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Welcome to this week’s segment of the Sentinel! There was plenty to watch this week and I want to get right into all the spectacular moments I was able to witness. Unfortunately, I also witnessed and heard about numerous injuries throughout the day. I’m hopeful none of them were season-ending in this last stretch to the playoffs. Most of them didn’t seem to be too serious so I’m hoping to see everyone back on their feet soon. Be careful out there people!

The first spotlight today is shining on Q from Why So Serious? I haven’t seen much of her before but she made her presence known this past week with a huge performance on offense. WWS seems to be changing up the QBs fairly regularly this season but whoever it was this past week may be a keeper. He demonstrated he can sling it the length of the field and is not afraid to spread the ball around to all his receivers. Q’s targets were generally always contested and on stride yet I did not see one drop all game. Add to that her height and this definitely qualifies as a female threat most teams probably haven’t heard of…yet. WSS started the day off with an upset win over Eyes Downtown (yes, I know ED was missing Bobby, but who cares? WSS earned this win).

The Bambs and Blitzkrieg had a couple stand out players this week in their match up at 9am. Bamb’s QB played well enough with the rock in his hand but at one point I saw him make a diving catch while rotating sideways through the air. The Catch of the Day in my opinion and even more impressive that it was brought to us by a QB. Fast forward later in the game and he had a pick 6 on defense to further pad his stats. Not to be outdone, the guy in the ADIDAS shirt also returned a conversion, leading to a Bambs victory, 38-24. Blitzkrieg had some bad luck with the loss of their QB at the end of the first half. It looked like he tried to make a come back but his body told him otherwise. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Allie was on fire during this game though and kept Blitzkrieg in it. She caught two touchdowns for her team and the guy with the blue and white hat returned a conversion. Regrettably for them, it was not enough to overcome.

The Tater Tots brought in Mark B for the first match up in their double header versus TMA. These two teams have some history so the pressure was on for Mark when he got the call. He was able to rise to the occasion and led the Tots to a narrow 15-14 victory. TMA rallied later in the day when they faced them again. The Tots had their QB back as well as Nick Angelo. TMA has some key drops and miscues between Ryan and his receivers. Of course, after I hype him up last week, Nick Smith does not play this week. Too much pressure for a repeat performance is my guess. Round 2 of the double header was another tight defensive battle, this one ending in a 12-12 tie. Ya hate to see it.

Marketing Mayors had a bad case of the dropsies in their game against Tight Ends in Motion. I counted at least 3 drops including the would-have-been-game-winner in the end zone. I don’t know how fragile Mark Dalfonzo’s #3 spot on the Power Rankings s, but I wanted to at least give him some back up that their early morning loss was not entirely on him. They were also missing players and brought in Eric Stegs to help fill in the ranks. TEIM lost QB Alex and brought in Bro to throw for them. Bro was a solid replacement and led his team to a 29-28 victory.

All We Do Is Quinn lost to Vaspian. You read that right, take a second and let it sink in. AWDIQ, who have beat Frodo Swaggins, Grey Hair Don’t Care, D4 powerhouse Buffalo Solar Solutions, lost to a then 1-4 Vaspian. What happened, you ask? Well Vince Taverna was not throwing them the ball. In his absence, Joe Schwab stepped in as QB but did not have the field awareness we see with Vince. Vaspian shut out, yes shut out, AWDIQ at the half. Drew and Co must have been firing on all cylinders to pull this one off. Rawdog gave it his all and tried to light a fire under his team but it was too little, too late and they were not able to overcome the deficit they got themselves into. Kasey was also placed on IR during the game in yet another early morning injury caused by a freak misstep. We hope it was nothing too serious and to be seeing her back in action soon.

Last but not least was the game of the day. I honestly meant to get over to the Interdimensional Lightning Falcons/Pteratacos game but I was captivated by the match up between Slytherin That Endzone and Peachy Platoon. Last year, if you asked my opinion on this game I would say PP in a landslide. But how different things may look in just a year. Slytherin started off hot but has since cooled off a bit in recent weeks. PP is always a crowd favorite but has experienced serious attendance issues all season. So these two coming together for the 4:00 game on a brisk Saturday afternoon didn’t seem like it would be anything more or less than expected. Wrong! This game was back and forth action. Dean Thompson was back to throw for PP and Slytherin had everyone except Taylor Pagano (I would have loved to see how this game played out with her there). It was an offensive shoot out. Neither Newman nor Dean were afraid to go deep and they did it early and often. Both teams spread the ball around to all their receivers. It came down to the last minute when Slytherin scored the go ahead TD with 28 seconds left. PP had the ball and should have scored on the first play but it was dropped (several cases of the dropsies were seen in this game). Not to worry though because Dean came back to the same play and it was successful the next time. Now there is 6 seconds left. Matt Newman was in familiar territory. Flashback to the 3:00 game just prior when Slytherin and Sticky Bandits went at it. It came down to a final Hail Mary but Newman didn’t have the distance to let his receivers make a play. He was not going to repeat that fate. Newman launched the ball in a high arch perfectly in the endzone where it made it through the hands of 3 Peachy defenders and into the chest of a Slytherin receiver for the win. I believe it was Dawson who made the catch but I could be wrong. Frankly I was too caught up in the hype. Slytherin came away with the win 48-42 and proved to the world they are still very much a D2 playoff contender.

I did get wind of a couple possible wagers in the coming weeks. There was talk of a Cole/Boccio versus Blasé/Kieta 2 on 2 drill; three downs to score from your own 5 yard line. A bar tab may be on the line. Sounds like great entertainment boys and in lieu of Costume Bowl this year, I am all for it. Sticky Bandits and the Dilfs had some chattering going on in the Telegram app regarding their upcoming rematch. It looks like this one is a go with the winners getting some fries, shots and a bucket. For those of you new to the league, this used to happen all the time and should be brought back.

That’s all for this week. Next week is pretty much all match up games so make sure you check the website for your game times (looking at you Mark). It’s your last week to get any kinks out before the playoffs and it’s supposed to be a beautiful day. Make sure you warm up and stretch properly. I don’t want to hear at the end of October that “we would have won it but {fill in injury excuse}.” This week should be a glimpse into what the finals will look like in some divisions but we all know that any given Saturday anything can happen. Remember, I’ll be watching…