Friday, January 3 -
Sunday, January 5, 2020
After a pleasant and uneventful driver home from Las Vegas on Friday, we settled into our home in Camarillo to watch more American football on TV and, more importantly, a game that was streaming live on-line.
I'll start with Sunday's U16 Italian National Championship Game played in Milano's Velodromo Vigorelli between our 8-0 Skorpions Varese and the top-seeded, 7-0 Seamen Milano.
At the U16 level, the teams play seven-man football. On offense you are allowed three backs, a center, a guard and two ends.
Defensively, you are allowed seven players lined up any way that you want.
There is no kicking game in Italian seven-man football.
At the start of both halves, the offense simply starts at the 25 yard line.
On fourth down, if the offense decides not to go for it, they simply declare their intention to "punt" and the ball is again placed at the 25 yard line to start the new drive. Thus the Skorpions had a booming 74 yard "punt" today when we were backed upon on the one yard line at the end of a third down play.
After a TD, teams go for two each time.
The quarters are only eight minutes long in Italian U16 tackle football.
The game was streaming live on-line
air 5:00 a.m. Pacific time
I was up early this morning.
The Skorpions came out in a cloud
of Scorpion Red and Gray smoke
I was at the ready on my computer
Defense swarming to the ball
The Seamen looked good in their uniforms and came out playing great on both sides of the ball.
#52 for the Skorpions is a QB/DL
At the Half, it looked bleak for
our beloved Skorpions
Things would get worse as the Seamen increased their lead to 34-0 by the end of the Third Quarter.
Then strange things started to happen.
One of three consecutive
DEFENSIVE TDs by the Skorpions
to start the Fourth Quarter!
The end of a 75 yard Skorpion
TD pass late in the game
The Skorpions showed a lot of courage and grit in not giving up in the face of long odds.
The Varese 28 point Fourth Quarter outburst made the final score look much closer than the difference in the two squads.
The Seamen were clearly the better team and well worthy of their top seed in these playoffs.
Post game talk
Enzo Petrillo was our
dutiful flag bearer
The seamen deserved the Gold Medal
The results of all of the 2019/2020
U16 playoff games
Speaking of American football overseas, American football International came out this weekend with their rankings of top 225 teams playing our sport outside of the USA and Canada.
How can the Cairo Hellhounds
only be ranked #225?
I had them at #219 in my own Top 225 Poll this week.
There were also some games on TV this weekend.
It was the NFL's Wild Card Weekend
For once, all four Wild Card games were good ones, two AFC contests on Saturday and another two NFC bouts on Sunday.
A tale of two different halves
The Texans stormed back in the Second Half to win this one in overtime, 22-19.
End of the Dynasty?
Probably not but it was the end of the defending Super Bowl Champion Patriots season, Titans won 20-13.
Oh my, another favorite fell
in overtime
Seattle outlasted a beat up
Eagles squad by a final tally of 17-9
Reading Is FUNdamental!
. . . and sometimes PREPOSTEROUS!
This week will be dedicated to packing and taking care of several last minute issues as EuroBall Experience XVII starts this coming Saturday with a flight to Milan, Italy for my third campaign as the coach of the Skorpions Varese Senior Men's squad.
ITALIA!
No comments:
Post a Comment