Split pay 50/50 between myself and @"Ryan Negs"
S28 Minnesota Grey Ducks Game Balls - Weeks 5 and 6
DEFENSIVE WEEK 5 GAME BALL – CB/NB Kacper Puntky @jackkmart
After suffering through a three-game losing streak, the Grey Ducks needed a big win over Norfolk, a team that historically has caused them a lot of trouble in the recent past. Well, they ended their losing streak in dominance, therapeutically curb stomping the Seawolves with a 41-0 shutout! There were many key performers that deserved recognition for this game, but the game ball on defense goes to none other than veteran cornerback and nickel back, Kacper Puntky!!
First and foremost, this shutout was an all-around team effort by the Grey Ducks. Almost every drive for the Seawolves resulted in a three-and-out, and with such little playing time meant few splash plays brought by the defense. As a matter of fact, Puntky’s first stat of the night came in the final seconds of the second quarter with a single tackle, as he was constantly shutting down his receiver he was manned up against! With more and more drives being stopped by Minnesota, it looked as though their shutout was a sure thing!
That is until Norfolk began to drive in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter. Starting from their own 25-yard line, the Seawolves drove past midfield with consistent short passes hoping to at least kick a field goal and put some points on the board in garbage time. But Puntky was having none of it! Determined to keep the shutout alive, on 4th and 7 at Minnesota’s 39 with just over a minute remaining in the game, Clarke threw a 22-yard pass to Silver that would have put them securely in field goal range.
Until Puntky punched the ball straight out of Silver’s arms!! Within just milliseconds he scooped up the ball and immediately dove to the ground knowing he secured the game!! He and his fellow teammates proceeded to flap their arms like they were flying ducks themselves and ran all over the field in celebration!
Puntky finished the night with 5 total tackles, a personal best, and 1 forced fumble and fumble recovery. What the stat sheet will not show is how he kept the shutout alive, but he and his teammates will surely remember! With all those three-and-outs, I am sure he will attest that Punting was Ky in that game.
Lux: 7 catches, 108 yards, 2 touchdowns
Huntsman: 15 carries, 122 yards, 1 touchdown + 2 catches for 13 yards
What an offensive performance in week 5 from the Duckies! We blew out Norfolk 41-0, and the offense was operating like a well-oiled machine the entire time. With how well we played, it was impossible to award just one Duck with this game ball, so Janis Lux and John Huntsman are both receiving one in a special week!
Starting off with Janis Lux, who stretched the field the entire game and is still giving Norfolk’s DBs nightmares from his performance. On our first drive in the red zone, Lux began his takeover of the game. On the first play from our 18-yard line, he caught an 8 yard pass from Jacob Raske to set us up in down & goal positioning. On the next play, Janis beat his corner to the back corner of the endzone and caught a jump ball over the DB with his elite high pointing skills that he has shown all season long to put us up to a quick 7-0 lead. At the end of the first quarter, Lux had a flurry of catches of 11, 15, and 6 yards to soften up the defense. While he was carving up the defense in the short-medium routes, Lux finally broke out for a patented deep ball early on in the second quarter. Lux beat his man straight off of the line of scrimmage and also beat the safety who was double covering him with a ridiculous double move. Raske found Lux in perfect stride for a 50-yard touchdown that absolutely broke the spirits of the Seawolves and broke open the game as well. He had one more catch in the fourth quarter, but by that time we were already up by 35 points. Lux’s performance was not just one that was padded by a blowout, but he made his plays while the game was still not out of reach, and he was a huge reason why we were able to win so convincingly.
