VIVIO’S, WARDOGS SQUEAK THROUGH

Boasters League Quarter Finals ~~

It’s funny that as soon as the finals are upon us, players suddenly have a clear agenda and the ability to turn up at their scheduled time to play their match and earn their bonus point. The “Wardogs” are a perfect example. They barely hung on to sixth place on the standings to reach the play-offs in the first instance, and the most bonus points they picked up during the season on any one round was 7. But for the quarter finals, 10 of their players managed the trip downtown. I mean, that’s good, but I wish the same level of commitment was demonstrated in the previous 9 weeks. “Mongoose” and “Vivio’s” also earned more bonus points on Wednesday than any other round.

Turning up certainly helped the “Wardogs” but was it enough to get them to the semi finals? Their opponents, “Mercedes”, also picked up 10 bonus points which made the squash results the all important difference. And it was close. These two teams happened to play each other just 1 week prior in week 9, with “Mercedes” dictating the proceedings easily winning 19-9. But only 5 matches were played that day. And only two of those matches ended up with the same result this week: Tom MacEachern’s (“Mercedes”) 3-0 win over Nick Petcoff (“Wardogs”) and Ted Morris’ (“Mercedes”) 2-1 victory over Blake Kenny (“Wardogs”). One match was reversed – Glen Milligan (“Wardogs”) beat Julie Henry-Kelly (“Mercedes”) 2-1 – and the other 2 went from 2-1 wins last week to 3-0 whitewashes this week. Five additional results were completed for the finals. The first four results canceled each other out. Each team won 2 matches with a 2-1 score line which left the 5^th match with all the pressure piled onto it. Captain Patrick Petz (“Mercedes”) versus Paul Van Tol (“Wardogs”). “Mercedes” at this point held onto a 2 point overall lead. All Patrick needed was one point to seal the team victory. A 3-0 loss would eliminate them. Patrick knew the equation which may have been a disadvantage because that certainly can add to the burden and anxiety. Regrettably for Patrick, Paul Van Tol was a step too quick and probably whipped in a short little boast too many to take the 3-0 win and in doing so edging out “Mercedes” from contention 24-23.

The second quarter final had “Vivio’s” versus “Mongoose”. Twelve of thirteen matches were completed here and the result was closer than most players would have thought. That’s because once the matches on Wednesday were completed, “Vivio’s” had a 9 point lead with 3 results yet to be done. Everyone thought it was all but over. However, 2 more matches were played on Thursday and “Mongoose” won them both 3-0 to close the gap to 3 points. Now, the final match wasn’t played but (hypothetically) if “Mongoose” had won that 3-0 as well to tie the scores, they would have advanced to the semis on bonus points. Makes you think… However, the no result secured the victory for “Vivio’s” 29-26. Notable victories for the winning team: Joe Schaden 2-1 over Joe Moran reversing the round 6 result when these 2 played each other; Jay Poplawski 2-1 winner over Bruce VandeVusse; Brian Schrage taking 2 out of 3 from Joey Gaylord; and Brien Baker holding off Jim Stroh for his 2-1 victory.

So the 5^th and 6^th seeded teams get through to play the top two teams from the standings next week. Patrick Petz has been sent packing, so the war of words will no doubt start between Captain Justin Winkelman of “Winky-Dinks” and Sante Fratarcangeli of “Butter Nutz”. For the record, “Winky-Dinks” beat “Vivio’s” 25-21 in round 8 and “Butter Nutz” beat “Wardogs” 25-23 back in round 4.