Saturday, November 07, 2009

Greenwich/New Canaan Postmortem

Once upon a time, I compiled my top 10 football games that I broadcast - Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

I may need to update that because I called an instant classic last night.

Sean Patrick Bowley has a great blog post up about the game.

Over at the FCIAC Football Blog, Jason Intrieri, Tim Parry, Matt Levine, and yours truly discussed the game.

Dave Stewart gives his account at the NCAdvertiser.

Jesse Quinlan has his say at the Greenwich Time.

As for me, we had a power outage in the booth, and thanks to my entire crew for keeping their heads on straight as we worked through a long night. The analysis of Sean Kilkelly, Chris Erway, Nick Fox, and Chris Kaelin was spot-on all night. Rob Crowley did a nice job of keeping it all on the air. Then there was that penalty...

It sounds like - based on the accounts that I've heard - Greenwich lost their collective composure late in the game. That's very bad, especially since it seemed like the game was heading towards a crazy finish (after the craziness of the two-point conversion by New Canaan). If the personal foul penalty was legit, then so be it. I'm going to have to assume, based on things that I've heard from those closer to the play, that the unsportsmanlike penalty was also blatant and legit. Still I'm of the opinion that those in the striped shirts should not play a role in the late moments of a tightly contested game, just as I railed about that on the air during last week's Brunswick/Salisbury tilt.

For those in the stands and on the air, how could you not want that heart-stopping moment of a final play - be it a possible Greenwich TD, or Oliver Ostrowski, trotting on to kick a winning field goal?

Anyway, I'd have to say the better team won - but barely. New Canaan is beatable, and Greenwich could have beaten them, but they didn't. With that, the Cardinals season now hangs in the balance. They get St. Joe's next Friday night at Cardinal Stadium.

2 comments:

Tim Parry said...

I'm sure this was posted before SPB's video went up (I didn't check the time stamp). But based on the video evidence, Ferrara appeared to hit the New Canaan defender with a stiff arm when they were both out of bounds. Did he know he was out of bounds though?

And it appears Cavinio said something to warrant the second flag, but I'm basing that on body language since the audience isn't that clear. Now if the referee instead threw the flag because of what the Greenwich crowd chanted in unison, then that was wrong (and a case where two wrongs don't make a rights.

But you're right about composure, and championship teams at any level need to keep their heads on straight. It takes a lot for me to say that, too, because I once took on the entire Mott's softball team during a game in Stamford :)

Rob Adams said...

I saw the video, and the personal foul appears legit, though perhaps a little ticky-tack. The officials have to stop being so sensitive in big spots with the unsportsmanlike. It better have been blatant - that's all I'm saying.