Baltimore scraps its way to the Metro Grand Final

Ganked from the Baltimore Washington Eagles site -

GETS GRAND FINAL SHOW WITH WIN - Contributed by Dave Schall, Secretary

With a valient effort, DC falls to Baltimore who will now face Northern Virginia in the 2007 BWE Metro Grand Final.

In the final regular season game of BWE metro competition, DC and Baltimore knew that they had to bring their A-game to the field. Winner of this game would move on to face a powerful Northern Virginia side in the BWE Metro Grand Final on September 15th. Loser would watch from the sidelines.

Having been decimated the previous weekend by the Northern Virginians, DC's players drew first blood hoping that an early lead and some solid defense could put Baltimore in quite a hole. Some great goals by Cord Chase and Garth Elliott made sure that it was Baltimore who had to react first. In the middle of the ground, play was sluggish with players going half hearted at the ball, perhaps holding back knowing that a EAFL match against New York was on the not-so-distant horizon.

Second quarter saw more of the same, though intensity started to pick up near the tail-end of the quarter. Great defense work by the likes of Jake Engwerda, Matty Bishop, Jonny Mott and Dave Schall kept the ball on the down low versus potential threats in Dwayne Marshall, Steve Florence and RJ Wheelock. Hard work in the middle too by Kevin Stanley, Aaron Pritchard, Tony Goodman and new players Rod and Wes made sure that the offense had ample time to get the ball and shoot for goals.

Being down ten points at the half, Baltimore awoke with a mighty roar. Learning their lesson to aim for Wheelock in the goal squares rather than peppering shots from all angles of the DC backline, they managed to pull ahead with a ten-point lead of their own. Wheelock went on to boot eight goals on the day, taking advantage of his speed and agility as Shane Frearson, Denis Ryan and Greg Borchardt gave him plenty to go on.

In a hole, DC gave it their all knowing full well that Baltimore was ready to hold fast to their new-found lead. Kevin Smith and PJ Anderer set up some great plays for the forwards as "solid as a rock" Micky Dunne held off a hungry DC offense to just bare bones. Also, some great stuff in the center from ruck Geoff Hamshar who made sure all of his taps fell into the waiting arms of his Baltimore brethren.

Overall, a close match between two competitive sides. It took awhile to get the engines on both machines working, but when things kicked in, there was promise at all ends of the field. With no injuries to report, the Eagles will be looking forward to a great weekend in New York followed by a weekend off (Labor Day) and then a return to action versus Philadelphia in Philly.

-

QUARTER SCORES:
01Q: DC 4.3 (27) to BAL 2.5 (17); 02Q: DC 9.5 (59) to BAL 7.7 (49); 03Q: BAL 11.10 (76) to DC 10.6 (66); 04Q: BAL 12.10 (82) to DC 11.10 (76)

-

GOALS:
BAL: R.Wheelock (8); Marshall (2); Borchardt, Florence, Frearson (1)
DC: Elliott (5); Chase (4); Pritchard, Rod ??? (1)

-

PLAYERS:
BAL: Anderer, Borchardt, Dunne, Florence, Frearson, Hamshar, Marshall, Ryan, Smith, Wheelock

DC: Bishop, Chase, Elliott, Engwerda, Goodman, Mott, Pritchard, Schall, Stanley, Wes ??, Rod ??
Umpires - Carroll, Moore, Tyndall

Metro Standings and game results
Ladder		W	L	D	F	A	%	pts
NVA	4	3	1	0	450	257	175	12
BAL	4	2	2	0	281	239	118	8
DC	4	1	3	0	255	484	53	4
Legend: P = played W = won L = lost D = draw F = points for A = points against % = percentage pts = league points

BWE 2007 METRO Fixture
DaResults	Teams		Report
12 MAY	DC: 97	NVA: 69	report
19 MAY	BAL: 93	DC: 28	report
02 JUN	NVA: 91	BAL: 58	report
07 JUL	NVA: 50	BAL: 48	report
11 AUG	NVA: 240	DC: 54	report
18 AUG	BAL: 82	DC: 76	report
15 SEP	BWE Metro Grand Final

And in other news concerning the Eagles -

National Rankings -

Rank	Team	W-L Record	Votes/Change
1.	San Diego Lions	4-0	10 #1 Votes
2.	Denver Bulldogs	3-1
3.	New York Magpies	2-0
4.	BW Eagles	3-0	UP from 5
5.	Golden Gate Roos	1-1	DOWN from 4
6.	OC Bombers	1-3
7.	Chicago United	3-0	UP from 9
8.	Boston Demons	1-1	DOWN from 7
9.	Atlanta Kookaburras	4-1	UP from 10
10.	Minnesota Freeze	2-1	IN