Categories: Division E

Division E on My Mind

Peeze’s Playbook 

By Paolo Della Rocca

 

Semi-Finals

 

After it took 30 hours and a changed flight to land me in Atlanta rather than Nashville. I was exhausted.  I spent an impromptu night out in New York City followed by a few hours to nap in LeGuardia international airport. After using the next two days providing me the opportunity to recuperate and relax, I’m now ready to reflect upon FPF.

At the moment, the only division E2 teams to remain in the playoffs are One Speed: Power and EZW.  I would say that at various points during the season, it had been said that may be these teams should have been categorized as Division E1 teams in any case.  I removed myself from the hot tub to reach out to Eagle who was filled me in on the OSP vs. Clinkers game.  I soon thereafter got a text from Marc Andre Desaulniers who said “Mike Addona and Alex Noel are beasts on defence”.  Then the flood of texts from teammates came through.  I was truly proud of my friends and happy to see my team is still alive and well in the playoffs.  The same could be said for EZW who had some contentious moments in the season.

After their first round forfeit win, we did not have a true indicator of EZW’s strength as a team.  Jeremy White played a great game in the absence of CO Lavinge in yet another storyline that seems to be a little less substance than at first perceived during the season.  It appears that Jeremy White has improved and while the rest of the team do not have the name brand value than the teams two stars, they aren’t to be overlooked. Key in this game were Maxime Boucher -Cyr who recorded two sacks, and Etienne Laurence-Gervais who scored 4 touchdowns and those are names we are only just learning about in FPF.  EZW has the distinction of being the top dog in division E2 with nothing but a championship to win and everything else in the world to lose.  Other than their lives of course, this isn’t Die Hard.

GloGang remain the favourites in Division E1.  They haven’t lost a game and with the core of this team coming off of a championship run Arno Desjardins, Olivier Suri and Sifax Kaced are flexing their FPF muscle in these division E playoffs.  Even the impressive Desjardins looked fallible against Bruins but it would be Gabriel Wiseman who would make more mistakes and he threw 3 interceptions as opposed to his opposite number who would throw 3 in this game.

In an even tighter contest between the Ducks and Grinders, Ducks would prove victorious by the slimmest of margins.  This 20-19 game had far less mistakes in it but Benjamin Reid with one more interception gave the Ducks all they needed to pull through in this one. Karim Sy-Morissette had two interceptions and Alexandre Croteau scored in a game where ever possession was truly important.  Grinders would get touchdowns from Pierre Kalar, Felix-Arnaud Laflamme Desjardins and Simon Ryan-Plourde.  However, each of these scores would come in the first half and it would not be enough for Grinders to upset the Ducks.

A-Side on the other hand would go on to upset Average Joe’s. The Joe’s Steven Besner played far above the average moniker.  He scored two touchdowns and recorded one of two interceptions thrown by A-Side’s Jarred Buck. Justin Santillo simply went off but it would be Brendan Sabloff who would be a repeat offender in this game scoring twice on his 5 catches.  In the end it was the players you typically expect to have an impact on the game for A-Side and that allowed them to get past Average Joe’s.

Fighting Flamingos are in year one of their 2-3 year rebuild.  We see this from this team often. They are always competitive but rather than moving up they allow expensive cap hits to move on and rebuild around their core.  To their credit it has worked and earned them a winter 2018 championship.  However, this season would not be the one for them.  They lost 38-20 and allowed Evan Frank to throw 5 touchdowns.  Frank was so efficient, 36% of his passes went for touchdowns.  Russell Schwartz would path score by scoring on an interception.

Rancerz 45- Vultures 40!!! This is my kinda game.  No defence was played by either team! How could I miss it?  Oh yeah, I’m at the bottom of a bottle and surrounded by beautiful southern women in the heart of SEC country.  Jeremie Ledoux has turned a corner in the second half of this season.  Rancerz had a great defence to start but Jeremie Ledoux but Ricardo Desrosiers and Julien Gingras have truly cemented themselves into the Rancerz offence and it looks beautiful. Owen Bujarsky did all he could to keep up but in the end Vultures would not have the horses (as birds typically do not).  The season is now officially ended for all teams of the SZN family but this family tree has set it roots deep in FPF and I look forward to seeing it bear fruit in the near future.

Broken Ankles had their season end after Loyola’s Finest pitched a shutout in a 24-0 game.  What I love about the Loyola’s finest group is that they have players who emerge each game as heroes.  Gabriel Bardetti is a fantastic player but on some nights he’s not prevalent on the stat sheet.  This time around however, he scored two touchdowns and recorded an interception for 6.  Loyola’s finest seem primed to continue this run.

I’ve done my best to cover this division this week while being 1200 miles away.  My coverage may be a little thinner than usual but I did reach out to sources to get some intel and I wanted to get a piece out because I love you Division E.  I’ll try to get something out after this round but in case I can’t…see you at the Roadshow!

