Friday night at McCaskey for week #5 of football season. League play began on the 16th and with seven teams in the division this was JPM's bye week, the club hosted Plymouth-Whitemarsh for a non-league game. "P-Dub" (as I was told they call themselves) is from Plymouth Meeting, a northwestern suburb of Philadelphia not far outside the city limits. This was Military Appreciation Night, the Red Tornado wore camouflage-inspired jerseys and a local veterans color guard presented The National Colors in the pregame. Regrettably from there it was all downhill in a big hurry, P-Dub led 24-0 after one quarter and 46-0 at halftime. The entire second half was played under the mercy rule, there was no further scoring because there really wasn't any need. After a 30-24 opening-week win JPM has lost four straight by a total score of 182-28 including two shutouts (both at home), overall they've been outscored by a game average of 41-12. It's frustrating all the way around because the coaches are doing their jobs and the player effort is there, it just seems that the club always makes the crucial mistakes at the most inopportune times and that will just about always spell L-O-S-S. The team plays its next two on the road, they come home on October 14. Saturday was a quiet day except for lunch with Jenny, on Sunday we planned on hockey in Rothsville but the weather had other ideas. There was rain forecast for later in the afternoon but Mother Nature decided to do a #1 in the morning forcing us to postpone for the second time in three weeks. The better news came in late afternoon in Waldorf, Maryland where the Barnstormers won the deciding game of the North Division Championship Series. After losing game #3 on Friday the Stormers rebounded in a big way with a 15-5 win on Saturday, in the Sunday decider they never trailed in a 10-2 series-clincher. The club meets the High Point Rockers (an upset winner over Gastonia in the South Championship) in the League Championship, the first two game are in North Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday before coming north for the duration on the 30th. Take care, thanks for reading.
