(S27) PT5 - Highlight Reel

[z0rem]

SHL Affiliate

[Kotasa]

Okay so I feel a little bit bad writing about this one since I promised Daybe I would not bring it up anymore, but this PT is the perfect excuse to. Rich Triplet’s rookie season was a bit of a bummer, playing a lot of LB I did not really get the performances I wanted out of him. I got a pick in the first game of the season and the last, however moving to fulltime outside CB1 this season I have been tasked with keeping up with some of the best receivers in the league. One of those receivers is offensive breakout player of the year award winning, Jackson Kingston the WR1 for NYS. I’m pretty good friends with Daybe, enjoy his banter when he isn’t giving me random discord calls throughout the day. Anyhow there was a ton of smack talk before the game and then it happened, Rich Triplet showed that he can and will be a force in this league for seasons to come. The San Jose defense pitched a shut out against New York, piling up the turnovers ending the day with 4 total, 2 of those came form ol’ Trippy Rich himself, on top of that he had 5 pass defenses and only allowed Kingston to catch 3 balls on 12 targets a mere 25% catch rate! On those 3 catches he only got 25 yards. Rich shut down one of the best receivers in the league and it got me hyped that I could win CBOTY. Now weeks later I’m not really in the running besides top 5 in PDs but I am on pace to hopefully win breakout player. With two weeks to go and another game against New York I am hoping for a similar stat line.

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296 words

[KC15]

SHL Affiliate PT

[Pat]

So often in football leagues, one aspect of the game that is completely forgotten is special teams. Sometimes I believe that this is by design and that a special teams player would prefer to do their job from a place of pure obscurity. Typically, when a kicker or a punter is brought up it is simply because they did something wrong. Either they missed a gimme kick or they kicked a punt right to a dangerous returner that took it to the house. Too many times have I seen fans just completely ignore the job that a special teams player did.

Not today. Today, I am going to talk about one of the best kicking performances of this season, from my Philadelphia Liberty teammate, Jake Fencik.

Way back in Week 1 of Season 27, the Liberty were playing the Hahalua of Honolulu. After the first quarter, Honolulu jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead, and at that moment fans everywhere started to think that the game was already in hand. An early field goal by Venus Powers extended that lead out to 17-0. The Liberty weren't ones to roll over and die, however, as they came back scoring 20 unanswered points in the second and third quarters.

Soon, the defenses began to take hold, as the Liberty were held scoreless for the final seven and a half minutes of the third quarter as well as the first 14:49 of the fourth. During that same time, the Hahalua had produced two field goals of their own to go up 23-20.

Then, with 11 seconds left in the game, the third year kicker, Fencik, steps up for a 47 yard try to tie it - by no means a gimme. He plants his foot, and BOOM, it goes right down the center. WE'VE GOT OVERTIME, FOLKS!

OT was another defensive struggle, as neither team could get the ball much past midfield. With just under 5 minutes to play, the Liberty called on their third year kicker once more, only this time from 52 yards. This would be Fencik's fourth try of the day, and his longest attempt. What the fans don't know is that Fencik is Polish for, "Ice in the veins" (probably). He knocked in the kick, and the Liberty started out the season 1-0.

[TheSparkyDee]

SHL Affiliate

[Yeenoghu]

Objectively I'd be writing about Baby Yoda's thrashing of the Philadelphia Liberty in Week 2 for this topic, but I already covered that game in a previous task. Instead, I'll turn to a game by veteran Butchers QB George O'Donnell. Even though O'Donnell has consistently been one of the most skilled players at his position for a few seasons now, he has never been able to put together a prolific passing season, routinely finishing as a fringe Pro Bowl caliber player. This season, however, has been O'Donnell's most efficient campaign yet, as he leads the league in passer rating. The most outstanding example of O'Donnell's play this season is undoubtedly his game in Week 10. All season long there have been four teams--Chicago, Colorado, Sarasota, and Yellowknife--in the NSFC vying for three playoff spots, so the Butchers traveling to Colorado to play the Yeti was a marquee matchup with postseason implications. Drive after drive, O'Donnell led the Butchers offense down the field, spreading the ball evenly amongst his teammates in the process. By game's end, O'Donnell would have passed for just shy of 400 yards while accumulating four passing touchdowns and a passer rating of 117.2 while targeting five different players at least five times each. These types of games have been endemic of the quarterback's play this season--O'Donnell has been a model of consistency for the Butchers and is undoubtedly a primary factor in their success as they strive towards a fourth consecutive playoff berth as the season closes.

