HMF Log: 10/31/04

I assume you're all anxiously awaiting word of how Rookie Nookie went this weekend, so here it goes...

Parents weekend, midterms, girlfriends, and illness left a small group of 9 to head down to Stonehill College for this tournament. Myself, Aaron, Gabe, Jimmy, Skoren, Jeff, Eli, Rohit, and Chris met at Kirkland and made the short drive down after a quick breakfast.

A quick look at the brackets show teams seeded 1-5 in one bracket and 6-10 in the other, with the winner of each playing for the championship. Retarded. Confused but fired up, we take the field against Wheaton for our first game. Or, rather, some 40 year old guy, 4 rent-a-rookie's from Bridgewater, and 3 or 4 guys who actually went to Wheaton. We come out strong, taking half 8-1 and eventually winning 15-3. Gabe scores roughly 30 points.

During our second-round bye we watch Brown B, our next opponent, looking very strong against Bentley. We also see Brown A star Paul Vandenberg and some other A guy on the field with them. Then our cavalry arrives, as Jack, Chuck, and Will roll up in Jack's Astrovan. A quick game of Flutterguts to pass the time and then we get started against Brown.

The teams seem very evenly matched at first, as we trade points up to 4's. At this point Brown starts to pull away a bit, taking half at maybe 8-5. It's more of the same after the half as we make a lot of unforced turns on our zone offense and we are unable to stop the deep looks of Vandenburg to their speedy (A-team?) guy who looks like an ugly version of Manoah. We choose not to take advantage of our similar (and clearly more potent) Will-to-Jack deep combo and Brown goes on to win 15-8 or 14-8.

We enter the next round looking for revenge against Bentley, and we get just that. With the coaching of Will from the sideline our offense starts to click as we make much better offensive decisions and move at will through the Bentley zone. Lots of come-to D's and great deep defense by Gabe, Jack, and Eli stifle the Bentley O. Some mental errors keep us from running away with it, but we go on to a relatively easy 15-7 win, with the highlight being a deep look from Nagy to Skoren in the endzone for a score. A great game; the Bentley guys were a lot of fun to play against.

Our last pool game finds us against Brandeis B. Eager to avenge the inexplicable #1 seeding of Brandeis as opposed to our #2, we pick up where we left off against Bentley, except with fewer unforced errors. More come-to D's and the like, we take half 8-0. Things continue to go well in the second half, the joke "I've got the Jewish guy" does not get old, and we go on to a 15-1 win.

Our crossover game puts us against Stonehill for the 3rd place game. Another chance to get revenge for the ridiculous format, as this is the team coached by the TD. With this and the prospect of getting back in time for dinner in mind, we come out strong. Highlights include another big grab by Skoren for a score, prompting the TD to say "That guy's huge...", and Gabe throwing his middle finger in the Ro-Sham for the pull. We go on to an 11-3 win or something.

A fun day, despite the constant (light) rain and occasional cold. Many thanks to Jack, Will, and Chuck for coming down to help us with numbers.

Math Enthusiast and Bad-ass MC,
Adam Johnston '07