The 2003 CSA SportsFest series presents:

"TMP3"
CO-ED FLAG FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT
April 25 & 27, 2003

the games

The Melting Pot series has established a tradition for balanced tournaments. The third installment was no different. Postponed by one day because of poor field conditions after a freak hail storm, TMP3 was played on Sunday, instead of Saturday.

Just like the first two events, TMP3 crowned an undefeated champion. Because I didn't get to witness all the games, an in depth report of each game is not possible or fair.

After the one day postponement, we were forced to disband one team (Brett Barash's) and disperse the players to the remaining five teams. Brett, Randee Koeppel, and Joel Black went to Tuan Nguyen's team, Napoleon Complex. Corny De Las Alas, Krista Adams, and Jody Watson went to Kiley Taylor's team, The Walker's Get All The Calls. Stacy Gantt and Shawn Purdy went to Kourtney Cotton's team, We Tied Jake.

Both Amber Pereles' team, There's No INT in Team, and Sheilah Camcam's team, We Only Get Most of the Calls, received no players off the disbanded roster.

The first games matched up Kiley and Kourtney, and Sheilah and Tuan. In a very even match, Kourtney's team managed a touchdown with 17 seconds left in the game to tie the score. The conversion attempt failed and the two teams made Melting Pot history with the first ever tie, 6-6. On the other field, Tuan's team was starting their championship run. They set the high mark for the day with points scored by putting 19 on the board in a 19-7 win.

In game 2, Amber's team finally took the field, at least they claimed too. They took on Tuan's team and with Tuan's squad already leading 7-0, Adam Klein intercepted a pass on a closed play, lateraled to Cliff Chestnutt, and the eventual tournament MVP outran Leland to the endzone for a touchdown. At the half the score was 15-0. In the second half, Leland got a bit of redemption when he took a curl pass 15 yards for a touchdown. The two point conversion was good, but a late interception prevented a comeback. On the other field, in a game marred by controversy, Sheilah's team got a late touchdown to knock off Kiley's crew, 13-7. The loss for Kiley, coupled with the win by Tuan, knocked out Kiley's championship hopes.

Game three would determine who would take on Napoleon Complex for the championship. On field 1, it was a match-up of eliminated teams, with Amber facing Kiley. Amber's team took an early 8-0 lead when QB Joe Fassler hit Britney Rodgers with a pitch and she took it five yards for the score. On the two point conversion, Fassler found Leland in the back of the end zone on a bullet pass. Down early, Kiley's team would dominate the rest of the game. They scored a touchdown on the final play of the first half, and added an early score in the second half after an interception. Kiley's group held on to win 14-8 and finish the day at 1-1-1. The loss left Amber's team winless, at 0-2, and also done for the day.

The other game would decide who would play for the title. And all the relevant action happened on two consecutive plays. After a scoreless first half, Sheilah's team took the lead over Kourtney's team when Mike Cook caught a deflected pass and took it the distance. The extra point attempt failed, and Sheilah had a 6-0 lead. On the very next play, Rob Wilson found Darren Ross streaking down the sideline and hit him for a 70 yard touchdown to tie the game. The conversion was good for Kourtney's team, and they held on to win 7-6 and advance to the title game.

The championship game featured Tuan's Napoleon Complex at 2-0 versus Kourtney's We Tied Jake at 1-0-1. It would be one game, winner take all. The game did have some intrigue. Kristin Tench, Darren Ross, and Stacy Gantt were appearing in their third straight Melting Pot championship game. And with those three and Cliff Chestnutt in the game, someone was going to become the first two time TMP winner

The tone was set on the first play. Two TMP records were set when QB for Napoleon Complex, Brett Barash, hit Phung Nguyen on the first play of the game for a 70 yard touchdown. The touchdown set the TMP record for quickest score and tied the record for longest scoring play. The extra point failed, but the tone was set.

On the next possession, Napoleon Complex picked off a Rob Wilson pass, and on the ensuing drive, Barash ran the ball in from the one yard line to give Napoleon a 12-0 lead. That was the halftime score. We Tied Jake still had a chance, they opened the second half with the ball, but on the second play, Wilson was intercepted by MVP Chestnutt and Cliff returned the pick 10 yards for the game sealing touchdown. Now up 18-0, it was just a matter of running the clock off until mercy time came. When the clock hit two minutes remaining, Napoleon Complex was the only team remaining, the TMP3 champions.

The weather all weekend affected the tournament, the rain on Friday caused the postponement on Saturday, and the heat on Sunday slowed play down considerably.

Even with the day change, 53 players participated, and 17 of those players were playing their first Melting Pot. We did for the first time name the TMP All-Injury team, with Cliff Chestnutt, who played with a broken finger, Beth Bennett, who broke her ankle, but continued to play after the injury, Brian Schlossberg, who got cleated on the ankle by a teammate midway through game 1, and Corny De Las Alas, who was cut above his right eye near the end of game one, but played the remaining two games, and then got seven stitches to close the wound.

CLICK HERE FOR A PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE - KILEY TAYLOR'S RECAP