strange game

We played Tigard last night. by the end of first quarter the score was 34 to 8. It was not in our favor. Rather than putting in his second stringers the Tigard coach scored again. There is a rule in our youth league that you can not run the score up past 35 points difference at any time during the game. It helps with the moral and good sportsman like conduct. It is youth league after all, and a learning stage.



The penalty for doing this is a $150 fine and a week suspension for the coach. It is also an automatic forfeit of the game. Our coach was on the phone filing a grievance as soon as the last touch down occurred and the score went over the 35 point spread, seconds after second quarter began. A mom that takes our photos during the game got the picture of the score board for evidence.



It had been our fault on a lot of those scores. We had beautiful passes dropped. Passes intercepted, and returned for touch downs. Fumbles occurred leading to more scores. A lot of penalty calls went against us. We were messy. It was like we couldn't do anything right. Trevor wasn't playing a lot. I didn't get that either. I was a little relieved that he wasn't playing at this point. He hadn't contributed to this end.



What finally made our coach really upset, even though he handled himself well, was the touch back. We punted the ball to Tigard and the boy who caught it turned around and ran into our end zone so we could get two points on the score board making it 44 to 10, within the point spread. It was so low class. It was down hill from then on. Tigard gave up playing football. They refused to tackle. They were using language on the field. Acting like they dropped the ball "Woops, oops, looser". They refused to tackle our runners so our boys stopped running. Where was the fun if they weren't even going to try to take us down.



It wasn't even a scrimmage. The game got really sloppy. One of the Tigard boys made a horse caller tackle. We were afraid someone was going to get hurt. I wish coach had just called the game. It was miserable. I have never seen anything so bazaar. Neither had anyone else. At least our coaches kept their cool.



This happened to us a few years ago. We had a great team. Our Coach wasn't paying attention and we passed the spread. Coach immediately called a time out and apologized to the other coach. He benched our top players and brought in our seconds. If we did have the opportunity to score we took a knee in the end zone. But we did not give up playing football and tackling. They had to still earn their points. They did score with our second string on the field. We still won the game. But we did not give up playing football, not like last night. They treated us like babies trying to spoon feed us our points. Our boys responded in kind and stopped running. I am not sure what I would have done as coach.



I might have called a time out for the coaches to talk, had I been in charge. I asked Tom if the refs could have done anything, but he said their hands were tied. Tom said we should have run, taken the points offered. The game would have resumed then, with real football. The ugly thing was it was all over in the first quarter. It made for a long night.



I would like to know if Tigard's second string is that good, that their seconds are better than our firsts. If they hadn't just slapped us in the face with that touch back, it was so rude and blatant.
Scoring our points for us. That was the straw that broke the game up.



Tom didn't go to the game thank goodness. He would have been furious at it all. He said the boys should have run the ball. got the points offered even if they were "gimmes". You don't give up playing football. The penalty would be assessed regardless. I get the feeling a run up score has never happened to our coach before and he didn't know quite how to handle it. Nor the blatant rude behavior which is not supposed to be tolerated in our league. I think that is where the refs could have played a hand in improving the game. They could have called bad conduct on a few and that might have helped spiff up the line.



It was painful but I stayed until the end. The evening had started out so well. Trevor had hitched a ride with another player. While driving over he had pulled out a loose tooth. They all thought that was hilarious. It was the last fun thing that happened. My parents had come and witness the whole debacle. They left during third quarter. I don't blame them. Even on the other side, people were leaving early. It wasn't football being played out there. I think coach should have encouraged our boys to score. It was like cutting off your nose to spite your face, not running in those gimme touchdowns. They weren't going to play until the score was closer and we weren't going to play unless they really played.

Next week I am sure there will be talk. But we will move on. The high school did well. Opening game on our new fancy fake turf, we beat our Nemesis school in an overtime game by one point. This is the school that has always beat us in the playoffs, denying us the championship. The new field looks beautiful. It was done just a few days before the first game. There was no plan B so everyone was happy the field was done on time. They probably would have played on the practice field, But I have no idea where they would have put the fans. The place was packed, standing room only. It was good to see all that support. The home field advantage really showed in this incredibly close game. Then the next night to have this none football game, at least the weather was nice. Today it is raining again.