Flag Recap March 7, 2009

WEATHER: Hard to complain about 65 and sunny, except the sun did get in my eyes all game.

NEXT: We are back Saturday March 14, Penmar Park at noon.

LEAGUE: There are only two more Saturdays to register for the league, plus our March 17 registration night at Fubar from 6-8 p.m.

GAME: Here we go again. For the fourth week in a row, one team jumped out to a two-TD lead. And for the fourth week in a row, the game suddenly turned and became a nail-biter. Dark beat White, 40-38, on a walk-off TD pass from me to new player Ben (known by his friends as “Paul.”)

SAFETY IN NUMBERS: We had our first safety in memory when Brenton sacked Marino in the end zone. Or at least, Brenton said he sacked Marino, who saw things differently. And since the five of us on the sidelines weren’t watching and the receivers were running routes, we wound up taking Brenton’s word for it. Because he would never, ever, ever stretch the truth (cough).

RARITY: Speaking of Brenton, he caught a TD pass from Marc. That is not a typo! Brenton caught (as in, held on to the brown oval object hurled in his direction, which he normally swats away like it’s an angry wasp) a TD pass. In other news, snow is forecast for Santa Monica late Tuesday.

BALL HAWKS: Had several nice interceptions. Toby made a great break on a pass that he picked off and took back for a score. … Dave Sobel (or Meggett, as we used to call him) had two, including a nifty over-the-shoulder grab. … Marc had a heads-up off a deflection. … and Duffy made a fingertip grab at the goal line inches from the ground.

GO DEEP: We had several deep passes for TDs. I hit Ben twice and Christophe once, while Marino and Demond hooked up for a beauty for White.

MOST INCONGRUOUS LINE OF THE DAY: “I’m going to buy some fruit!” So said Brian on the sidelines during a series as he walked to a street vendor. Fortified with watermelon and unripe mango, he then had three nice catches on the next drive.

LINE I WISH I KNEW WHAT IT MEANT: “I might start loving me some chocolate!” So said Demond after he deflagged Toby. I assume he grabbed some part of Toby that caused him to utter that, but I’ll leave that to your interpretation.

HIGHLIGHTS: Great ball fake and juke by Drew running in for a TD. … Derek made several nice grabs; having a 6-8 guy with hands is hard to stop and it was quite a contrast watching Christophe guard him. … Duffy wants everyone to know that he pitched his softball team to its first win in 18 months. … Head’s up catch for a 2-pointer by Brian on a deflected pass in the end zone. The two teams were a collective 2-12 on conversions. …

Great body positioning and grab by Toby on a high hard pass from me for a TD on fourth down. … Alejandro played his best defense we’ve seen, always being in position and knocking one pass down. … Brent was terrific on the rush, forcing a lot of early throws for incompletions. … Eugene was the main man at center, catching a ton of balls for key completions. … Dark ran a nice quick snap for a score on a direct hike to Ross. … New player Jason started slowly but wound up with several key catches as White mounted its comeback. … My doofus moment came when I called an audible in the huddle, then forgot what the audible call was when I came to the line. Fortunately, Eugene was paying attention and straightened me out.