Saturday, 11 May, 2019
We spent a quiet day at home, partly because we were both recuperating from yesterday's forced field march through Milano.
See what I mean?
If it's a Saturday night in Italia, there can only be one thing to do, go to an American football game!
There were two games tonight, both in Milano, of great interest to me.
This was the first one
A Central European Football League tournament game between two of the top ranked teams in EuroBall, the #2 Swarco Raiders Tirol from Austria and the home team, #9 Milano Seamen from Italy.
Having coached some of the current players on the Seamen with the Europe Warriors and having worked with Seamen Head Coach with the Warriors as well, I really wanted to see this fascinating matchup but . . .
Duty Before Pleasure
Our Skorpions next DII opponent was also playing in Milano and I needed to be there to scout the game, especially since their outstanding QB broke his collar bone at the very end of their win over the Busto Arsizio Blue Storms last Saturday night.
We needed to see how their team would adjust to the loss of their offensive leader.
Varese Gorillas
#10 Ranked in DII
2 Wins - 3 Losses
at
Milano Rhinos
#1 Ranked in DII
5 Wins - 0 Losses
It was a BEAUTIFUL night for American football!
The conditions were almost
perfect for . . .
. . . SKORPION WEATHER!
About 15 minutes before the scheduled 6:00 p.m. kickoff, everybody and everything including the benches were cleared off of the field.
We proceeded to experience a mini-hurricane complete with gale force winds, lightning, thunder, hail and rain that lasted for about ten minutes.
Then it just settled down into a steady rainfall with only occasional bolts of lightning.
At the end of the hail storm
Clearing up but another issue arose
Due to the intensity of the rain storm, all of the field's chalk lines were gone.
Coaches and Refs meeting to decide
what the options were
First and foremost was the concern for player safety and the lightning strikes which were getting to be both far fewer and, more importantly, farther away.
The second was the laborious, time consuming effort to re-line the field for play.
A lonely chalk lining cart
Let the lining begin!
My hat served as an emergency
video camera protector from
the elements
THEY FOUND A SECOND LINER!
I didn't see any Alpini hats in the crowd
The lining was finished and the
weather was clear enough . . .
. . . LET THE GAME BEGIN!
The Gorillas deploy in an unusual looking Kickoff Return alignment.
After a 90 minute delay, the game was finally afoot!
The Gorillas first drive
was a good one until . . .
. . . this 90 yard Pick-Six by the Rhinos
It was 7-0 Rhinos and they had not had an offensive play as of yet.
Showing their grit, the Gorillas marched right down the field again and scored to tie the game at 7-7.
Rhinos Kickoff Return
Gorillas completing a roll out pass
In the second half the Sun came out
The Gorillas fought hard but the talented Rhinos made enough plays to take home another victory.
It made for an interesting
viewing experience, thank God the
Rhinos stands were covered!
As for that other game in town . . .
Unfortunately, no contest
After the game we were hungry and decided that we needed a break from pasta in any form.
Thus we stopped on the way home in Legnano at . . .
. . . a Spanish tapas bar chain restaurant
We only had combined eight tapas and they all tasted good!
I think that Giorgio's paella last night got us into a Spanish mood this weekend.
More Skorpion football on Sunday as our Women's Flag team plays three games today in nearby Bienate.
Go Skorpions GO!
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