Falcon"B" team at St. Étienne Condors

The Falcon "B" Team's 

Season Opener Today

Let us review the reason for this year's first ever Bron-Villeurbanne Falcon Senior "B" team.

Last year over 100 athletes turned out for the Falcon's Senior team. Since it is virtually impossible to get this many players into a 48 minute game, many athletes dropped by the wayside as they were getting no playing time.

The club's leadership believed that we needed to keep the interest level high, so this year the "B" team was started to give our vast number of first year players and our tail end Senior "A" team players a chance to develop.

The "B" team is playing in a five team Senior Division IV league made up of three clubs' "A" teams and another club's "B" team. We have an eight game schedule that ends just before the Christmas holidays.

Division IV plays nine man football. No tackles on offense and usually one less lineman and linebacker on defense.

Thus we were off to St. Étienne, about 40 minutes away, for our game against the Condors.

Nothing like a game field

with power lines overhead

I am afraid that the electric radiation may have had negative effects on my reproductive system.

We suited up 42 Falcons

For many of our Falcons not only was this the first game that they had ever played in, it was also the first American football game they had ever even seen!

Also, we only had three practices for this team leading into the game.

Our goals were thus quite simple, have fun and play hard.

This was above all a learning experience for our newbies.

Captains Out

The game started with us on offense. We moved the ball a bit but were forced to punt. We mishandled the long snap and our punter was downed at our 10 yard line.

This is a learning experience.

The Condors took advantage of the short field with a one yard QB Sneak giving them a 6-0 lead.

An illegal block on the ensuing kickoff return started our next drive at our five yard line. We would eventually punt.

Our defense played well and forced a three and out punt by the Condors.

We ended the first quarter by fumbling the ball at our eight yard line.

This is a learning experience.

The defense came up big with an apparent fourth down stop but we were called for roughing the passer giving St. Étienne a new set of downs. they scored on a five yard sweep play to up their lead to 12-0.

Our next series ended with an interception.

This is a learning experience.

The defense forced another three and out punt.

We moved the ball a little bit but punted again.

The Condors were driving as the half came to an end with St. Étienne leading 12-0.

Condors on Offense

St. Étienne came out throwing to start the second half and our defense responded with three straight sacks! The Condors punted.

We moved the ball again but turned the ball over on downs.

We forced the Condors to punt and unfortunately for us it was a short one. One of our rookies decided that it was a good idea to jump on the ball, it squirted away and a Condor recovered.

This is a learning experience.

Our defense came up big and stopped St. Étienne on fourth down as the third quarter ended.

We fumbled on the next play.

This is a learning experience.

The Condors scored on a 15 yard run and made their two point PAT to stretch their lead to 20-0.

Our first play was a pass that was intercepted.

This is a learning experience.

The Condors would fumble the ball back to us.

We turned the ball over on downs but our new H-Back, Tim Tebow I think, ran the ball really well.

The Condors drove the ball to our goal line where the defense played well again stopping them at the one yard line on fourth down.

A new tailback for us popped a run right up the middle for a 40 yard gain, easily our offensive highlight of the day. The game ended with our team on the move.

Good job today defense!!!

With two lost fumbles, threw two interceptions, had a botched punt and a punt return snafu. The score could have been much worse if our defense had not played so well.

All 42 players that suited up for the game got a chance to play. I thought we played hard but our lack of both experience and practice time were apparent.

I think that our players had fun and I felt that they did play hard throughout the game.

I had a couple of Senior "A" players tell me later that they wished that they would have had a "B" team when they strarted playing to properly get their feet wet and not have been thrown into the fire of higher level Division III 11-man play.

Like I said . . . This is a learning experience.

GOOD JOB FALCONS!!!

Next up for our "B" team is a home game against the Annecy Avalanches next Sunday.