Jeremy “wall of tortillas” Reid. Unfortunately for Ross, this put Canham in the lead by two points right as the game ended.
Game 2: Bennie 5 – Dudes 26
This game was my least favorite of the whole season. I’m not one to point fingers, but at least some of the blame for this loss can be given to me. The first kickoff of the game was caught by me, and after the ball was passed to the edge, Ryan Hart had a big run that ended when he attempted an offload. That offload bounced right out of the hands of yours truly. My butterfingers led to the first knock of the game. Luckily the scrum didn’t result in a score for the Dudes. The first score came after a horrendous tackle attempt on Kyle Patmore. In an attempt to outdo myself for least affective player on the field, I missed a tackle and Kyle was able to take the ball to the house. On the resulting kickoff, desperate to redeem myself, I made a nice (if I do say so myself) catch and gained positive yards off of the kickoff before making a sexy offload to Alex Carson. Unfortunately, Carson made a not-so-sexy offload that was picked off by the Dudes. After several more minutes of play, Kyle Patmore again broke Bennie’s defensive line and brought the ball in for a try. The worst part of this game came after a long break from myself. After being tackled, I was on the ground with an injury. Given my zero tolerance for pain, it turned out that the injury was a simple ankle sprain. Once aware that I wasn’t dead, I limped to the sidelines. Worse still, the Dudes had the ball again, and my drive had amounted to nothing. After some great connections between Guy Burke, Nate Fisher, and (even) Andre Cargill, Fish was able to score a try. As has been the case when Bennie lacks their Tower, the game did not go well from there. Jared Char put in the next try for the Dudes. Bennie isn’t a team to be shut out however. A great run from Albert Foo and subsequent offload to Ron Marine led to Ron putting in a try for Bennie after he stiff armed Jared Char to the ground. Neither team managed to score again before time ran out. A tough loss for Bennie here.
Game 3: Sues 26 – Jones 24
Not sure what the score in this game means considering that Jones had only two healthy players. Jones was essentially a team of random players, but props to the Sues for pulling off the win. The scoring started early in this game with a big run from Nate “wildman” Orlowski. Nate made a nice offload under pressure to Alekos “moussaka” Askounis who ran the ball in for a try to the Sues. Alex Carson tried to be tricky with the ensuing kickoff, which ended up not going so well for the Sues. The kick went straight out, allowing Albert “Coo Coo Catchoo” Foo to quickly tap the ball and run down the field before offloading to Tanner “flowers” Visco who scored the try for Jones. After some hastily put together phases, Dean “Arnold Classic” Persichetti broke the line with surprising speed and scored a try for the Sues. Although it didn’t lead to a score, Foo had a great Sonny Bill Williams offload at around the five minute mark of the game film. Unfortunately, Junior wasn’t able to field the pass cleanly and he knocked it on. The resulting scrum led to a score by the Sues when Jake Bailey picked the ball from the scrum and ran in a classic pick-and-go. Jamie Demers managed to score after another pick-and-go off the ruck. This ended the half. Jones scored at the beginning of next half when Guy Burke used the Sues strategy of the pick-and-go off of the scrum against them. Burke offloaded to Nate Fisher who ran the ball in for a try. On the resulting kickoff, Jamie Demers caught the ball, broke a tackle, and ran all the way down the field before being tackled by Fisher. Unfortunately for the Sues, nothing came of this play and Jones actually scored the next try when Andrew “big papi” Stevick broke the line. The final score of the game came after a big break by Jack “faster than he looks” Vecchio to win the game for the Sues.
Game 4: Canham 21 – Bennie 22
You read that right. Bennie dethroned the supposed best team in sevens (the Dudes will tell you that’s debatable). It turns out Bennie can win some games without a certain Tower. The scoring in this game started off almost immediately. The kick from Bennie went straight out, allowing Canham to tap and go in the center of the field. Foo quickly dished it to Junior who outmaneuvered two defenders to score the try. Bennie retaliated by getting the ball to Ryan Hart on the edge who ran it in for a try. Bennie later scored the next try of the game by swinging the ball wide to Andrew “coach wing” Stevick who turned on the jets and beat the defender on the outside to score the try. Bennie scored again after a great poach by the admittedly slightly unfair to have on your team, Andrew Stevick. Andrew ran down the sideline and avoided multiple defenders before scoring the try for Bennie to end the half. Bennie led off the scoring in the next half as well with a try from Fish. Watch the film at this point and you can see Crawdad being delusional and pretending to be a baseball player. Canham quickly responded with a score from Junior. Next, Bennie managed a long run down the field by Ron Marine that culminated in a try from Ryan Hart. Canham responded later with a try from the freshman Caleb Fisher (not related to Fish). Fortunately, it was too little too late, and balance was restored to the universe as Bennie took the W.
Game 5: Sues 33 – Ross 5
After two minutes of play, Mahmoud ElNaggar led off the scoring this game for the Sues. The Sues scored another try after a long run from Alex Carson that resulted in a penalty try for the Sues after Nate Orlowski tackled Carson above the shoulders. Dean “Wentz wagon let’s get it” Persichetti put in the next try for the Sues to end the half in this blowout game. Feeling a hot streak, Dean scored another try after a long run at the beginning of the second half. Redeeming himself for the earlier high tackle, Nate Orlowski put in a try for Ross after a lot of back and forth play. This would be Ross’s only try of the game. The final try of the game came from Jack Vecchio to put a cap on a big blowout win for the Sues.
Game 6: Dudes 42 – Jones 5
Another blowout game to end the week, better luck next time Jones. Maybe if you guys had more than two healthy players show up it would’ve been a closer game. And if it was a closer game maybe it would’ve been a more interesting write-up. And maybe a more interesting write-up would have led to more donations. So yeah, how about that Jones? Your actions affect other people you know. Who am I kidding, no one reads these things, especially not game six. Hi Mom! Anyway, the promising young freshman Jared Char led off the scoring in this game, putting in five points for the Dudes. The next score came from Guy Burke, also for the Dudes. On the ensuing kickoff, Jared “otter” Char fielded the ball cleanly out of the air off the kick and ran it in for his second try of the day. Jones managed to drive all the way down to the 10 yard line multiple times before the end of the half but never managed to put a try down. The next try came from, shocker, the Dudes. Lucas Dean scored this try after breaking the defensive line. James Earl Jones was finally able to score a try after a high tackle penalty near the try zone resulted in a yellow card. A quick tap and go from Nick Mattes allowed him to take the ball in himself. The Dudes quickly responded with a try from the young Jared Char, marking his third for the night. There was no further scoring for the rest of the game, and Jones took a real rough loss to end the night.
Tune in for the next week of intrasquads (the last week before playoffs!!). Week five starts on Friday February 10th. Sorry if this post depressed anyone as much as it did me to write it. Until next week!
