It was Championship Saturday this week and we saw some incredible games!
Western Semi-Final: Huskies @ Chèvres
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.
Eastern Semi-Final: Amish Cyborgs @ Krakens
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.
Championship Game: Huskies @ Amish Cyborgs
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!
