Forfeits dominate football playoffs

By Brian Norton
Sports Reporter

The return from Fall Break brings classes, homework, tests and intramural sports playoffs back into the lives of students.

The IM football playoffs started last week with the men’s B and B- leagues kicking things off on Monday with the first round of action.

There are four men’s playoff brackets and three women’s playoff brackets, with the A bracket consisting of the top teams.

The first round of the Men’s B- bracket stumbled out of the blocks with four teams winning by forfeit, although none of the forfeiting teams were expected to win their matchup anyway.

In the men’s B bracket, there are eight teams remaining to head into the second round of play on Monday, Nov. 1. The biggest victory of the first round was FC Dartos’ 6-0 win over the VA Giants.

The playoff action continued on Tuesday night with the men’s A, women’s B+ and women’s B- leagues’ first rounds, although there were six forfeits to bring the total for the playoffs to 10.

The Golden Mongeese are the two-time defending champions of the men’s A league, and they come into the playoffs this season with a 5-0 record and the No. 1 ranking from the IM sports Web site’s A league poll.
The Golden Mongeese is led by former Creighton basketball star Michael Lindeman.

“ These are a group of guys that have played together for five years now and definitely know how to play the game,” said Phil Shields, Business senior. “They have athletic players but so do plenty of other teams that are not nearly as good. I would say it comes back to their familiarity with each other and the way they work together.”

The biggest challenge facing the Mongeese is Git ‘R Done, the team ranked second in the league poll on the IM sports Web site. They enter the playoffs with a 4-1 record, their only loss coming in the last game of the season against the Mongeese in a close game.

In the women’s B+ bracket, the Delta Zeta team was the favorite heading into the playoffs as one of four teams to go 5-0 during the season. They held their opponents to only six points while posting 96 and continued to dominate last Tuesday night with a 12-0 victory over Sexy Seven. The other three undefeated teams are the PT Tight Ends, D4 and Love Potion #9.

“ The keys to the DZ’s success this year have to be their intensity and their defense,” Shields said. “You can see it from the minute they step on the field. They just want it more than the other team.”

The women’s B- bracket is wide open with most teams entering the playoffs with only one win. The favorites appear to be What The? and The Spoons, but if one of these teams catches fire, anyone could win the championship.

The first night, both games were decided by a forfeit, granting the winning teams byes into the next round of the playoffs.

Wednesday saw the second round of the men’s B- playoffs and the start of the men’s B+.

The men’s B+ is the top tier of B league teams, with no team entering the playoffs with more than one loss and seven teams entering undefeated. The teams to watch will be the UFB and G5 Dominators, one of the best freshmen football teams in recent memory.

The Dominators did not lose during the season and beat a very tough Cobra Kai team in the last game of the season. They finished the season ranked No. 6, their highest ranking of the season.

“ The biggest sleeper of any bracket is UFB,” Shields said. “Not many people know who they are or give them much credit, but these guys are really good.”

UFB finished the season ranked eighth and were ranked all season long.

Both the men’s and women’s A leagues saw action last Thursday night, the second round for the men and first for the women. Women’s B+ finished off their first round as well.

Shields believes that the Kuties could sneak up on some teams in the women’s A league.

The Divas are the team to beat in the women’s A league. They enter the playoffs undefeated after narrowly beating Superwomen in the last game.

“ The Divas won their regular season match-up 7-6, so obviously not much separates these two teams,” Shields said. “If you just want to compare the teams they’re basically equal.”

The intramural football playoffs conclude on Nov. 11, at the Rev. Michael G. Morrison, S.J., Stadium starting at 6:30 p.m.

The only other sport entering playoffs is ultimate frisbee. Sunday is the first day of their playoff tournament, which finishes Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. on the baseball field.