September 13, Northwest Indiana - Blaine, MN

multiple choice score:
a) metropolis A 74 - NW Indiana 10
b) metropolis A 69 - NW Indiana 10
c) metropolis A 79 - NW Indiana 10

At Thursday nite's training, jack began by running us thru the usual warmups, drills and you-f'in-f's. things were proceeding quite soundly actually - one of the drills featured a pop pass off a tackle. you know, ball carrier gets tackled, rolls to back and pops the pass to the at-pace lad running thru. fun drill. we apparently took this drill to heart as evidenced in last weekends game. but more on that later. midway thru training, in uncharacteristic fashion, jack sent us up to the pavillion. donnig erasable pen and coaches cap, lucky proceeded to give us a chalktalk on the finer points of breaking a straight-line defense thru tactical crashes off the ruck. well done professor lucky - i swear i spied a single pride-filled tear roll down the cheek of father as he looked on.

After the coaching session, lavin, in characteristic form, opened up a cooler of beer and preceeded to inform us that NW Indiana was forfieting but, in the spirit of the game, was coming up with 10 or so guys to provide some sort of social game. we begrudgingly took this in stride and began to drink said beer. turns out indiana sucked it up, fielded a team of 15 and headed north to give us a game. metropolis thanks you for the efforts. although a lopsided score, the boys from indiana proved to be a good bunch of guys and felt a bit bad for not bringing alll their lads.
well, on to the game.

first half
metropolis scored a lot, indiana had difficulties. a common theme was tenacious rucking, hard tackling and yes, the pop pass off a tackle. the forwards were rather 7's-like in their linking-style of play. everyone got into the action. the play from outside center, gustavus nate, was exemplary. all day, he ran hard, rucked and made solid tackles. twinkle-toes babiash also ran well, with some nifty pick-and-go's off the ruck. as first-half time ran out, our fearless-on-field leader, flanker jamie kohlbeck, could be heard shouting 'one more boys, one more'. that insatible jamie.

2nd half
metropolis scored a lot. indiana again had difficulties, yet managed a try, conversion and penalty kick. inside center, brady ran well and at one point 'had a really fast take up the middle that looked incredible. he was 10 meters beyond the pass before anybody blinked' copyright eric curtin.
this half featured a strong maul by metropolis that traveled nearly 30 meters down the pitch.
two noteable indiana plays:
-indiana winger took a pass on the outside from deep in his own territory, turned the corner on the metropolis defense and sprinted toward the tryzone. never-say-die babiash made a valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to run him down. fullback kima came up strong to make the tackle, but this guy put an incredible move on the figian and proceeded in for the score. the winger had vomitted a bit earlier in the game and his puke-breath is what apparently froze kima in his tracks resulting in the score.

Indiana No. 8 played with gusto and zeal, running and rucking well all game.

Metropolis B
upon completion of the game, we headed across the expansive pitches to watch the end of the banshee/harlaquins game. the harlaquins won by six. a few of the metropolis boys filled in for the harlequins in their b-side match against the banshees. at flyhalf, we had slimshady kurt. at winger we had madison kurt and at flanker we had dougie. this game was harliquins a lot, banshees nothing. slimshady played well, madison kurt ran hard and flanker dougie, not wanting to be left out, performed a pop pass of a tackle that resulted in a try. thanks jack.

after game social
many of us met up at that swinging blaine hot spot...i forget...with the boys from indiana for some pizza and beer. things to note: general collected money and didn't screw it up, vasquez brought a date and she was actually attractive...well done boy. corey and wife, suzy brought their new infant, and in fine form, the toddler finished off two pitcher thru suzies nipp..well, you know. upon leaving blaine, many headed off to see local legend, g.b. leyton where apparently, general was quite the stud of the night. ask him.