Indians vs. Tampere Saints

This was an exciting game for Whiteboy and Me.  It was his first home game and I had invited several people to watch.  Not one of them had ever seen a game before.  Sanna and Mina both came to the game.  Jenni and two of her friends were also there. 

Luckily the game started off well.  I took the opening kickoff back 90 yards for a touchdown.  I had to tight-rope the sideline about mid-field and the newspaper photographer got a pretty sweet shot of it.    The PAT was blocked and we took a quick 6-0 lead and it lasted into the 2nd quarter.

Our next score was the product of one of the best drives of the season.  We took the ball from our own 12 yard-line and ended it with a 1 yard plunge by Lari.  During the drive we ran a reverse to me that I should have scored on.  It was practically a double reverse because I ran from one sideline to the other then reversed all the way back to the other sideline.  I made a couple decent moves but ran out of gas quick and got fetched by a Defensive End!  I claimed he had an angle on me but coach swears it's because of all the donuts I eat.  I ran for about 90 yards but only gained 34 on the play! 

Defensively we played our best game of the season.  I'm so excited about what Ryan "Whiteboy" has done to our 'D'.  We only gave up one big play, which was a 57 yard TD pass, but they played lights out the entire game.  Tampere could not run the ball against us and only scored once more over the course of the game!  Our front seven held them to -10 yards rushing.

Personally, I had a career high in penalty yards and officially received my first personal foul.  I was getting frustrated because they would always hit us receivers early (pass interference).  All our receivers were getting hit early but the refs always said the pass was uncatchable! Then, right before halftime I was going up for a Hail-Mary and one of there guys was holding me down.  That play put me over the top and as I was walking to the sideline, I kicked the ball off the field and onto the track.  I assumed since it was halftime it wouldn’t have mattered, so as both teams were walking off the field I just kicked the ball.  The ref thought otherwise!  (For the most part the refs like me, so don’t think I am getting in bad graces with these guys.  I joke with them all the time and I apologized for my shenanigans).  I also got called for clipping early in the game.  Totally penalty yards = 25.

Score at Half-Time 13 - 6

Second Half

Defensively we absolutely shut them down in the second half.  They had one decent drive that ended in the other touchdown but nothing else. 

Offensively our running backs, Joonas and Otto, became workhorses.  We fed them the ball the entire second half and they score the remaining 3 touchdowns.  Our offensive line had their best half of the season.  

Post-Game

MVP of the game was Juha!  He is one of our outside linebackers.  He made huge plays the entire game.  He had 5 solo tackles, 4 assists, and 3 tackles for loss.  He actually had like 5 sacks but the stats guy didn’t give him the credit for them. 

Coach Left

As soon as the game was over, Coach let everyone know that he was going back home to California.  He was pretty emotional, but not regretful.  He is kinda lonely in this little town and nobody blamed him for wanting to leave.  I had assumed from prior conversations that he was going to leave so I was prepared for it; the rest of the team wasn't though.  We dunno who will replace him, maybe Whiteboy and I will be Coordinators and Mika (our GM) will be the head coach but that is just speculation.