August 30, JESSE JAMes tournament - Woodbury MN

Game 1: Metropolis 12 - St. Cloud Bottom Feeders 8

This hard fought match against the bottom feeders featured a fine introductory scrumhalf performance by that young upstart, dougie...ok, an obvious joke. associating 'young upstart' with dougie is like associating 'pc' with jack. due to the mishmash of players present (or better yet , not present) we had to make due with a number of players somewhat out of place. in fact, with our first game being changed at the last minute from 10am to 9am, we had only 9 players available 5 minutes before kickoff...and the jerseys were somewhere on Hwy 52 cooly traveling alongside Newt as he casually drove in from rochester. rumor has it, darby called him shortly before kickoff to hurry his ass along and the response he got was a short chuckle and a piss off, hold your horses mister. as we lined up for the kickoff a collective sigh of relief was breathed as newt was spotted entering the parking lot.
with jerseys on back and players out of postition, we kicked off and gave it our best against the bottom feeders. first half play featured some good tackling by both teams.
SCORE 1. the bottom feeders scored the first try, but missed the conversion. for details on their score, ask them as i don't remember.
SCORE 2. Ike, playing inside center, tied the game with an 8 meter burst up the gut. this norm-wanna-be scored after recieveing a pop pass from vasquez off a 2nd phases loose ruk. in pure back form, Ike took all the credit for the score, forgetting about all the hard work his forward brothers did to get the ball down field. the point after attempt was missed.
SCORE 3. the second half featured a go-ahead three point penalty kick by the bottom feeders.
SCORE 4. not to be outdone, metropolis rallied with the winning try and conversion by travis and vasquez. inside the st. cloud 5 meter line, the metropolis pak was pushing the bottom feeders back with virtual ease. everyone new it was going to be a metropolis pak try....everyone with that is except the experienced scrumhalf, dougie, who picked up the ball, floated it out to vasquez who dished it to gustavus david who crashed it into the B.F'ers and then popped it to travis. travis, lurking in the backline, got and cashed in on his scoring opportunity when big tom hromadka crashed past david, screaming 'give me my ball, give me my ball' in his high-pitched manner...kind of like a little girl screaming 'give me my doll, give me my doll'...john says this thing happened all the time when they were kids.
NOTEWORTHY: very spirited play from our FIGI back, Kima. and new prop, tony..well done boys - hard running and hard tackling.
FINAL SCORE: METROPOLIS 12, BOTTOM FEEDERS 8

Game 2: Metropolis 12, Minnesota Staulkers 7

SCORE 1. first half, the staulkers scored & converted first and early. it was a nice try...i think.
the game went back and forth for the remainder of the half.
SCORE 2. second half, that silver-shoed Metropolis inside center, brady, chose NOT to knock on the ball and scrambled in from 25 meters out, during which he ran through three flailing arm tackles and centered the ball between the posts. vasquez easily converted to tie the score at 7 apiece.
Play was back and forth for the remainder of the half, but nobody socred.
1st OT: We went into the first 5 minute sudden death overtime and again, play was hard fought but without a score.
2nd OT: The second 5 minute sudden death OT, the staulkers missed a winning penalty kick from 15 meters out along the left sideline. a good attempt that fell short.
3rd OT: Getting tired of all this, referee, Larry Prahm, mandated that the 3rd OT be played until a score and without substitution. Lamenting, new metropolis player, Tom Ruby, was forced to continue playing and subsequently missed an important family function...thanks tom...larry, you bastard (sorry lucky).
the staulkers once again attempted and missed a penalty kick. this time teeing up from straight away from the 50 meter mark. it fell short and we resumed play.
SCORE 3. taking matters into his own hands, gustavus david, now playing scrumhalf, got the winning try with a 15 meter scramble off a scrum. he slashed from left side of the field to the goal posts, sidestepped a forward and ran past two staulker backs for the go-ahead score.
noteworthy play:
backs: once again, spirited play by fullback kima. and hard running by inside center brady. great leadership by scrumhalf gustavus david - hard tackling, hard running and good decisions.
forwards: solid forward play - good leadership and tackling by newt and tom hromadka.
FINAL SCORE: METROPOLIS 12, STAULKERS 7

Game 3: CHAMPIONSHIP Metropolis15, St. Paul Pigs 12

1st half: a hard fought match...really. both sides showed hard crashes and tough tackling.
SCORE 1: metropolis fullback, kima, lit up the pigs backs with a 55 meter burst. he ran through 3 tackles and jooked a fourth somewhere near the 20 meter line before sauntering in to finish the score beneath the posts. Vasquez converted.
SCORE 2: pigs flyhalf dished to a back to complete a 65 meter score after a slashing run from left to right. he dummied two pigs backs and broke thru the metropolis backs defense. Kima made a great open field tackle but the pigs flyhalf nicely completed the pass to the back for the tying score and conversion.
SCORE 3: after a series of crashes by the metropolis forwards and backs to advance the ball downfield, Darby scored on a diving try beneath 3 pigs in the left side of the try zone. Conversion missed
SCORE 4: an errant pass off a loose play led to a pigs recovery and subsequent scrambling score into the left side of the tryzone. conversion missed.
SCORE 5: after more crashing by the metropolis forwards and backs, vasquez converted a penalty kick for the win.
noteworthy play: more fine play from our scrumhalf, david and fullback, kima. good forward work in the loose, including our new hooker, kiwi mark. a fine showing by our old boys, including some nice winger play by one Muddy Waters.
FINAL SCORE: METROPOLIS 15, PIGS 12.

4th game: the after game party:

a good party: Finnagans Beer, food, karokee...metropolis representatives:
big pete...free beer, will show. could be heard crooning bob seiger during karokee
tom ruby...dating the owner of Finnagans Beer and sponsor of the Jessie James tournament...we need more players like this in our ranks...well done tom.
terry helmer...once again, wearing his national 7's jersey...dude, wash that thing.
dougie...after being ridiculed by jack for saying he was going to pass on this one, breaks down and shows up. once again, behaves in a dignified manner. notes that jack isn't there...hmmmmm. spotted karokeeing his best partridge family.
noper....no, he's not dead, he's just in law school.
fingers and wife....good to see some more old boys out.
robert bernard, ex-metropolis hooker in from canada...eh.