Not to be outdone by the pass game, John Huntsman was an absolute bowling ball that would not be stopped by Norfolk’s front seven. I could go play-by-play with every single one of his runs and write 100 words on each of them that they were so spectacular. However, I unfortunately cannot go that long so the one run that stood out to me was Huntsman’s 2-yard touchdown in the first quarter. We were only up by 7 points at that point in the first quarter and we faced a crucial 3rd & goal that could break the game open already in the first quarter, or keep Norfolk’s hopes up with only a 10-point lead. On the handoff, Huntsman initially ran into two Norfolk linemen who broke through the play up the middle. John was not fazed, as he stiff armed one of them and bounced around the outside towards the goal line. Receivers Bay and Lux held off the two corners on the outside, but the Seawolves’ safety was screaming towards the sideline looking to put a big hit on Huntsman. Again, John made a ridiculous play as the safety dived at his feet, he hurdled into the endzone and stretched the ball to hit the pylon. His amazing effort was the difference between a 14- and 10-point lead. Throughout the game, he consistently hit the holes and ran over defenders burling to a scorching 8.1 yards per carry.
The run game and the pass game were absolutely booming this week, and it led us to a huge blowout win and momentum shifter for the rest of the season!
OFFENSIVE WEEK 6 GAME BALL – QB Jacob Raske @CLG Rampage
18/20, 190 yards, 9.5 yards per attempt, 2 TD, 0 INT, 139.6 Rating
What a fucking game (pardon my French). My pupil is finally grown up! Raske had an absolutely surgical performance that I or any other DSFL quarterback past or present could only dream of having. While last week we had an offensive explosion in a blowout win, this game was a lot closer so mistakes were exposed more heavily and would be seen a lot easier. Raske did not make any such mistakes. In his 20 attempts, he only missed on two of them and averaged 9.5 yards per attempt on those 20. While there were no scores in the first quarter, Raske still tore up the defense with completions of 22, 10, 7, and 21 yards as Raske made the defense his own.
In the beginning of the second quarter, Raske was in his element. On a drive starting from our own 18-yard line, Raske had 5 straight completions of 6, 9, 10, 21, and 7 yards. On that last 7-yard pass, Raske found Janis Lux for a sweet 7-yard touch pass in the back of the middle of the endzone to put us up 7-0. At the end of the 3rd quarter, our very own Tim Soulja had a huge interception to put our offense in great position at the Dallas 29-yard line. Later in the drive on 3rd & inches Raske found Lux again for an 18-yard gain to set us up at the 1-yard line. While many of us thought we would punch in a run, Raske ran a sneaky play action pass and found Lux AGAIN for a 1-yard slant touchdown to bring us ahead of Dallas 14-3. Dallas would try to catch up at the end of the game, but Raske was too efficient and too good and kept the ball out of the opposing offense’s hands as we came away with a clutch 14-11 win over the DOGBIRDS!!!!!
Coming off their impressive blowout win, the Grey Ducks were in for yet another challenge to put their skills to the test as they faced off against the reigning DSFL champions in the Birddogs. The team knew they needed to rely on the defense to prevent a shootout, since they knew their offense would not be able to keep up with Dallas if that were the case. After the dust settled, Minnesota ended the night as the top dog thwarting Dallas in a 11-14 victory at home! And tonight, it was the veteran defensive backs that took the helm of the defense, cornerback Anton Bruckner and safety Tim Soulja!
Immediately making an impact, the reigning safety of the year recorded 2 back-to-back tackles on Dallas’s first drive. The drive inevitably ended in a punt due to the help of Bruckner making the tackle on Cowabunga on 3rd and long, preventing what would have otherwise been a first down conversion. Both Bruckner and Soulja had relatively quiet first halves, only racking up a handful of tackles. But the tackles were still crucial, as they and their defense held the Birddogs to ZERO total points in the first half.
But Dallas came out swinging in the second half. Despite the first half shutout, the game was still within a single score with Minnesota having the lead of 0-7. While their first drive resulted in a three-and-out, the second drive they managed to get within kicking range and made a 51-yard field goal. With the Grey Duck’s offense stagnating, the defense had to come back on the field for the third time in the third quarter, desperately looking for some sort of big break.
Soulja made that break happen! With just 1 minute remaining in the third, 2nd and 7 on the Dallas 24, Soulja leaped in front of the target Toastavich to intercept the ball and immediately put the Grey Ducks in scoring position at the Dallas 29-yardline!! In just 4 plays after the interception, Raske led Minnesota to their second touchdown of the night!
