11th Marine Cannon Cockers

Offense wins ball games, Defense wins championships. In the game of football if you have an outstanding defense to compensate for a struggling offense your still going to prevail. Thats been eveident in many championship games in the NFL and College, for example the Baltimore Ravens had an offense that struggled all year but their defense was always on their game and that won them a Super Bowl. You could say the same thing for 11th Marines. A hard-nosed stubborn defense with a struggling offense. Sometimes your defense jump starts your offense witch happen many times this year for the Cannon Cockers. However it wasnt a struggling offense that kept them for scoreing in the Base Title game Wed. January 22nd @ 11 Area Football Feild. It was missed oppurtunitites, twice a receiver was wide open but one pass fell short being intercepted and the other was over thrown by a mere 2 yards just out the reach of WR Micheal Bonner. Another chance came we 11th Marines marched down the feild to the MAG 13 yard line, FB Dewone Lowe got the call and broke through the line into the defenseive backfeild and was hit and bounced off, but was stunned for whatever reason for a split second and then the gap to the end zone closed eventually killing the drive. All thoes missed oppurtunities came back to haunt them as the Cannon Cockers fell to MAG-39 6-0 in the most awesome display of defensive talent, and the best title game ever played. Neither teams defense would let up, rocking each others offense back and forth across the feild. "This had to have been the best title game ever played here" said 11th Marines Head Coach Jacob Puda. " Our Offense really didnt struggle tonight, we just had to many missed oppurtunities." Missed oppurtunities and controversial offciating were very common that night. The game was scoreless until late in the fourth quarter, MAG had pushed down to the Cannon Cocker 25 yard line and faced a 3rd and 9. QB Jim Sheppard brought his team to the line and got set, he barked out the snap count... "DOWN!!!"......"SET!!"....as he barked off set the tight end jumped, followed by half the ofensive line and then the snap."We just kinda stoped for a second because that had to have been a false start." said Cannon Cocker Saftey Anthony Parker." But then they threw the ball and nobody blew a whistle!!" No whistle was blown and the play carried on as the defense was stunned Sheppard completed a pass to his tight end who raced in for the touchdown. The refeeres showed no intrest in talking with the Cannon Cocker coaches." I cant believe that was not a false start, Ive never in my life seen such a crew as bad as this one." said Defensive Co-ordinator David Bautista. " They are lucky they didnt come over and talk to me." Despite the Coaches pleas for a quick word with the officials, they were denied and play continued with the conversion afterwards failing. The next possesion for the Cannon Cockers started on their own 34 yards line. The biggest missed oppurtunity came in that series when on a 2nd and 7 WR Micheal Bonner split the secondary up the seam and had 3 steps on his man and no one to catch him, but QB Steven Phelps deliverd a good looking pass but was just beyond the outstretched arms of Bonner. After that play and two more incomplete passes the ball changed hands to MAG who kneeled twice to seal the victory. "They played a hell of a game." said MAG Head Coach and QB Jim Sheppard. " We just snuck one in on them and caught them of gaurd." When asked about the controversial call Sheppard just chuckled a little bit and gave a little smirk. "We caught them asleep at the wheele on that one, i think it was a good call." Coach Puda didnt seem to think the same. " You know I've seem alot of bad calls in my time, I thought nothing would top one my playoff games in H.S. but this one just takes the cake." " It was an obvious false start, and the thing that gets me is that they Head Umpire wouldnt even talk to me about it, this crew missed so many calls I cant even imagine where they found these guys. I dont like Officials that dont talk to you about a call." True there were alot of missed calls but in the end the score was all that mattered. "I'm still proud of this team and what they accomplised, I know in my heart that we are the Champs and so do the guys, I wont blame the Referee's for the loss because we had our chances, it just wasnt our time, but we'll be back here next ready to go at it again." After the game League Director Chuck Pearse asked the Coaches from both teams to select the Confense MVP's. Accepting the Honors for MAG was standout TB Martin Hagen. DT Micheal Teachy accepted the award for the Southern Confrence. " On a team on MVP's its hard to pick one, Teachy was pure motovation for us this year and a true leader on the feild, he's very deserving" added Puda, who was also granted the Coach of the Year award by MAG coach Jim Sheppard. "He deserves it, a rookie coach doing the things that he has done for that team and doing it better and more professionally then senior enlisted or officers that ive seen." When given the award the young coach was speechless, " I didnt know what to say, I really have nothing but respect for Shep and his team, he took them to the Best of the West Title and but every one during the season (except us) and then the Base Title, he's a heck of a guy and a hell of a Coach." In additon to that, the Rookie Coach also recieved praise from his Command when Regimental Commander Col. Micheal Marletto and SgtMaj. Wayne Bell awarded him a Certificate of Commandation for his leadership and takeing on the daunting task and responsibilities of coaching Marines all senior to him. Thanks to all who came out to support the team this year, it was greatly appreciated. Sorry we didnt bring it home this year but we'll be back next time. Thanks again to all of you especially Col. Marletto and SgtMaj. Bell for makeing it all possible.