 

Rants, Reflections and Ravings

  • American Airlines, your customer service is trash.  Way to train your employees to blame your clients for bad weather and organizational dysfunction.
  • In the first round of the playoffs, Number Juan got REPLACED!!!!!!
  • Sandbaggers didn’t show and forfeited in the first week of the playoffs. COWARDS!
  • Guardians could only field 4 players in the first round of the playoffs.  COWARDS! (not their fault per se…but still) 
  • The Greenland shark can live up to 400 years.  We need to get our hands on that DNA
  • We did mention how Grinders were better than we expected.  They pushed Ducks as hard as they could and lost 20-19.
  • What’s in a name? Jeremie Ledoux and Jeremy White both had 7 touchdown throws in the divisional playoff round.
  • Someone actually wrote a book called the Snuggle Sutra.  2018, you’re trying my patience.
  • The Vultures defence has been suspect at time.  Eventually it would catch up to them in a 45-40 loss to Vultures.
  • In the first round, Riccardo Desrosiers of Rancerz had only 2 catches but one was an incredible win on an under thrown jump ball in the back corner of the end zone. 
  • There’s just something special about being in the south.  Whiskey, cigars and Football is whistling in the wind.
  • Luis Begin allegedly packed up and changed into street clothes even though Clinkers weren’t done getting whipped by OSP.  With tongue firmly in cheek I say: “That’s true leadership”
  • I thought that the Bruins played the right kind of style to beat GloGang.  During the season Bruins lost 30-26, they lost 30-24.  Look at sample size strutting it’s stuff.
  • Drew Keiller threw 42 passes in the divisional round for Fighting Flamingos against the U.  This led to only 3 touchdowns.  This inefficiency eventually spelled the end for Fighting Flamingos.
  • JD Joly of Broken Ankles had a chip on his shoulder about being in the Division E2 playoffs.  It seems as though the arrogance was somewhat unwaranted. Broken Ankles had 53 total yards of offence in their 24-0 shutout loss to Loyola’s Finest.
  • Japanese Beetles, when I come back to Montreal you’ll have ruined your last rose.

 

Semi-Finals Preview

Division E1

 

#1 Glogang vs. #10 One Speed: Power

For the first time in a long time I’m playing on a Cinderella team.  GloGang have great athletes and Arno Desjardins is virtually impossible to contain in the pocket and his arm is simply the best in the division.  Olivier Suri is an amazing defender who OSP will need to keep in check all game long.  One Speed: Power have a consistent offence and a defence that looks to attack and disrupt concepts.  The key will be to ensure that Arno Desjardins does not extend plays all game.

Prediction: n/a

 

#2 The U vs. #5 Rancerz

I happen to think that this is a rough matchup for The U.  What they do well is adapt to offences on defence and try to take away what you do best.  However, Jeremie Ledoux has athletes on his receiving corps that simply can’t be schemed away.  Guillaume Dagher and Riccardo Desrosiers simply win balls and are difficult to mitigate. Evan Frank’s season as quarterback for the U has been excellent.  However, he will need to take more chances than usual in order to come away with the victory.  Expect Kyle Pedvis to have multiple scores if the U are to win this game.

Prediciton: Rancerz 32- The U 29

 

Division E2

 

#1 EZW vs. #8 A-Side

A-Side have been fairly interesting in the playoffs. Jarred Buck seems to have gotten his swag back as he threw 5 touchdowns in their 34-28 win over Average Joe’s. Justin Santillo had 7 catches for 122 yards and 2 interceptions.  I do think they’ll have a tough time against EZW.  Charles-Olivier Lavinge is insanely fast and he and Jeremy White have a special connection.  Another name to watch for is Etienne Laurence-Gervais who caught 4 touchdowns in their second round game against the replacements.

Prediction: EZW 39- A-Side 20

 

#2 Ducks vs. #7 Loyola’s Finest 

The Ducks have a very good team.  I’ve talked about their size and impressive receivers all season long.  However, Mat Domon will be the key player in this game. His offence is not explosive but it works well and keeps his team in possession of the ball. Alexandre Croteau is a versatile player and the kind of player we think can have a huge impact on both sides of the ball. Loyola’s Finest haven’t had the most difficult path to the finals but a win agains the Ducks will prove to us that this has not mattered.  George Spano is a talented quarterback and a great athlete. Gabriel Bardetti and Nick Lombardi are great receivers who helped this group earn a Fall Cup Championship.  Expect multiple touchdowns from this duo if Loyola’s Finest has a chance to win.

Prediction: Ducks 24-Loyola’s Finest 18

 

Friday’s Fantastic Form

So now we begin the time of the season where teams aggressively react to my article by saying…see we won…you didn’t believe in us and things of that nature.  To which I have one question to ask.  “Do I look like a preacher fam?” If I picked against you it’s got nothing to do with faith and everything to do with how I think the game will play out. 

For further info on this division and the rest of the league feel free to tune into Calling the Audible where Moe Khan, Simon Dagenais, Eagle at Master Control and GM Koletheras will discuss the best fried chicken recipes, why madden ratings are inept and how hot is too hot for a hot tub.

Tune in to the Facebook Live to join the show or to see us on You Tube or download us wherever you get your podcasts.  Good luck everyone!  Please feel free to reach me @peezefpf on twitter or @ Peeze Della Reeze on Facebook to let me know about the various ways in which I was wrong.