The Conservative Cat

« Preparing for the IWFL Championship | Main | She's Back »

June 29, 2008

Force Football - A Great Victory for Our Side

I now feel it is safe to predict that the Chicago Force won yesterday's game against the Detroit Demolition 8 to 7. I was not at the game myself (and my non-attendance has nothing to do with the fact that I'm terrified of loud noises), but Bruce was there as always, taking notes on his Palm Centro smartphone.

It turns out that the people who own Holmgren Field are concerned that Bruce and Nate might damage the bleachers from their frantic umbrella banging, so they were politely asked to desist. This warning proved to be inadequate, because it rained during the game, and all the rest of the fans with umbrellas starting banging them.

The game did not start out well. The high winds made passing difficult, so both teams played a running game. The Demolition would push forward a few yards at a time and the Force would push back, but the Demolition pushed harder. The problem was that the Demolition had learned how to stop ace Force linebacker Melissa Smith. Time and again the Force gave the ball to Smith and gained only one yard or nothing at all. Brandi Srda, who had five touchdowns in the Force's first five games, mostly worked defense. Occasionally the ball was given to Marcie Myers or Bridget Farhner, but the game was mostly Smith taking the ball and getting tackled by six or more Demolition players at a time.

The Force had one advantage over the Demolition in the first half: better kicking. A Force punt would travel across most of the field, while the Demolition punts were generally 10 or 20 yards. For this reason, the action during the first half remained mostly in Force territory until a series of first downs late in the second quarter took the Demolition within striking distance of the goal. With less than a minute remaining in the first half, the Demolition attempted a field goal, but it was no good. The first half was scoreless.

During the half-time break it started to rain. The rain would continue off and on until the game was almost over. The truly weird thing about this was that the Demolition, one of the winningest teams in the league, couldn't play in the rain. As the weather got rougher, the Force started making good progress down the field. Then, with less than 5 minutes left in the third quarter, the Demolition caught a Force punt and ran it all the way into the end zone for a touchdown.

I could tell Bruce was really depressed about this because he stopped taking notes. The kick for the extra point was good, and at the end of the third quarter, the Demolition led 7 to 0.

The Force, however, did not give up. They kept pushing downfield. Under pressure from the fans (or perhaps to break up the monotony) they began doing some passing and using trick plays in which somebody besides Melissa Smith would get the ball. The back-and-forth continued until a fumbled punt by the Demolition gave the ball to the Force 6 yards from the goal.

At this point, Bruce's notes say -&,S,@3$ TD. This means the Force scored a touchdown, but I have no idea how.

Then came the defining moment of the game. The safe thing would be to kick for an extra point, putting both teams at 7; however, as I said a few days ago, you don't win football games by playing it safe. The Force chose to go for a two-point conversion. Fortune favored the bold, and the conversion succeeded, putting us in the lead, 8 points to 7.

Now the Demolition had only two minutes of game time left to put additional points on the board. They began pushing hard, slowing working the ball toward the goal, but they also made mistakes, losing ground to penalties. A penalty put them at 3rd and 15. A hard stop by Force line player Dawn Pederson put them at 4th and 18. They attempted a pass, but it was broken up by veteran Force safety Linda Bache. There were now only 40 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the Force had the ball. For the Demolition, the game was over.

During the first half of yesterday's game, the Force spent most of its time trying to repeat the techniques that had enabled them to defeat the Demolition back in April, and it wasn't working; however, in the second half they began to get back into some of their usual trickiness, and they pulled out. The next round of the playoffs will pit the Force against the Pittsburgh Passion. Unlike the Demolition, the Passion has never played against the Force before (this is their first year in the IWFL), so I have no idea what to expect. There are, however, two former Force players on the Passion-- Jennifer Dulski and Debbie Sanchez, or-- as Bruce likes to call them-- the Human Cannonball and the Divine Wrath. Bruce and Nate are looking forward to seeing them again, but I personally would prefer to see them someplace other than the opposing team in a playoff game.

Nonetheless, the strength of the Force has always been their diversity. They can pass, they can run, and they can kick. The key to winning is doing so in a way the Passion can't predict. By the end of yesterday's game, that's what they were doing to the Demolition, and as a result Bruce and Nate aren't moping around the house they way they were this time last year. That moping thing affects my lifestyle, and because I'm a superior life form, it's important to our entire civilization.

The Eastern Conference championship game between the Force and the Passion will be on July 12 (a week from next Saturday) at 3pm in our very own Holmgren Field. It is a known fact that lots of cheering fans are good for a team, and it only costs $10 per person. In order to make it really easy to find the stadium, I've set up a direct link to the Mapquest map of the stadium here.

Please make an effort to attend. We're talking about something I care about. It's that important.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

UPDATE: I previously reported that the tackle prior to the Force touchdown was made by Kimberly Marks (#85). In fact, it was made by Dawn Pederson (#86). Bruce will be punished severely for typing the wrong number in his notes about the game.

# At Sun 2:56 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (1) | More Force Football | Tags: Brandi Srda Bridget Fahrner Chicago Force Dawn Pederson Debbie Sanchez Detroit Demolition directions feminism football Holmgren Field Jennifer Dulski Linda Bache Marcie Myers Melissa Smith Pittsburgh Passion women

Trackback Pings

Comments

Posted by: Diana at July 4, 2008 11:56 PM