After a very successful return to outdoor football last week, we'll once again be playing pick up games at Laurier park this Saturday, April 29th starting at 11 am.
Feel free to drop by to try out a game! Cost is just $5 and as always we provide everything you need to play!
It was Championship Saturday this week and we saw some incredible games!
The day started with top team the Chèvres taking on the Huskies, who they had beaten in both season meetings. This time was different though, as QB Raphael Levy had not participated in their season bouts.
The game started slowly offensively, as the Huskies had difficulty moving the ball initially, while the Chèvres marched down field well, but were shut down near the goal line with help from an interception in the end zone by Ryan Belam.
The Huskies looked like they might go three and out again on their second drive, but ended up taking advantage of the Belam interception with a 43 yard TD pass to Dominic Stiplosek on third and long, opening the scoring at the mid-point of the first half.
The Chèvres did come back with a nice drive of their own, ending with a TD pass to Etienne Moisan, but couldn’t keep pace with the Huskies who scored two unanswered TDs and ended the half with a safety, making the score 20-6.
The first play of the second half was just like the last play of the first, with Frederik Dionne sacking QB Vincent Granata for the safety, putting the score and momentum heavily in the Huskies favour.
Granata put another score on the board with a 32 yard pass to Etienne Moisan, but the Chévres defense just couldn’t hold up against the Huskies barrage with QB Raphael Levy putting up some remarkable numbers, throwing for 215 yards and 5 touchdowns. The game ended with the Huskies moving on to the championship game, winning 34-12.
The Krakens hosted the Cyborgs in the Eastern conference semi-finals which started fast with a ‘Borgs TD by Josh Levine on their opening drive, but both team’s methodical offenses and strong defenses took over and each team only managed a single additional score before the half.
A pass interference call against the Krakens on the Cyborgs second TD did allow them to convert for 2 points and make the halftime score 14-7, and this turned out to be a pivotal moment in the game.
The second half started with Josh Levine picking off Krakens’ QB Robert Prudhomme which the Cyborgs converted on with a 24 yard TD pass from Jon Evans to Max Rosenfeld, giving them a 20-7 lead.
At this point in the game the offensive floodgates opened with 7 combined touchdowns in the last 18 minutes of the game. The Krakens scored back to back TDs from Daniel Robinson, with the second coming almost immediately after an interception by Kenneth Boudreau on the first play of a Cyborgs drive.
At this point the ‘Borgs held a 1 point lead over the Krakens and had the ball with 5 minutes left in the game and a chance close things out. A three and a half minute drive resulted in another Josh Levine TD for the Amish and with a successful convert by Joey Czikk the Krakens found themselves down by 8 with a minute and a half on the clock.
Robert Prudhomme didn’t need that much time though and he pushed the ball down the field in a minute flat, throwing a third straight TD pass to Daniel Robinson, and making the score 33-31. Going for the 2 points they needed to tie things up, the Krakens threw a deep corner route on their conversion attempt, but the Cyborgs defensive star Benjamin Bergeron broke up the pass giving the Cyborgs the 2 point win in this instant classic of a game and allowed his team to advance to the finals.
The championship match up pitted the season comeback story Amish Cyborgs up against a Huskies squad who also looked stronger and stronger as the season went on.
The game started with an opening drive interception by Max Rosenfeld of the Cyborgs who returned it to the Huskies red zone, which the ‘Borgs promptly turned into 6 points with a 2 yard pass to Kevin Kousaie.
Things settled down with a couple of time consuming drives, each ending in punts rather than points, leaving the score 6-0 nearing the mid-way point of the opening half.
The Huskies took their third possession of the game and marched down the field with the help of a couple of long receptions by Ryan Belam, and capped the drive off with a 3 yard pass from Raphael Levy to Brandan Sabloff to even things up at six.
The Amish squad had an answer though, and had their own long march culminated in a 16 yard TD toss from Jon Evans to Josh Levine to retake the lead 12-6, with just 3:35 left in the half.
In their 2 minute offense, Huskies QB Raphael Levy spread the ball around efficiently and managed to end a 6 play drive with a 1 yard TD pass to tie things up, and then crucially converted the score with a pass to Ryan Belam to enter into halftime with a one point lead, up 13-12.
In the second half, the Cyborgs took their opening possession and quickly worked their way down field with a 29 yard pass to Kevin Kousaie and finished the drive with a TD pass to Benjamin Bergeron. A convert penalty by their opponent in a second straight game allowed the ‘Borgs to convert for 2 points from the five and a half yard line, giving them the largest lead of the game at 7 points.
Things took a turn in the championship game at this point as the Cyborgs defense stiffened and shut down the Huskies attack, while managing to score on three straight drives with long TD passes to Josh Levine and Max Rosenfeld, who matched his two touchdown performance from the semi-finals.
With time almost over and a 38-13 score things were out of hand for the Huskies, but the battle they put up was not indicative in the final score as it was a hard fought bout from the get go. In the end though, the offensive powerhouse that the Cyborgs had become in the second half of the season, as well as their second half shutdown defense, saw it’s way into the playoffs and they would not be denied the championship trophy!
