Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Weekend That Was


Welp, no Erin Andrews news for you here, but it was quite an eventful weekend worth at least a little blog post to boot. Several vital members of the Wildcats made the trip up to Durham this weekend to move some stuff in, shake some hands, set up a home, get in a quick swim, and be on their way. Needless to say, this was a successful endeavor, from a legitimately iced out pair of sunglasses to a UN inspired WisWall jump, this truly makes the poll question at right that much harder to pinpoint. I mean, when even when an off the ballot silent assassin Brennan Duke is making waves with a strong performance, you know the competition is lethal.

And that was just Friday and Saturday. Sunday, I battled heat, lack of sleep, an enticing outdoor public pool, and another unkown slowing element (see Hangover) to make my way down 95 because of my undying devotion to the Red Army Lacrosse Club. In a game that was more up and down than a RollerCoaster Tycoon park, we found ourselves in quite a little second half bind.

We we're up 5-2, and rolling pretty, and suddenly we were down 7-5 with just minutes to play. Under the Kremlin's discipline, we snapped back into gear and tied it 7-7. Then on what looked to be the final drive of the game, a missed behind the back attempted rip ended up getting chased down on the endline and we had one chance left. I found myself with the ball in the corner, game tied, with 9 seconds left against a defender whom I played HS with at Walpole. Summer league, yes, however, this was a dream situation to be in. To be the the Adam Vinatieri, the Carlton Fisk, the Brett Favre, or (dare I say it?) the AARON BOONE of Franklin Men's Open League Lacrosse could potentially be the highlight of my twilighting athletic career. Drove right, cut back left, lost the defender, got to GLE and with one second left laid out horizontially trying to tuck the ball past a keeper with a Gait-esque wrap around that was just begging to win an ESPY. Stuffed. Goin' to OT.

So we go on to win the draw, possess the ball, get an open drive, shoot, score and win. Great, grand, wonderful. But, despite not fulfilling any dreams, the Army remains undefeated at 4-0 and will be playing during prime time at 8p.m next Sunday, you should come, it's only an hour and a half from Durham and it will surely be a show. I mean, we're playing a team called (no joke) The Flying Chinchillas.

Also, quick little shout out to Jim Naz, hear he's a big fan of the blog. As a broke college student with a generally abrasive sense of humor who watches Jeopardy everyday, I'm glad that I'm making a difference somewhere....................even if it is Braintree.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Walpole Contends for Best HS Team in the World, Gets Snubbed

Laxpower.com: LaxPower is proud to introduce the National Online Lacrosse Tournament, the first-ever virtual national high school lacrosse championship. Sixty-four teams qualified for the 2009 NOLT, with the following schools receiving berths.
  • The top-ranked team in each state* and the top team in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council, according to LaxPower's final Power Rankings (PR) for the 2009 season
  • The 24 highest-rated teams remaining in the country based on their final Power Rankings for the 2009 season, with any ties broken based on strength of schedule
  • Winners will be determined based on votes from a panel of LaxPower experts and LaxPower's computer Power Rankings
Sounds like a pretty legit idea, I suppose. Assemble a national tournament of the best teams from around the country. Square 'em up and let one group call themselves the best team in the nation by some bushleague formula. Fine. But here's where it gets a little salty. Just two days after announcing the bracket, the first "games" were "played." Here's the results from Walpole vs. Ithaca, NY:
(8) Walpole Rebels (MA) 98.85
(9) Ithaca Little Red (NY) 98.79

1: Ithaca - Excellent game, but good goaltending and D wins out.
2: Ithaca - Strong leadership and goaltending allows the Little Red to advance.
3: Ithaca - The key to the postseason is good goalkeeping, so I give you A.J. Fiore.
4: Walpole - The Rebels have too much talent at both ends of the field
Computer: Walpole
So, to sum it up the three out of four analysts picked the Little Red to beat the Rebels. However, analyst number 4 (Eric Smith) works for Laxpower and is the only one covering the Northeast. So he is obviously more qualified to be "covering" this "game" than these other clowns. Walpole was also a higher seed by the computers because they were better, and the computer calculated Walpole would have won . So three schmos votes swayed this "game" when the expert and his highly intelligent machines were denied from was rightfully theirs.

To remind you, this was a simulated game, about 2 high schools, that really means absolutely nothing, and really involves no one reading this. But, it still is just one more reason that Walpole is still top dog around these parts for all of the haters. Because the likes of teams like Duxbury, Medfield, St. Johns, Reading, Marshfield, and all these other towns that get the pub didn't even come close to making it into the most important, fictional, meaningless, national tournament in the world.

Danny Crisafulli Named To MCLA All-Academic Team

Now a distinguished alumnus of the U, former Captain Danny Crisafulli was named a 2009 MCLA Scholar Athlete. The award was given to only 23 players in all of MCLA D-1, and to 43 total, So it is quite a little honor. Now, I'm not a math guy, never have been. But if you factor in 213 teams times about 35 kids per team, we're looking at about 7,455 kids playing MCLA ball. 43 over 7,455 off the top of my head looks like about .57% of players made the cut, but that's just a rough estimate. So, he is in the 99th percentile of scholar athletes in the MCLA, so call Danny up or drop him a T-Bomb with some daps for his accomplishments in Durham.

Despite honoring #18 with the credit he deserves, I wanted to make sure he didn't get on his high horse. So naturally, I wanted to post a couple gratuitous pictures from his prime college days and knock him down a peg or two. However, he seems to be smart (see above) and has his Facebook photos blocked...Kids these days and their technology

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Red Army-6 Masteons-4


In another low scoring bout, the Army's incredible discipline was just too much for the Masteons, and their all of their purple glory. The win improves the east coast's best summer league team to 2-0 as we edged out Ron Mexico's Octaroons over the holiday weekend. This disciplined, unselfish play was displayed at its peak when, with a 2 goal lead and three minutes to play, the offense possesed the ball behind the net, cycling men through in order to run out the final ticks. That is until with 16 seconds left, and the Masteon goalie attacking x, the Army's fogo made an attempt to run at the open goal and was promptly taken to the turf. What a bender.


Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Blogging live from my cube at the New Balance World Headquarters, here's our winner. After discussing with several people via texts, calls, comments, etc, as well as our distinguished head coach's pull these are what were gonna go with. The poll that was at right was rigged by team President and my own roommate Daniel F. Milano as he voted for shirt 6 every single day, and even got his family involved in the voting. Reminds me of Black Sheep, when Governor Tracy rigs the Washington campaign for governor essentially screwing Al Donnelly. Despicable act.