When we woke up this morning it was pouring down rain in Turku. Good thing the game was in Pori, the city known as the "Sity of the Sun." The field was only damp, so the weather didn't play a factor at all; it was about 70 degrees the whole game. It rained on our way home though.
Pori was 2-6 coming into this game and in second last place. However, they were coming off a win against the last place Wolverines. The field was decent and in good shape, but there was no scoreboard so we didn't know how much time was left or the score unless we asked the official.
Before I talk about the game let me tell you who were were missing. We ended up with only 18 players total dressed in pads. We were missing WRs, Juha (honeymoon), Satola (injury), Mike (resting), and Otto (injury). Three of our running backs Timi (who knows), Thomas (vacation), Teemu (injury). One of our offensive lineman Juha (resting). Then on defense our cornerback, Rio (injury), Seikko (Army), Pauli (who knows). Linebackers, Ilja (Russian national team), and Arttu (went to junior college in California). Defensive lineman, Mika (injury). Satola normally kicks but I already mentioned that he was out with an injury and our other kicker, Disco (its a nickname) is in the army with Seikko. (In Finland, every boy has to go into the army for 6 months to a year around the age of 19.) Also, both of our offensive coordinators were not there, which left me and Haula to call the offensive plays.
So we were pretty thin throughout our lineup. On defense we started all the normal players who were left then we had to stick a guy who plays running back for our junior team at outside linebacker, Pemi one of our wide receivers played cornerback, and I played free safety. Yes, I played free safety the entire game. Makes you wanna read on doesn' it.......
The offense was pretty much the same because we have more offensive guys that are subs. Jari played the whole game at running back and Kappe stepped up and played the whole game at wideout.
There is not much of a game story to go with it, because we scored on everyone of our drives except for one. At halftime the score was 46-6. We scored on a mixture of running and passing plays. The defensive backs were playing way off all day, so we could've thrown underneath every play if we wanted to. We could also run the ball without a problem as well. Jari would get between 5 and 15 yards on every run.
The first half felt like it took forever; partly because the score was 46-6, and partly because I was playing both ways. We scored on every drive in the second half and that seemed to go a lot quicker than the first half. I'm not sure about game stats because they will post them anywhere from 3 days later to a week later. I do know that we had 300 yards passing and 220 yards rushing. Klaus was the leading receiver. That is all I was able to find out, so I will post the stats when they are posted on the conference website.
Now to some defensive stories throughout the game. Before the game, I was talking with one of our corners JP and I flat out told him I was going to have more interceptions than he was in the game, because I was playing free safety. He said that there was no way I could make more than he could. So we made a friendly bet on who could get more interceptions between us two.
In the first quarter, Pori was passing the ball on every down because they couldn't run at all against our defensive. One of their wide receivers had 7 touchdowns in the previous games against the Wolverines. Their American QB tried to throw it to the receiver and he would have been open except for big number 31 Scott Power was standing in the way. So Scott gets his first interception of the season and the first interception for our team in the game. Scott had a rushing TD and several crowd ohh-ing hits.
In the second quarter, on some random play I was sure the QB was going to throw it to the right so I started moving in that direction, then he stopped and fired the other way. Right when I turned, I saw JP step in front of a curl and made the interception. I thought 'what are the odds that on this game we make this bet that he would get an interception'. I think he only had one the whole season up to that point. He has flat out dropped two others in previous games. Not only did he intercept it but he took it to the house for a TD. So now I'm down one.
Later in the second quarter, they are throwing again and we are disguising our coverages. That means we will show them that we are going to play one thing and then at the last second switch to a different defense. Well I don't know if this messed the QB up or not, but he dropped back and tried to hit a deep post over the middle. As the ball is in the air I think "this is way over his head AND ITS COMING RIGHT TO ME!!!" So I obviously make the interception and start to run it back the other way. When I see that there is no way that I can score a TD, I pitched it to Pemi to see if he could make something happen. He got tackled a few yards later.... So now JP and I are tied with one apiece.
The next drive for the Bears is around the same spot on the field they run a slightly different play. This time the slot receiver runs right up the hash mark. The QB fires it, and I got my radar lock on it and I know I can get to this one. I'm going right for it and get ready to catch it. I put my hands up on the left side of my body and about 3 ft. in front of my hands the wide receiver gets no more that a fingernail on the ball and it deflects the ball from my left shoulder (where my hands are) to my right shoulder where my hands aren't. So it hits off my shoulder pads and up into the air. Mikko said he almost had it on the tip. But I was so mad because I had that and it was only 2 or 3 ft. from my second interception and the receiver tipped it. So if you were at the game and you thought I flat out dropped it, I didn't drop the interception, it got tipped and deflected!!!!
At halftime, JP told me that he gets one and a half interceptions because he scored a TD on his. I let him have it because I knew I was going to get another one in the second half.
In the second half, there was another interception thrown but Pemi got it. So our team had 4 interceptions in the game. JP claims he won the bet because he took his to the house, but in reality we tied with one each. When we made the friendly bet I had not the slightest clue that we were going to get any at all. Its funny the way some things work out.
Final Score: Trojans 71 Bears 12.
I'll post the stats and pictures when they are up on the websites.... but you can now check out last week stats in our tight game against the Crocodiles.
Game pictures