This time filled with lasagna, Halo, Lego Star Wars, and the Cary dog park!

Over for us anyway! We came out very flat, perhaps because we missed Captain Joe, and ended up losing 5-0 in a game that was never close. I fooled the other team a couple of times by coming out of the goal all the way to midfield as a fourth defender, which was kinda fun :-) All the Eagles fans out there, say it with me:

Better luck next year!

I found out today that I passed my Sun Certified Java Developer exam! I got 364 out of a possible 400 points, and 320 was the passing score.

General Construction: 88/100
Documentation: 70/70
Object-Oriented Design: 30/30
Graphical User Interface: 26/40
Locking: 80/80 (the hardest part of the project)
Data Store: 40/40
Network Server: 30/40 (wonder what I missed here?)

Our friends from Penn State, Rob and Katie, came down to Cary for the weekend. We had a good time socializing, eating, and watching movies. Rob and I even got to play football with some people from IBM. During the game I jammed my pinky finger on an incoming football, which caused the skin under the top pinky joint to split wide open, requiring five stitches. At least I had medically-minded friends in town!

Yesterday I was attempting to run up the stairs in my socks, when I unintentionally kicked the wood frame of the stairs. Ouch!!! My pinky toe is now approximately twice its normal size.

The co-ed playoffs started last night, with our #6-seeded team squaring off against the #3 seed. They scored early in the first half on a long distance chip shot over our goalie Carlos. Jen responded with a goal late in the first half, giving us a 1-1 tie going into halftime. I switched with Carlos to play goalie and started dictating the pace, as we predictably let up after halftime. After an offensive barrage by the other team, they gave up a breakaway late in the half and we scored. They became desperate and pressed harder, and gave up two more breakaways very late in the game for two more goals. The game was much closer than the final 4-1 margin. Now we're on to the semifinals!

Will it blend? These are great videos about common products being put into a high-strength blender.

At 6pm, we had our men's semifinal playoff game against the top team in the league. Regular blog readers could probably write this entry for me: we had a 1-0 lead at halftime, and then we fell apart early in the second half with two goals against. A hard-played 2-1 loss. Has anyone heard that story before? The other story of the game was that it was our captain Joe's last game before he moves to Indiana this weekend. We'll miss you Joe!

At 9pm, we had our final game of the co-ed regular season, against the top team in the league. Regular blog readers could probably write this entry for me: we had a 1-0 lead at halftime, and then we fell apart early in the second half with three goals against. A hard-played 3-1 loss. Wait a minute -- did I copy and paste the entry for the second game? Are you saying there is a consistent theme among the teams? This game was a little disappointing due to some poor sportsmanship, including some flagrant taunting on a breakaway goal as time expired. It was cold and very windy at the game.... it's about time to stop playing soccer and start building snowmen!

A hard-played game, went down to the wire. Our second goal was a controversial chip shot that the goalie had to go backwards to save, but the referee ruled it was over the line. In my opinion, it was extremely close and I'm glad the call went in our favor!

We entered the playoffs last in the standings, but first in heart! Everyone was pumped up for the potential doubleheader, as the winner of our 6:00 game would play the #1 seed at 7:00 for the league championship.

The game started out great, with a touchdown on our second possession (long throw to Andre), followed by a pick-six by Kevin and our first PAT of the year, as we got a 13-0 lead right out of the gate. That was the halftime margin as well. In the first drive of the second half, we added another touchdown when Shawn went rumbling-stumbling into the endzone, and we got our second PAT of the year, 20-0.

The opposition responded with a touchdown and PAT to come back to 20-7. Our next drive stalled, and we gave up another quick touchdown, now 20-14 with a few minutes to go. Once again, we went nowhere on offense. The opposition drive marched steadily down the field, ultimately scoring with a minute to go on a play where three of our best defenders missed the ballcarrier's flag. The PAT made it 21-20... so much for our initial 20 point lead!

A minute remains in the game. Time for another one of our trademark last minute drives. It would have to wait, as miscommunication between myself and Andre lead to an interception. We let them score an immediate touchdown so that we could get the ball back. Now we are down 28-20, with one timeout and thirty seconds to go.

First play is a scramble out of bounds, with some positive yardage. The defense is in prevent, so I throw a short pass to Kevin who scampers for the first down, stopping the clock. Next play, no one is open so I go on another scramble. Somehow, defenders keep missing, I keep juking, and I travel almost half of the field forward. Clock stops again on the first down. The following play starts as a scramble, but Kevin is almost open in the flat. His defender is watching both of us, so I motion hard for him to turn upfield. I float the ball just over the defender and just in front of the hard-charging safety, and Kevin beats them both, taking the ball to the one yard line. With the first down, the clock stops again.

Chaos ensues! I'm desperately trying to get our players on the line, because time is running out. The other team is yelling to get defenders into place. In this midst of all of this, I see Harmeet all alone next to the sideline, no defenders within fifteen yards. I plead with the center to snap the ball, but the opposition has called timeout. One second remains. Will history repeat itself with another goalline letdown as time expires?

Yes. Yes it will. The defense calls an aggressive rush, flushing me to the left. Unfortunately, no receivers are open or looking for the ball. I try to cut back to go right, but two defenders pull off my flags.

Still, we were all proud of the season we put together. Ten guys, who mostly knew nothing about flag football, cobbled together 5 highly competitive games out of 7, and put up a playoff fight worth writing about.

Season breakdown:
Game 1: L 14-12, key play was pick-six against us on first drive
Game 2: L 26-0, rematch of Game 1
Game 3: W 12-7, win against A league team capped off with last minute goalline stand and game-saving INT
Game 4: L "48-20", against eventual B league champions, included comeback from 20-0, and 20-20 score with one minute to go. Final margin came from ridiculous Hail Mary attempts returned for touchdowns.
Game 5: L 26-0, against A league team
Game 6: L 19-18, rematch of game 4, lost on a failed two point conversion with 30 seconds left
Playoffs: L 28-20, and tired out the opposition enough that they lost in the doubleheader game ;-)