Parity Recap - Quarter-Finals Fiasco

For the second time in Parity history, we lost games for technical reasons! Many of us remember the Lost Game from a few years ago, when the dome had a power outage in the middle of the last game slot. But this time, thanks to an utterly bizarre April ice storm, we lost an entire week! The league has made up for this by rejigging the schedule, playing quarter finals in week 23, and we all get a double-header for semis and finals in week 24. Exciting!

But what happened in the quarter finals? Let's recap!

Sub-Normal Activity: The Case of Brian Sparity vs. Monster Peninsula: I didn't see much of this game, but I do know that a.) Brian Perry didn't spare in this game and b.) we had a direct matchup of Alessandros, so we can definitively say which was best. Looking at the stat-lines, Colantonio was good for 0/9/2/1 on 37 touches with 8 turnovers credited to him. Colonnier was 5/2/2/1 on 15 touches and zero turnovers. Efficiency is always the tie-break, so this week the best Alessandro is Colonnier!

This game looked to be a back and forth game except for 5 breaks early in the game for Brian Sparity. Monster Peninsula could never get a turn and capitalize on it. Final, 25-19 for Brian Sparity.

Pew-Pew vs. Flatball: The True Story of Deflategate: I came in and saw the final 20 minutes of this game, and it looked like a close back-and-forth affair. Late in the game, Pew-Pew had built up 3 point lead. Flatball held serve then broke 4 straight times to grab a 2 point lead. The two traded points to hard-cap, with Pew-Pew having one chance to force a tie that they couldn't capitalize on. Final, 26-23 for Flatball.

Funny moments: Hodgson dipsy-doodled a disc around and over his mark before trying a push/pop into the air for Mel Bouchard, but missed the mark a little and Carrie-Anne was able to get a hand on it. "Sorry Mel, I thought you were tall!" Hodge yelled. I'm pretty sure Mel thought he could throw more accurately, though.

Also Hodge, watching Al try and cover him was funny. Hodge is probably twice Al's size, but Al sure did give it his all. CC had better luck on a huck where he was able to box out enough that Derek couldn't go over top of him, a D that led to the final break and score of the game.

The real story of this game, though, was substitutions! Al Colantonio(S) was way better than Al Colantonio. On what is rumoured to be a cold medication psuedoephedrin doped performance, Al put up 3/12/1/1 on over 40 touches, and almost single handedly won the game for Heather as a sub. $223,000 dollars later, Al realized he probably should have tried to do that for his own team against Brian. Also notable, apparently the league is okay with doping, at least when the dope-r is subbing for the ED! I will call this, DayQuilgate.

Strangely Charmed vs. Tinge of Ginge: My quarter final game put a bunch of pale skinned red-heads against a couple of elemental particles. A pretty tall order for any ginger, but I had several!

This was a great game, and another tight one. Half-time was taken with the score 9-9 after a series of small runs by each team. Ginge came out flat and dropped 4 points. The gap widened to 6, and the Ginge went on a 5 point run to force an opportunity to tie. Charmed turned it over early in the point, and with the clock ticking down Ginge worked it to mid-field before taking a shot that didn't work out. Turn, and the game was called at time cap for Strangely Charmed, 19-18.

Coming down to the wire is a great way for Parity playoffs to go!

Wowzer's Champagne (now in Stocki) vs. Teaching Idol: After my game I went over to watch the final quarters and it seemed tense. Everyone was playing hard (abnormal for the late-late slot) and noted that Teaching Idol had just gone on a 4 point run to get within 1, then rattled off 2 more points to tie it. Ninja Kells made a fantastic play in the corner to score for Wowzer, and then the play of the night happened.

Mehmet starts the point and seeing no up field options, dishes a backhand to Higgins in the corner of his own endzone. Downfield defense and slightly clogging cuts left Scott with no options, so he looked to bail to Will Reid. But Jonny Champagne (parity darling and 1x Most Improved Player) read the play, and undercut Will on the bail. He tipped the disk up in the air, then ran it down for a callahan just inside the backline of the endzone, putting Wowzer's up by 2.

Mehmet's team scored the next one but running out of time, couldn't force a turn over before hardcap was called in the middle of the point they needed to tie it. The best part is, when I went to Sully and Justine to say "You just won on the back of that Callahan," they didn't even know. They both thought they were down after the two late runs by Mehmet.

Champagne, I just want you to know, that was fuckin' incredible.