[jzajenius36]

Well there haven’t been a ton of reasons to celebrate in Philadelphia this year.  The lowlights would be a lot more plentiful to choose from.  So in a sense, that makes this PTE easy.  I mean there’s hardly a choice other than week 4, where the Liberty went on to win 35-31, behind a 14-point fourth quarter rally.  Talk about a showdown at the O-K corral – the two gunslingers, Fujiwara and Phoenix, combined for 823 yards through the air on 78% passing and 4 touchdowns, no interceptions.  Just wow.

While I could wax poetically about Brock Phoenix in this game – I would like to pinpoint another player who made the ultimate highlight play in this game.  After PHI took the lead 35-31, there was still over 5 minutes on the clock.  Plenty of time for Fujiwara, who had been borderline unstoppable.  Baltimore took the ball and marched 69 yards downfield, eating up over 3 minutes by the time they made it to the PHI 36 yard line.  1st and 10 with 2:07 left.  Baltimore picks up 6 on the next play on a quick hitter to wr Campbell.  Rather than call a timeout, Baltimore spikes the ball, bringing up 3rd and 4.  Fujiwara drops back and is bullrushed on the interior by rookie Laxus Dreyar for a sack!  4th down!  With the game on the line and 1:16 left Fujiwara takes the snap, looks right, and finds wr Hanyandi, who shakes the first defender and heads north to the first down marker.  But just as he’s about to extend the ball he is crushed by Jeremiah Zelos and driven backwards.  A review shows the receiver did not gain the line! Turnover on downs!  Absolutely thrilling ending on back to back highlight plays by Dreyar and Zelos to support a great game by Phoenix.

[qWest]

As we head into the last two weeks of the regular season, the Arizona Outlaws have clinched a spot in the playoffs after their 9 game mid-season win streak, leading to their current 10-4 record. Though the Outlaws are tied with the Honolulu Hahalua at the top of the conference and will be doing everything they can to take the 1 seed and a bye in the first round of the playoffs; however, for Arizona's star running back Tatsu Nakamura, the most important game of the season may already be in the rear-view mirror.

Though his options for trade destinations was certainly not long given the previous devaluation of running backs in the ISFL, there was a bit of added motivation to going to another team in the ASFC: he'd be playing OCO, the team that drafted him and traded him this last offseason, twice each season. As extra fuel for Nakamura's fire, he and his new team would be playing OCO in Orange County for their first meeting in week 6. Tatsu turned his former home crowd's boos into high-grade jet fuel, helping him find the endzone twice on runs of 2 and 23 yards in just the first half. Though Nakamura led Arizona to a 17-nil lead after that second touchdown early in the second quarter, it came down to rookie QB Cortez still trying to shake off the green and adapt to the speed of ISFL defenses. Just after the Otters offense finally broke through and found the endzone on a short run from Jeffrey Phillips, Cortez threw a bad ball to a short route that was taken all the way home by star OCO corner Brandon Booker. Outside of a 32 yard kick, the AZ offense stalled out while OCO found the endzone once more early in the 4th quarter to take a 21-20 lead. However, the offense was powered up on a clutch interception by linebacker Galf Wilf, allowing them to hand off the ball to Nakamura a few times in the redzone and power it in for the 26-21 lead, which they just held on to for the last 3 minutes of regulation to take home the win in the first of several revenge games to come for Tatsu Nakamura.

[ZootTX]

SHL affiliate PT

[RedArrow12c]

It is crazy to believe that we are almost done with my rookie season. It has been a crazy, wild ride, and I would not trade a single moment of it for anything. I have loved playing for the London Wolves, and we have had an awesome season, but we are not done fighting yet, we are still going to keep fighting and trying to win every single day we are out there onto the field. As for what my favorite singular moment from this season is, I would say it is a moment that the general ISFL or DSFL public would not be aware of. On the London Wolves, two players are awarded crowns after every game. After several games of not winning, I was finally able to secure a crown after a great performance. It was so awesome to see that I finally was playing to the best of my abilities. I know I am not done yet, but it has been awesome to see so far. I will probably be down in the minors for several seasons because I am a quarterback, so I think I will have plenty of time to win big games with the Wolves and hopefully win a championship. I can not wait to see what the next several seasons have, but we will see what the future holds!

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