Yet the game was not over. Throughout the fourth quarter, Dallas made every effort to come back and take the lead. After nearly missing a 43-yard field goal and then scoring their first touchdown of the night on a drive filled with penalties, the Birddogs were back within a single score again. The Grey Ducks tried to burn time by rushing the ball, but Dallas used all their timeouts and held them to a three-and-out. With the game on the defense’s back, it became a battle against the clock! Each of the cornerbacks were tested being targeted multiple times in quick medium passes. But Bruckner and the rest kept their cool by tacking the offenders to the ground as soon as they caught the ball. After driving all the way to the Minnesota 40-yard line, quarterback Christ Jr. spiked the ball for one last play, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE! Time expired and the Grey Ducks sealed the game!!
It was a clutch performance by Soulja and Bruckner! They have been struggling to say the least this season, as Soulja has been going through what some would call a Sophomore slump by not producing anywhere close to the stats he put up last year. Bruckner had also been a soft spot in the defense as a whole allowing occasional big plays throughout the season. But not tonight! And they, along with their teammates and fans, hope tonight’s performance becomes the new norm for them!
While it is unusual to split game balls, especially on defense, this one was especially deserved. Bruckner had a career night racking up 8 total tackles, an impressive number for a corner to say the least, and Soulja ended the night with 4 tackles and a single key interception! Both defensive backs also recorded a pass defended to help keep Dallas at bay in the secondary. One could even say Bruckner orchestrated the defense, and Soulja was on the march down field after the interception!
Well, everyone, that should about do it for game balls! Weeks 5 and 6 were huge for the Grey Ducks, and we wanted to make sure we recognized all those who contributed to those much-needed wins! Which is why these write ups were much longer than the last four.
But there is still one more contributor Negs and I wanted to praise!!! Allow us to give out our first Special Teams Game Ball!!
SPECIAL TEAMS GODLY PERFORMANCE ALERT WEEKS 5 & 6 - “Big Boi” Gluteus Maximus
Week 5: 5/5 XP, 2/2 FG (30, 50) | 5 punts, 220 yards, 44 yards per punt, 59 long, 2 inside 20
Week 6: 2/2 XP | 6 punts, 292 yards, 48.7 yards per punt, 63 long, 3 inside 20
BIG BOI GLUTE IS A SPECIAL PLAYER. My buddy from the season 26 class is having an absolutely killer season and deserves to be recognized for it. Especially in these two weeks, where he was vital to our success on the field in both the kicking and punting game.
In week 5, all Glute did was roll with the offense and make it impossible for Norfolk to mount any sort of comeback with his deadly accurate field goals and field position flipping punts. Glute knocked through every extra point and hit two absolute bombs from 30 and 50 yards that were nothing short of perfect kicks. In the punt game, he averaged 44 yards per punt with a long of 59 and 2 inside the 20. There was no shot Norfolk could drive the field this long against our defense and Glute made sure if they wanted to, they would have to cross the entire field.
In week 6, Glute was quite possibly the co-MVP of this game with Raske with his punting. In a close 14-11 win, field positioning is absolutely everything and Glute made sure that Dallas was not getting anything for free. On his 6 punts, he averaged 48.7 yards per punt and pinned everything on the opposing side of the field. He hit an absolute booming 63 yards punt that pinned Dallas all the way inside their own 20 which will easily be the punt of the year. The best part of Glute’s performance though was his three punts that landed inside the twenty-yard line. Dallas can have an explosive pass defense but when operating deep into their own field for the entire game, the pass offense can get desperate and sloppy which is exactly what happened as Joliet Christ Jr. threw an interception and only completed around 60% of his passes. Theres only one thing I can say to magnify both these performances and that is GLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!
He was so consistent those two games, he was definitely a pain in Norfolk’s and Dallas’s Gluteus Maximus!
Congratulations to all of our game ball winners! This was a big 2-0 week for us, and the momentum will only carry on from here. QUACK!
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