“FAVORITES” MOVE ON

Boasters League Quarter Finals~~

Not a bad night for participation, but not fantastic either. It can be a tough time of year as we unravel ourselves from the death grip of winter and vacations start popping up on calendars. Not too many people would arrange their week under the sun in the Caribbean around a boasters league match, and adding on some ill-timed injuries, between the 4 teams that played yesterday, four subs were requested. In reality, we could have used a couple more but a little communication breakdown left a couple of players hanging… Simply, if you can’t make the deadline for your match you need to let someone know!

Luckily for the offending teams, they got through unscathed. But it is certainly not a tactic that will get you very far. Playing the match early is a smart way to go and we did have 9 matches completed before the Wednesday. Here is how the quarter finals ended up:

Winky-Dinks v Mongoose

Mongoose Captain Paul Huth and Boo-Yah!

These two teams played each other in round 2 of the season and back then and with 14 of the 17 matches played, it was the Winky-Dinks edging out the win by 6 points. This time, 15 of the 17 matches were completed. As far as bonus points go, Winky-Dinks picked up two more than Mongoose with 14.

A few of the results repeated themselves from earlier in the year. Vikram Chopra, Adam Longo and David DeCew (Winky-Dinks) duplicated their 3-0 results, Bob Rogers copied his 2-1 score, and for Mongoose it was Dewey "Boo-Yah!" Steffen again taking all 3 games off Steve Boloven. But that is where the similarities ended.

A couple of the Winky-Dinks improved on their 3-0 losses by picking up a game, which when the teams are playing head-to-head such as we are in finals, is really a 2 point turnaround. And then there were the reversals…

For Winky-Dinks, John Mann avenged a 2-1 loss to Andy Housey to take the match 2-1, but the bigger one came from Tom Pierce. Tom lost back in round 2 to Tad Lippincott 3-0 and managed to redeem himself by beating Tad 2-1 this time. However, Mongoose had a couple of turnarounds of their own as well. Manny Tancer took down Blake Ellis this time 2-1 after going down by that same score line in their original encounter and Jeff Jardine did exactly the same thing as Manny to his opponent, James Stuntz.

Overall 10 of the matches ended up with a 2-1 score line, Winky-Dinks fell on the positive side of them 6 times. Taking into consideration the 2 extra bonus points, Mongoose’s deficit grew too much to handle. Winky-Dinks move on to the semifinals with a 39-32 victory.

Fire Birds v Space Geckos

I predicted this one to be a lot closer than the round 3 result where the Fire Birds routed the Space Geckos by 17 points. For a change, I was right! The Space Geckos had it tough from the get-go since they required 2 subs for the evening and subs do not get the bonus points. Plus, both of them lost. Consider also that they picked up 2 less bonus points anyway than the Fire Birds, and suddenly being within 17 points doesn’t sound all that bad…

The Fire Birds also required a sub for the evening (who also lost 3-0) so that did ease the pain a little. Of the 14 matches completed, only 3 results repeated themselves. Which is why you play the game, right?

Getting payback for their losses earlier in the season on the Space Geckos was Cathy Lysack who reversed her 2-1 result against John Perkins and Shane Henry squeaking out a 2-1 victory over Ashley Thibodeau who took care of business 3-0 back in round 3.

The Fire Birds had two of their own as well. Adam Pabarcus willed himself to a 2-1 win over Eric Scheible, avenging the 1-2 loss from before, and Anthony Kalorgeridis followed suit against Glen Milligan, also flipping the 2-1 loss into a win.

The Space Geckos put up a decent fight and kept themselves within reach for most of the evening. It would have been nice to see all 17 matches played (of course!) because they were never mathematically out of it. But, you have to play to score points… Not taking anything away from the Fire Birds, they were the stronger team on the day – even it was by just a small margin – and can move into the semifinals with their 37-29 triumph.

Looking forward to next week, we have Winky-Dinks versus Butter Nutz. Back in round 7, Butter Nutz pounded the Winky-Dinks 41-26. I doubt we’ll see the same blow-out next week, this should be a lot tighter.

In the other semi, the Fire Birds take on the Wardogs. Going by the end of season standings, the Wardogs should head into this contest as favorites and when these two teams played each other in round 4, the 41-30 score line also justifies that. Can the Fire Birds turn it around? They will have to be at their best.