FBF
"The Melting Pot, Finally"
4on4 FAST BREAK CO-ED FLAG FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

Saturday - March 27, 2004

the recap

The Melting Pot finally returned after nearly one year. Exactly 11 months after TMP3, CSA brought back the once popular tournament with a new format and a new attitude.

The new event was the FBF, a four on four co-ed flag football tournament with fast break rules. Teams had six players on the roster and four on the field. A shortened field (50 yards long, 24 yards wide) put an emphasis on strategy and a 15 second play clock demanded teams to put out all the energy they had.

After it was all over, the new format was considered a rousing success. Five teams persevered through the unseasonably warm March day and made this experimental event another positive for the CSA SportsFest series.

On the field each team played four games and the top two teams met for the championship. Every team faced every other team at least once and scoring was at an all-time high.

Shady's Squad, captained by tournament MVP Joe Fassler, was clearly the dominant team. They won all five games they played en route to the first FBF championship. They put up nearly 200 points (197 to be exact) in five games, mainly due to the play of the three women on the roster. All three women were named to the FBF all-tournament team. Kourtney Cotton and Jill Contarino got first team honors and Lisa Kiley was named to the second team. They were joined by Fassler (on the first team) and Bert Bondi, whose standout defensive play got him placed on the second team.

Shady's Squad was rolling almost from the get go. They started the day against Otis Snapped!, who had six veteran CSA players. At the end of the first half it was 18-15 in favor of Shady. Then in the second half, they started overmatching opponents and it continued the rest of the day. A 20 point second half gave them a 38-15 win to start out 1-0. They followed that with a 33-6 win over the Misfits and a 49-6 win over The Franchise. The 3-0 record secured them a place in the championship game, but they finished round robin play by holding off Off Goats (who they would meet in the finals) 31-23.

Off Goats got to the finals by coming back in the second half on several occasions. Captained by Amber Pereles, they played shorthanded all day with only five players on their roster. With three CSA newcomers, they also had the experience factor against them. It showed in the first half of their first game.

Facing an Otis Snapped team that had already lost one game, the Goats trailed at the half 37-12 and it looked like it would be the start of a long day. But the second half was a different story, after finally getting acclimated to the pace of the game, the Goats rallied behind All-Tournament first team player, Jeff Macfarland and QB and All-Tournament second team player Orlando King. The Goats rallied for 30 unanswered points, 23 of those points came courtesy of King connecting with Judith Stein, who was named to the All-Tournament second team. The rally gave Off Goats a 42-37 win. It also dropped Otis to 0-2 and out of contention.

The Goats continued the trend of second half comebacks in game two. Trailing the Misfits 19-16 at the half, the Goats once again rallied in the second half with 15 points and won 31-19. The loss by the Misfits dropped them to 0-3 going into the intermission break.

Game three for the Goats was a match-up with Shady's Squad. They played Shady tight, trailing at the half for the third straight game, 12-7, but could not find the second half comeback magic this time and fell 31-23.

The loss made the Off Goats 2-1 heading into the final round robin game against The Franchise, who were also 2-1. The Franchise got to that point with a comeback of their own. They split their first two games, the first a 29-16 win over the Misfits, and the second a 49-6 loss to The Franchise. After an injury to James Estes, Brad Hartman turned in his whistle for a set of flags and joined The Franchise.

In the crucial third game, The Franchise trailed at the half 28-15 against Otis Snapped!. After Hartman connected with Matt Lorenzo to make the score 28-22, The Franchise scored a touchdown with under two minutes left in the game. The score tied the game and after a successful extra point conversion The Franchise led 29-28. A safety iced the game and made the final score 31-28.

In the final round robin games, Otis Snapped!, who had scored 80 points in the first half, but zero points in the second half, of their first three games (all losses), faced the Misfits, who were also 0-3. The Misfits were created by CSA prior to the tournament and were at a disadvantage because they hadn't played together before. Otis finally took full advantage of their experience edge and rolled to their only victory of the day , 47-15.

In the game to determine who would face Shady's Squad in the championship, it was a tight contest for most of the game. For the first time in four games Off Goats led at the half. However, it was the slimmest of leads, 17-16. In the second half the Goats busted out and scored 23 straight points on The Franchise. A meaningless touchdown with no time remaining made the score closer. Off Goats moved on to the finals with a 40-26 win.

The championship game was no contest, Shady's Squad got an extended break after starting the day by playing four straight games and Off Goats were simply out of gas and overmatched by the fifth straight game of the day. The first half ended with Shady's Squad leading 36-0. The second half was simply a 12 minute formality. Off Goats managed to score, but Shady's Squad, who placed five of their six players on the All-Tournament teams, cruised to a 46-7 championship win.

The new format featured several new rules to encourage scoring. Touchdowns scored or created by female players were worth 10 points and extra point conversions involving the women were worth three points. On the day, in 11 games, 615 points were scored. That is an average of 55.9 points per game. Shady's Squad led the way, averaging 39.4 points per game. The most combined points scored in one game was 79 (42-37 Off Goats over Otis Snapped) and the least combined points was 39 (33-6 Shady's Squad over Misfits).

In comparison, during the 2004 CSA Winter Saturday Co-ed Flag Football league (which set the CSA record for average points) 1,143 points were scored in 35 games during the regular season, an average of 32.7 points per game.

In TMP1, 244 points were scored in 11 games, an average of 22.2 combined points per game.
In TMP2, 345 points were scored in 14 games, an average of 24.6 combined points per game.
In TMP3, 134 points were scored in 7 games, an average of 19.1 combined points per game.