Pizza Files: Eating Greedy! Game 1 recap

HE’S BACK!!  Sorry for the delay in the game recap, Amberly and I have been happily playing host to Amberly’s mom and her friend Lauren. We spent the last few days driving all over Sicily to see some sights, but you will see all that good stuff in another post, it’s time to talk some football.

A little info/history on the Milano Seamen’s stadium… Both The Beatles and Led Zeppelin have played concerts there, in fact, this stadium was the last show the entire group of Led Zeppelin played together… gnutes. Now, for those of you that have ever played on the hallowed grounds of Darrell Tully stadium pre face lift, you know how bad original Astroturf can be to play on. Well that pales in comparison to how bad this field was. On top of a solid slab of concrete was a ¼ inch thick turf carpet, when it was laid down 30 years ago… now it’s about half that. So we were basically playing on carpeted concrete... I love Italy.

      After a rousing performance of the Italian national anthem by a supremely talented singer (cough), we were all set to start the IFL season. We received the opening kickoff, and after a few cuts and the stiff arm shown at the beginning, we had the ball down to the 1 (I know, embarrassing to get caught at the 1). After one offensive play we were up 6-0 with the extra point to come. Now, it might seem trivial to talk about extra points, but while Italians are good athletes and can play some football, some of the finer points (such as special teams play) are often overlooked oversees. Having said that, we obviously missed our extra point attempt. After some good kick coverage by the Elephants, the Seamen were ready to start their first drive. After a few run plays and a short past for a first down, The Seamen tried to stretch the field with a deep corner to their American receiver on the weak side, but didn’t anticipate #2 to come from the strong side and undercut the pass for the 1^st INT of the game. We failed to capitalize on the TO, and after a decent punt by yours truly, the Seamen were back on O. A few plays later, the Seamen fired back with a long pass for a TD, 7-6 Seamen. The Elephant’s offense roared back to life and drove down for a TD and capitalized on the extra point thanks to kicker/RB extraordinaire Nate “Pistolero” Kmic, 13-7 Elephants. After the kickoff and a few negative plays, the Seamen were facing a 3^rd and long. Because of the obvious passing down, we sent a blitz that rattled the American QB and he ended up floating a pass over his slot receiver and right into my arms. We were able to drive all the way down to the 10yd line, but failed to punch it in and turned the ball over on downs. Once they got the ball back, the Seamen started chunking it all over the field, and were having success, until #2 undercut a pass to the TE on a post. More redzone blues for the Elephants as we drove all the way to the 12 and then threw a pick in the back of the endzone. The Seamen finally got back on track and drove down the field quickly, mostly through the air to their American on the outside, for a score. Seeing a weakness in their field goal unit, I shot through the left B gap and blocked the EP, only to have it bounce right to their wing, who picked it up and ran it in for a 2pt conversion… joke to me. A short 3 plays later, the Seamen intercepted an out route and returned the ball down to our 10. 2 plays produced nothing, until they hit their receiver on a wheel route in the corner of the endzone , just over the outstretched hands of the Pistolero. EP good, 22-13 Seamen at half.

       We made some timely adjustments at halftime on both sides of the ball and came out firing on all cylinders in the 2^nd half. After a quick 3 and out, our offense had the ball back and marched right down the field for a quick score. The next 2 drives played out almost identically and before they knew what hit them, we had gone up 44-22 thanks to some good D and American QB Eric Marty finding his rhythm. From there on out it was a defenseless game as neither team could have stopped a runaway train even if they had Denzel Washington and that other guy from the new Star Trek movie on their team. The offense, led by Marty and clock killin’ Kmic salted away the game and The Elephants held on for a 51-35 win to start the 2012 IFL season.  I ended up with 10 Tacs , 1 TFL, 3 INTs, 1 blocked kick, 2 rec for 25 yards, and a really sore body. All in all, not a bad way to start a career over here in Italy on concrete ‘turf’. This week we play the Ancona Dolphins in our home opener on Sunday.  They are a spread team that like to throw about 50 times a game so I should have plenty of opporunities for more pics, or some big hits.

Defense lining up to stop the seamen

They are 100% serious with this banner...



The soreness of playing on concrete has set in… Eric is a QB though so he doesn’t have to worry about things like being tired, or sore. He just throws a football around and smiles like an idiot

Special thanks to my wife and the Elephants #1 fan, Amberly Lake, for literally being our only fan on our side of the stands and cheering us on while taking these awesome pics you see. She was keeling it.

Also, this blogging was done from the living room of our apartment now the we finally have internet. So expect alot more frequency in the posts and some great pics/stories of our travels this week with Sands and Lauren.

Ciao tutti,

JL