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November 28, 2001
“What we do in life…echoes in eternity.”
These words were spoken
by the fictional Roman general Maximus, in the movie ‘Gladiator’
but it may as well have been taken right from a play of
tonight’s playoff game in the equally dangerous IM football
league. As Maximus and his army fought for precious land in the
Roman Empire, the Section 5 team (Fab-5) fought for yardage
under the lights and in front of a record crowd (estimated to be
7 people at half-time).
The first half: Down but not out…
The first half saw the
Fab-5 dig deep into their reserves to figure out the complicated
offensive pattern that was being implemented with surgical
precision by the opponents. Realizing that they were utilizing
the dreaded ‘5-4-3-5-7-12-split’ pattern, the defense
adjusted but it was too late as the opposition had put 13 points
on the board. Some bad luck and a few bad calls (One defensive
player fell subject to the feared “you got an extra guy”
rule) made for a frustrating half. Team dissention climaxed when
the captains were seen bickering. Craig told Brad to “shut the
!@#$% up”, and Brad responded by temporarily kicking Craig off
the team. Luckily, Craig ignored this order and made an
impressive catch on the next play to snag an important first
down.
The second half: Don’t call it a come back…
…that’s right;
we’ve been here for years! After a spiritual half-time
pep-talk, the Fab-5ers came back rejuvenated and ready for a new
era in IM football. A strong drive led by Joe’s quick feet put
us on the board. The pressure was now on the defense to not let
the points go for naught. With a new plan (the defense switched
from the Mazatlan pattern to the much more effective Corinthian
model) in action, the defense was able to neutralize the
opponents. Eric “wheels” Weber played 4 positions at the
same time and covered both the opposing teams offensive line as
well as a few of their people on the sidelines and a random guy
in the parking lot. Matt "You're in my House!" Collet
came up with a HUGE interception to stop the bad guys from
scoring and it was now up to the offense.
Once
again, Joe “don’t worry, if I get into trouble, I’ll just
pass it to myself” Gumbis unleashed the potent combination of
lightening juke-moves and a shotgun for an arm and drove the
team to scoring range. Unfortunately, the opponents had called
in a small man with uncommon leaping ability and they returned
our favor of an interception., Defense was at it once again.
With some more strong work from a wining formula, the defense
(led by Alex “I don’t care if they have girls on the team,
I’m taking people DOWN TOWN” Soriano) held strong and gave
the offense another opportunity.
With
one last series left in their battered souls, the offense drove
consistently towards the end-zone. On the final play, a
desperation toss from Gumbis forced everyone on the sidelines to
gasp as a swarm of people leapt up in the end zone to grab the
lofty pig skin. When the dust settled, left standing alone in
the center was Craig “Captain Compassion” Saur. Stoic,
confident and slightly congested from yelling at his own
teammates, Craig looked at the people at his feet and cried
“Kneel before Zod”.
So
there it was, down 0 – 13 at the half, the Fab 5 showed the
true meaning of grit, determination and total fear of being
yelled at and came back with a strong second half that resulted
in victory. The final score: Scrubs who wanna be like us: 13;
Us: 14.
Noteworthy also was the
fact that Jordan played the entire game without an insole in his
left sneaker (if anyone sees it somewhere, he’d love to have
it back!) bringing new meaning to “taking one for the team”.
Next up: More people who
want to knock us off the mountain on Sunday. Come cheer on your
section in round 2 of the finals Sunday, 3:30 pm.
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