October, 2009

NY Jets NFL Flag Regional Qualifier

The 9-11 all-star team from the NSFFL reaches semi-finals!!!

Last weekend the NSFFL 9-11 all-star team traveled to the New York Jets regional qualifier held at the magnificent NY Jets practice facility in Florham park, NJ. The team put together with players from Peabody, Lynn and Salem were coached by long time coach Batista (Peabody Steelers) and went to NJ with high expectations and the chance to move on to the Nationals held in 2010 in conjunction with the Pro Bowl in Florida.

50 teams entered the tournament put on by the NFL but only 3 teams would advance to the Nationals, this year the 9-11 co-ed JF flag Bears from Indiana, the 12-14 girls North Penn Eagles from PA and the 12-14 boys DAC Panthers from Queens, NY (heading to their 5th national championship) all won their division and now move on to the Nationals all expenses paid for the team and coach courtesy of the NFL.

There were 7 groups of 4 teams in the 9-11 co-ed division with teams from all over MA, NY, NJ, CT, NH and as far away as IA. The NSFFL all-stars were placed in group 1D and played their first game against the Evesham township of NJ, the all-stars started of fast as they scored on the first play of the game with a run by Spencer Persson (Peabody), on the following defensive series Devonn Allen (Peabody) intercepted the ball and ran it back for the TD. The All-stars won the game 28-0 with 2 more TD's from Allen and extra points converted by Johnny Mercado (Lynn).

The second game was against the Millis Vikings of Millis, MA and again the team looked impressive even to the point of attracting attention from other teams. In the game Persson scored his second TD of the tournament and Allen recorded his 4th TD as Alex Gomes (Peabody) passed for 2 more TD's to Jake Gustin (Peabody) and Tristan Bradley (Salem). The all-stars gave up a late TD but came away with the victory 34-6.

In the third and final group game and after a 2 hour wait in between the All-stars faced the Broncos of Montville, NJ. Only the top teams from each group advance to the play-offs and both teams were undefeated at 2-0. The all-stars found themselves down for the first time as the Broncos put together some nice runs and scored early. In the second half the Broncos scored again to lead the NSFFL all-stars 12-0 and with only 10 minute halves

there was not much time to catch up, but the All-stars leaned on their best player as Allen ran the ball the length of the field to put the score within reach at 12-6. With time running out and the Broncos driving Gustin came up big as he intercepted the Broncos pass on the all-stars own 5 yrd line. Two plays later Gomes hooked up with Bradley on a post pattern that Bradley took the distance to tie the game and with less than 1 min left Allen converted the extra point to give the All-stars the lead and the victory 13-12.

After all the round robin games the NSFFL all-stars were seeded 7th out of 7 as every team was undefeated and the all-stars let up the most points (18) in the first three games, which lead to a match up against Rams of NJ. The All-stars were not deterred by their rankings as they came out firing and put up 35 points to mercy rule the Rams just after half time. During the game Allen scored his 6th TD and 5th conversion of the tournament followed by Persson scoring his 3rd TD, Gomes tossed his 8th TD in total and MVP for the game was Mercado with 2 interceptions, 3 TD's and 1 extra point.
 

In the Semi-final the All-stars came up against the Red Storm of NH, who won the Buffalo regional last year and finished the #1 seed this year as they did not let up 1 TD all tournament. The Red Storm scored first and were quickly up 14-0 at the half, Allen scored

his team high 7th TD of the tournament to bring it closer but it was not enough as the Red Storm won 21-6 to head to the Championship game.

The tournament was a great event and the kids, parents and coaches all had a fantastic time. The league is sending the 12-14 boys and 12-14 girls all-stars to the Baltimore regional qualifier on November 8th, so watch this space for more updates.

Congratulations to the 9-11 All-stars for their success and good luck to the 12-14 teams in Baltimore.

Austin Bradshaw
League President
www.northshoreflagfootball.com