CEMENTED!
1/7/03

Cement Shoes deny L.C.W. and Leland a championship in his final game with a heartstopping 14-6 win in the title game.

As perfect a championship game match-up as you could ask for. L.C.W. and Cement ended the regular season against each other with a tie, and would end the entire season against each other with a chance to resolve unfinished business.

It was a match-up of 8-1-1 (Cement) against 8-2-1 (LCW). Cement was the hottest team in the league, with six wins and a tie in the last seven games, and L.C.W. was the most dominant team in the playoffs, winning by a combined 87-6 in their three games.

This would also be the last game in competition for L.C.W. captain, and CSA President, Leland Dombrowsky.

The game can be summarized quite simply. In a proverbial sense, the last man standing would win the game.

Neither team dominated any aspect of the game. And it really came down to some key moments.

On the opening drive, Cement was able to move the ball in little chunks, but when they tried to go vertical, they played right into the strength of L.C.W.'s big play defense. An ill advised pass by Cement QB Mike Veronesi turned out to be the best thing that could happen for them. Val Ned made a great play for L.C.W. and intercepted the ball just a step short of the goalline, but natural instinct led Val into the endzone, where, one step in, he took a knee. The only problem was that he had established possession on the one yard line, and this was a safety.

This gave Cement renewed life. They had a 2-0 lead, and the ball. They took full advantage. Abandoning any hopes of competing with the L.C.W. defense with deep passes, they took what they could get and marched the field. Veronesi connected several times with Lisa Kiley and they had goal to go from the ten yard line. This time Mike found Darren Ross in the flat at about the six. Darren ran hard and got to the endzone for an important early touchdown.

After failing on the conversion attempt, the L.C.W. offense finally took the field trailing 8-0.

The rest of the half was uneventful. L.C.W. had two possessions that were unable to score any points, and Cement Shoes was also unable to make anything happen when they had the ball. The first half ended with Cement Shoes leading by eight.

L.C.W. did show up in the second half. After some inconsequential back and forth, L.C.W. took over with about eight minutes left in the game, Todd Walker hooked up with Ned on long pass in the endzone. The 36 yard touchdown catch had put L.C.W. right back in the game. If L.C.W. could convert the two point try, it would be a brand new game. On the play, Walker was able to buy time and tried to hit Matt Bean in the back of the endzone, but he was out of bounds and the conversion failed.

Cement took over with five minutes remaining and an 8-6 lead. They were able to move the field on passes to Kiley, and when L.C.W. busted a coverage, they were able to move the ball down to the 8 yard line with two minutes left in the game. A disputed call kept the game clock running, and a foolish unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave Cement another first down play. On the next play, Veronesi was able to run the ball in for a touchdown, and any life left in the L.C.W. season would come down to one crucial extra point.

On the try, L.C.W. caught a break when the runner for Cement was ruled down short of the goal line. Trailing by eight points with a little over a minute remaining, L.C.W. would need a miracle.

The same group that 10 months earlier shocked all of CSA by winning a championship after a winless regular season, and by winning three straight playoff games that came down to the very last play, didn't have enough juice left. With the ball at midfield and five seconds left, Walker's hail mary fell harmlessly to the ground and Cement Shoes was crowned the first CSA champion of 2003 with their 2002 Fall League title.