One of my regrets from our all-star/Team
Canada try-out back in the summer was not getting the chance to play
for Rod Moors. Getting to play in his system this time around was a
fun experience. Playing alongside Paul Shorten, Tony Stewart and Wayne
Carle for the first time was pretty sweet too. Tony and I needed Shorty
and Rod's other rub-familiar players to help lay out his systems parameters.
Needless to say, the offense was clicking as Rodney marched the ball
at will.
Our quarterfinal match up was against
Florida Memorial. Not only was our offense firing on all cylinders,
our defense, lead by Garth Bell, was impenetrable. Wayne Mckoy was stepping
into passes like they were thrown just for him, and our rushing speedster,
Chris Banton, was in the quarterback’s face almost as quickly
as the ball reached his hands. This game would be called early after
we took a commanding 29 to 0 lead.
Our next game would be a
good test for us as it would help to determine whether or not we were
improving as a team. After #1 ranked Florida’s Most Wanted bruised
our collective self-esteem by beating us 27 to 18 in the round robin,
we had a semifinal opportunity at revenge. With his poise and analysis
capability of a high end computer, quarterback Rod Moors picked apart
the highly capable Most Wanted defense.
Defensively, our squad had their hands
full. With the Most Wanted quarterback being a former Detroit Lion back
up, not to mention his talented and vertically blessed receiving core,
our defenders had their work cut out for them.
In a back and forth contest, and with
the Most Wanted marching to win, we would seal the game with a last
drive interception--leave it to Wayne (the real) Mckoy to snag it up.
This close match up was a good assessment of our team character, as
the Most Wanted took us to the limit. I’m happy to say that we
rose well above the occasion.
