Monday, May 27, 2019

A Rainy Monday Recuperating From a Busy Weekend


Monday, 27 May, 2019

"Coaching for Pizza"
Blogpost #2,500!

After an eventful weekend, today was a day of rest for the two of us.

Laundry, reading and some HUDL work for our playoff opponents, the #10 ranked, 3-5 Palermo Sharks, were the orders of the day.

The Arona 65ers

We awoke to good news from the world of Senior Men's Flag Football.

Several members of our Skorpions Senior players and some of our coaches play for the nearby Arona 65ers as we do not have a Senior Men's Flag team.

The 65ers played in the Coppa Italia Flag Football Tournament yesterday.

In the preliminary rounds they beat the Ortona Red Tigers 38-19 and the Bologna Warriors 48-6.

The championship game was a rematch with the Warriors with a similar result as the 65ers won the game 26-12 thus taking home the title for the second consecutive year.

Congratulations to all of the 65ers but especially to the Skorpions who are part off the 65ers: Dario D'Adelfio, Emanuele "Masch" Mascelli, Federico Zanetta, Omar Passera, Andrea Mora, Marco Santagostino, Matteo "Mozza" Mozzanica and Martino Piazzi.

Amazing that our players had the energy to perform at this high level after Saturday's physical game against the Canavese Mastifs.

Ah, youth . . .

After dinner, we headed down to the BellaVita Cafè to catch up with Nicolas Principi our talented former Skorpion SS/LB who now plays for the DI, #1 playoff seeded Milano Seamen.

The Seamen played in a Central European
Football League tournament game
last Saturday in France

Nicolas, #21, is seen here with the Italian flag about to lead the Seamen onto the field for their game against France's traditional powerhouse club, the Thonen Black Panthers.

It was the second and final CEFL game for both clubs this year as they had both lost to Austria's Swarco Raiders previously.

The CEFL brings together seven of Europe's top teams for a high level, high energy tournament yearly.

The Raiders beat the Black Panthers 41-7 and the Seamen 50-23 in Western Conference play to qualify for the CEFL's Championship game on June 8th at home in Innsbruck against the Eastern Conference's top team, Switzerland's Calanda Broncos.

The Broncos road to the CEFL finals included wins over Poland's Wroclaw Panthers 27-3, Turkey's Koç Rams 55-17 and Serbia's Kragujevac Wild Boars 37-33.

Nicolas at OLB

Nicolas about to tackle
a Black Panther RB

Nicolas felt confident after having played what he believed to be his best game for the Seamen.

It was probably not the Seamen's
best game of the season

Back in Italy for the DI Playoffs,
the #1 seeded Seamen await the
Wild Card game winner between
the Parma Panthers and the Lazio Ducks

As for our DII playoffs, I thought that this 16 team bracket style view might be a bit clearer as to what awaits the 12 clubs in the 2019 tournament:

#1 Milano Rhinos (8-0) 
#16 BYE

#8 Brescia Bengals (4-4)
#9 Ferrara Aquile (4-4)

#5 Verona Mastini (7-1)
#12 Canavese Mastifs (3-5)

#4 Reggio Emilia Hogs (7-1)
#13 BYE

#3 Roma Pretoriani (7-1)
#14 BYE

#6 Padova Saints (7-1)
#11 Sarzana Red Jackets (3-5)

#7 Varese Skorpions (6-2)
#10 Palermo Sharks (3-5)

#2 Cernusco Daemons (7-1)
#15 BYE

The Skorpions will be back at it at Skorpion Field on Tuesday night getting ready for the Sharks game in two weekends.

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