Thanks to all our players who took part in the inaugural winter season of the MFL and congratulations to the Amish Cyborgs for winning the championship!
March 11th saw the Chèvres cement first place in the league with their win as the Amish Cyborgs completed their unlikely season turnaround story to grab the last playoff spot with a big victory against a somewhat depleted Krakens lineup. The G.O.A.T.S. also managed a big victory over the Huskies, but in the end it wasn't enough to hold off the surging 'Borgs.
This Saturday, March 25th, we've got the semi-finals and finals games being played for the MFL Winter 2016-2017 Championship. The first game of the day at 5:15 pm has the underdog Huskies visiting the powerhouse Chèvres, while the Amish Cyborgs have a rematch against their divisions top team the Krakens at 6:45 pm.
The winners of those games meet up at 8:15 pm for the championship game and however the first round plays out it should be a great matchup!
The MFL has partnered with Sportira to offer our players a place to get amazing team shirts for the 2017 season!
Head over to sportira.com/MFL (or go to sportira.com, click on "Leagues", and enter MFL with capitalization as the username and password) to order your gear. They offer fully sublimated shirts in many different styles, so you can have whatever design you want covering the entire piece!
Saturday started off with a hugely important game in the standings as the winner’s chances of making the playoffs would be close to guaranteed. Things began with a 4th down gamble by the Sooners 45 deep in their zone that didn’t pay off and the Huskies quickly turned it into 6 points. The game became a defensive struggle after the opening score, with both teams only scoring once more before the end of the half to make the score 12-6 for the Huskies.
The Sooners 45 scored almost immediately on their opening drive with a 32 yard TD pass from Jose Luis Castro Sr to Juan Pablo Castro, knotting things up at 12 a piece. Unfortunately for the Sooners, the quick score seemed to vitalize the Huskies who took over the scoring with 25 unanswered points, including a couple of deep ball touchdown passes from Raphael Levy to Ryan Belam and Brendan Sabloff, and shut down the Sooners offense completely.
With the loss the Sooners only hope for taking the last spot is to win their final game and have the Huskies lose theirs and then to win the points against battle which will be an uphill battle as the Huskies have a 37 point advantage.
The G.O.A.T.S. and Amish Cyborgs matchup saw a first half with long drives by both teams that stalled deep in their opponents territory, eating up much of the game clock with no scoring to speak of. The Cyborgs finally finished off a drive on the last play of the first half, with QB Jon Evans hitting Max Rosenfeld for a 1 yard TD pass, giving a 6-0 score going into the break.
Things opened up in the second half, with Alexandre Bresse breaking tackles on the opening play on his way to a 45 yard TD reception for the Amish. The G.O.A.T.S. answered right back with a 2 play drive and a 39 yard TD pass to Jie OuYang, bringing things right back to a 6 point differential. The ‘Borgs then scored twice unanswered with TD passes to Kevin Kousaie and Max Rosenfeld, with an interception from Benjamin Bergeron in between, giving the Cyborgs what seemed like a comfortable 19 point lead.
Out of nowhere, the G.O.A.T.S scored three straight touchdowns, including two more from Jie OuYang. With 3:44 left in the game, the G.O.A.T.S. were lining up for a convert attempt down 25-26. Stephen Persaud looked for a quick hit to the right sideline, but Kevin Kousaie stepped in front of it to pick off the attempt and hold the lead for the Cyborgs.
After stopping the Cyborgs once again, the G.O.A.T.S. would get two more plays from deep in their territory to try and win the contest and secure their playoff spot, but the Cyborgs defense stiffened and refused to allow Stephen Persaud to beat them with a last play Hail Mary, ending the game with the 25-26 for the Cyborgs.
Both teams look to get the win next week to end the season and bring things down to a points against differential, which the Cyborgs have a slight 10 point lead on.
The day ended with the battle of the top teams, with the Chèvres already having the top spot in their division locked up and the Krakens with a seat at the playoff table in hand and able to confirm their place at the top of their division the a win.
The Krakens scored twice to open things up with Kenneth Boudreau and Daniel Robinson continuing to be lethal weapons in the mid-range passing game for QB Robert Prudhomme, but the Chèvres answered back with Vincent Granata hitting Pascal Nkengue for two touchdown passes, getting things within a single point at 12-13 with a minute left in the half. The Krakens weren’t done yet though, putting together a quick 47 second scoring drive before the half was over bringing their lead back up to 7.
The second half saw no scoring until just under the 13 minute mark with Silvio Ciarrocchi hauling in a 3 yard TD pass and Mathieu-Alexandre Dupuis converting to give squids a 26-12 lead. Vincent Granata bombed another deep ball out to Pascal Nkengue for his third TD of the day to get things within a single score, but a final drive orchestrated by Robert Prudhomme and capped off with a TD reception by Mathieu-Alexandre Dupuis with under a minute left took things out of reach for the Chèvres, who despite the loss put up a solid fight against their leviathan opponent.
Next week is the final week of the season, and half the playoff spots are still up for grabs, so it should be a good one!
