Saturday, March 15, 2025
This would turn out to be a STRANGE day for American football as can only be found in the wonderful, wacky world of EuroBall.
Today the Mariners were hosting the best overall team in Spain's top division, Serie A, over the last half decade.
The Las Rozas Black Demons are Spain's two time defending National Champions. Additionally, they have participated in each of the last five Spanish Super Bowls.
When the Mariners and Black Demons met in Madrid on January 25th, Las Rozas won 49-27.
Las Rozas Black Demons
6 Wins - 0 Losses
First Place Serie A Western Conference
at
Gijón Mariners
1 Win - 4 Losses
Fourth Place Serie A Western Conference
Before heading into our home field, the Hipódromo Las Mestas, Laurie and I stopped into a café to buy some sandwiches to take to the field to consume with our teammates.
It was AWESOME bumping
into him after all of these years!
He was riding his trademark bike into the café just as we were leaving with our sandwiches.
The Mariners schedule had us all meeting up at 1:00 p.m. to set up the field before preparing for the game itself that kicked off at 4:00 p.m.
The Mariners will be hosting a BIG
Women's flag football tournament
in mid-April
The Mariners warming up
under gorgeous skies
The same warm-up from Laurie's
perspective in her luxury box suite
Angle tackling our Defensive Line
in warm-ups
The mandatory pre-game
Spanish Football License check
Laurie's view of the License Check
A perfectly delivered . . .
. . . Mariner's pass with solid pass protection
The madness of the day started with the coin flip.
The Black Demons won the flip and opted to defer their choice to the Second Half. What our Captain wanted to say was, "We'll receive."
What he actually said was, "We'll take that end of the field."
Thus, we would be kicking off to start both the First Half and the Second Half.
Lord have mercy . . .
FIRST QUARTER
Las Rozas: A good Kickoff Return set up this initial drive of the game at our 33 yard line. Six plays later the Black Demons scored on an eight yard TD run, the PAT was good as the visitors led 7-0.
Gijón: The Mariners drive looked to be a Three and Out, Punt but a poor snap was deftly converted into an eight yard run for a Mariners First Down as the drive continued. A stunning 12 plays later, WR Rubén Quintana's scintillating catch of a five yard TD pass from QB Spencer Moore followed by a PAT by Calde knotted the score back up at 7-7.
Las Rozas: A 79 yard Kickoff Return for a TD quickly gave the Black Demons a 14-7 lead to end the First Quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
Mariners: A good Kickoff return to the 50 yard line was wasted due to a penalty and a QB Sack, Three and Out, Punt. The Punt was a good one that netted Gijón 39 valuable yards of field position.
Or so I thought.
Black Demons: One play drive, 64 yard TD run with three separate missed open field tackles. Las Rozas now led 21-7.
Mariners: Three and Out, Blocked Punt. The bleeding continued . . .
Black Demons: This scoring drive covered 26 yards in but four plays. A seven yard TD pass raised the Las Rozas lead to 28-7.
Mariners: This is when things got complicated. On the first play of this drive, our starting Offensive Tackle, Moha, broke both the Tibia and Fibula momentarily contorting his right leg into somewhat of an L shape, gruesome.
Our trainer rushed onto the field to help. She did a fantastic job keeping everything professional until the ambulance arrived.
I say "arrived" even though it was parked on the track only 40 yards away. Though summoned loudly and often, the two EMTs inside the ambulance took their sweet time sauntering to Moha's aid.
It took about 15 minutes to apply an air splint to Moha's leg, get him onto a gurney and load him into the ambulance.
Now the problem was the normal rule throughout EuroBall, a game cannot start, or in this case, re-start, if there is no ambulance on the field.
A conference between the Head Referee and both Head Coaches ensued. The factors to consider were:
1. There were still five minutes left in the First Half.
2. The ambulance would take at least 30 minutes to return.
3. We still had a 20 minute Halftime break looming.
The decision was the right one in my opinion, the First Half was now over and we would be taking our 20 minute Halftime break now.
The next issue, once the Halftime was over, under Spanish Federation rules the game had to resume within 30 minutes. If the ambulance did not return within this time frame the game could not re-start and the game would become a forfeit win for the Black Demons.
The news from Mariners' Team President Kike Prado Alonso who followed the ambulance was unsettling. The nearest hospital where injured players are normally taken could not accept Moha because the Spanish Federation's insurance carrier had decided in February that they would no longer pay for services at this particular facility.
Moha was then taken to another hospital that the insurance company does recognize. The only problem here was that they are not a trauma center which is exactly what Moha needed. They did accept him as a patient and gave him much needed pain killers while another solution could be found.
At this point our ambulance started to return to Las Mestas, but would it be in time?
Back to Moha, a second ambulance drove him from the second hospital in Gijón to a trauma center facility on Oviedo about thirty minutes away. Finally, about two hours after breaking his leg, Moha was finally in a hospital that could meet both his and the Spanish Federation's suspect insurance company's needs.
Moha will now face the ordeal of an operation on Monday.
The ambulance returned to our field with a mere three minutes left in the allotted period before a forfeit was to be called.
At the official end of the First Half, the score was Las Rozas 28 - Gijón 7,
#53, OT, Mohamed "Moha" Ben Brahim
THIRD QUARTER
Las Rozas: Because of our coin flip SNAFU, the Black Demons received the Second Half Kickoff and scored in but four plays that covered 51 yards. The PAT snap was mishandled and the Mariners Colombian DB, Walter, recovered the Las Rozas fumble. The Black Demons lead was extended to 34-7.
Gijón: Three and Out, Punt. The punt did net the Mariners 44 yards.
Las Rozas: A 76 yard TD pass completed a three play drive, as the Black Demons lead with a successful PAT was now 41-7.
Gijón: Three and Out, Punt. The punt was shanked only 12 yards down the field.
Las Rozas: A three play drive that culminated with an 18 yard TD pass and a successful PAT made it 48-7 in favor of the Black Demons. For the third straight game, the Mariners were now playing with the Mercy Rule running clock.
Embarrassing.
Gijón: The Mariners Offense showed some spirit as we covered 56 yards in just four plays before throwing an interception. The score as the Third Quarter came to an end was Las Rozas 48 - Gijón 7.
FOURTH QUARTER
Black Demons: An eight play drive was stymied by an interception by, who else, our Colombian CB Walter!
Mariners: Gijón ended the game with an exhilarating nine play, 86 yard drive that saw WR Sebas make a fine 18 yard catch and run to the end zone on a pass from QB Spencer Moore. Emblematic of our Special Teams today, a mishandled snap led to a missed PAT.
FINAL SCORE
Las Rozas is now 7-0
while Gijón drops to 1-5
Today's Eastern Conference game
saw Badalona improve to 6-1 and
Barcelona descend to 1-4-1
After our marathon day at Las Mestas, Laurie and I decided to go out to dinner at the Tierra Astur restaurante located but 100 meters from the apartment.
They, of course, serve delicious
sidra at the Tierra Astur . . .
. . . with proper tried and
true aeration techniques
We ordered a half plate of tremendous Asturian cheeses, an order of a dozen croquetas de jamon and a Cachopo steak.
The waiter told us that this was way too much food for us. We agreed but said that with the para llevar it would last us two days. He gave us a funny look but placed our order anyway.
Traditional Asturian food and lots of sidra, as it turns out, is good for the soul after a depressing loss.
No comments:
Post a Comment