May 5, 2007 Recap

First thing’s first: Thank you players for coming out. The SMFL would only be an abstract idea without you.

Just when I think we might hit a lull from our excellent turnouts, Anthony comes up big with two first-timers…thanks A-Train!!

Seven turned out to be the perfect number this morning on a beautiful day at the green gridiron at Glencoe. The overcast skies and intermittent drizzle gave us a nice respite from the brutal late spring heat of Dallas. A quick nod to the players who made it out: Anthony, Aaron, Mike, Holland, Hunter, Jeremy, and Adam. Aaron and Mike are Anthony’s friends, and when they showed up looking ready for business, we all figured Anthony had recruited some ringers for the sake of continuing to crush Matt “Gimme” Moore, who is unfortunately still on the DL. Since A-Train knew the talent on the field, he divided up the teams for us: Holland, Mike, and Hunter versus Aaron, A-Train, Jeremy, and Adam. (Those of you familiar with the SMFL have become accustomed to playing with odd-numbered teams.)

Team Hunter struck twice before Team A-Train ever put a point of the board, with Hunter orchestrating both drives and ultimately hooking up with Holland and Mike once each. “Out here, it’s so important to score early and get a couple stops to set the tone for the game. I just told our guys to trust me on offense, catch the ball, and play good defense,” said a confident Satterfield.

When Team A-Train did finally score, it was two unanswered to tie it up. One of the premier match-ups of the day turned out to be the first timers covering each other. Coincidence or not, Mike and Aaron scored the first touchdowns for their respective teams while covering each other. Aaron said he was pleasantly surprised by the competitiveness of the SMFL, “It took me a little while to get into it, but when Mike scored that first TD on me with the help of a big league push-off, I knew I had to bring it.” And he did for the rest of the game.

Hunter was instrumental in two unanswered to push the score to 4-2, followed by Team A-Train getting to within 4-3. Then it was two more unanswered for Team Hunter to make it 6-3, and then it got interesting…

“I knew when Jeremy got in all our faces in that next huddle and really chewed us up and down that I was going to do all I could to not let the team down,” said a motivated Adam. And from there Team A-Train scored three unanswered to tie it up at 6.

But, like he had all day, Hunter put his squad on the shoulders on the last drive and wouldn’t let them lose. Which is why he tops our weekly awards:

MVP: Hunter Satterfield had a hand in all seven of his teams TDs. He threw one to Mike, two to Holland, had an AMAZING behind the back pitch to Holland on a long fifth down TD run (play of the year potential), threw the first pass on a double pass TD that went Hunter-Holland-Mike, caught a length-of-the-field TD pass with his finger tips, and scored the winning TD on a QB scramble on a busted play. Well done, Hunter!

Revenge in a Dish Best Served Cold Award: Holland for his performance after being tagged with the dubious Penguin Award last week. He had a hand in five TDs this week, proving that he can indeed perform when the heat is on. Holland had a simple explanation: “I watched a little film of my performance last week and recognized what I was doing wrong. It wasn’t the defense that affected me…in fact, I haven’t seen defense played as poorly as Sandwick did last week. He’s lucky I was a little off. Now you’ve seen what I can do when I do it right.”

Best Corporate Advertisement Award: Seriously, has anyone brought it as big for the last two weeks as Anthony? And doesn’t that time frame correspond to his purchase of some new Under Armor cleats? He displayed some speed seen up til now only on the basketball court. He was one defensive stop away from being today’s MVP, with three TD catches.

Newcomers of the Week: Thanks to Mike and Aaron for showing up and playing hard. They made the most of a tough situation without cleats on the damp grass. Both came up big for their respective teams, and even salted things up with some trash talk.

Best Catch: Doing his best to keep his team in it, Jeremy made the best catch of the day, batting a thrown ball away from the defender, then pirouetting to snatch it out of the air a continue up field. I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it every week until he proves me wrong, the man has the best hands in the league.

Just Deserts Award: After talking it up about “shutting down” Holland last week, Adam got what was coming to him this week, in a big way from Holland. As mentioned before, Holland had a part in five of his teams seven TDs…touché Holland!

Until next week,

Stay Classy!!!