Post by Jim H. on Feb 13, 2015 7:11:59 GMT -5
We missed Week 22, Super Bowl Week, but if report can be trusted Blue got completely shellacked by a Mike Robbins-led Red team, who made no scruple of running up the score in as humiliating a fashion as possible. Additionally Bob Freiling made his (rocky) debut anchoring Blue’s offense, the resultant loss an indication of just how difficult his transition to Blue is going to be—comparable, perhaps, to Bruce Jenner transitioning to being a woman. Week 23, which we experienced first-hand, was a mob scene as if someone had told two friends about Old Bucks—and they told two friends and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, until the amount of guest skaters rivaled the amount of Herr skaters. Speaking of which, Mark Herr threw his weight onto the Red scale only to have it paradoxically tip more in Blue’s favor; in compensation he secured the services of his youngest, Gordy, who took the ice in a mishmash of LAX pads and gray sweats rummaged from his basement at the last minute. In a spectacular change of allegiance, Doc Millen skated Blue, his navy jersey sporting a giant M which, conveniently, stands for both “Millen” and “Michigan”. We got to the game late, as usual, with Blue up 3-0 and bench patter ascribing the lead to the Basserts, apparently on fire with their “hit and hope” style of play racking up a quick succession of goals. Brian Urban made a cookie of a dump to John Lupisella, the crafty lefty, who tumbled the puck over Eddie’s blocker to get Red on the board, 3-1. Brooks Herr made it 4-1 Blue but sibling, Gordy, who only skates JV at Hotchkiss, put a Varsity-grade move on Doug Rendell and top-cornered Eddie to make it 4-2. Blue sustained the pressure and both Doc Millen and Kevin Saunders scored, giving the hitherto sparring partner of Red a reason to think itself ready to graduate from “undercard” to “main event”. But Red, staking their all upon the play of veterans Eddie and Craig Allen, coaxed a couple goals out of them which, combined with a Gordy Herr hatter, tied the game at sevens. Red briefly entertained hopes of pulling ahead but they were blasted when a Rich Devlin goal (bookended by Bassert goals) gave Blue the 10-7 lead going into the home stretch. Red was down but not out. It's luck turned on a freakish play with Jim Heffern, all by himself in the neutral zone, getting a fly ball outlet from Eddie and trying to run it down, blind, over-the-shoulder style a la Willie Mays. The puck bounced off his helmet and into the Blue zone where Eddie (the goalie) came way out of the net to smother it, only to have Jim beat him to the puck and score the empty netter. This disrupted Blue’s momentum to the extent that, on the same shift, Brian Urban planted himself right on Eddie’s doorstep and tapped in a loose puck which Eddie had tried to freeze with his glove, but couldn’t. With Blue clinging to a 10-9 lead we were reminded of John Lupisella’s favorite maxim: “It’s better to play from one down than from one up.” Confident in the strength of their Bigs—players like Chris Chairmonte and Brian Urban—Red went all out to tie the game while the Blue bench reverted to its default setting of worried waiting. The Red offense coalesced around Chris Chairmonte, forced by necessity to play the last fifteen minutes of the game. With Blue’s Doug Rendell hitting the showers early, Sarah Herr took up the slack on D, repelling odd-man rush after odd-man rush while Eddie, the goalie, won raves from the Blue bench for his outstanding play. The besieged were now the besiegers as Gordy Herr took the ice for his last shift of the game. Possessed of the puck, he tore through the neutral zone in a faint echo of his namesake, Gordy Howe, tried to sift the puck through the legs of George Bassert, but got stood up and latched onto like a right tackle obstructed by a left guard. A brief tussle ensued from which Gordy extricated himself, regathered the puck, and instantaneously top-cornered Eddie—again, providing on object lesson on why youth should never be wasted on the young. Thus, the game ended deadlocked 10-10. Back in the locker room a contingent of Basserts and Rich Devlin stoutly maintained that Gordy Herr was way offsides on one of his goals during the middle of the game, but we reminded them that it takes more than two people murmuring to each other that someone was offsides in order to nullify a goal; in fact, a minimum of five people have to leap to their feet and shout “Offsides!” in the presence of a notary and two witnesses for this to occur. It’s always been that way. Disputed score notwithstanding, the after party was a hoot with 15 in attendance, including Saunders’ attractive and engaging girlfriend, a variety of beers, sipping whiskey, two wines—both white and red—and stemware courtesy of Paul Egan. Four pies were consumed, including one Brooklyn.