The Portland team left Maine last Friday in bright sunshine with 6-7 hours of driving ahead of them as they made for the fair city of Syracuse, and the NRU Division 3 Final 4. The pleasant weather and picturesque surroundings for much of the journey were however a cruel prelude for what was to be a weekend of mostly foul weather and the squalid Syracuse surroundings. I'm sure that Syracuse does have a nice part to it, but it was clearly not in evidence this weekend, and even if it had been, it probably would have still looked like crap in the miserable weather.
For the most part however the journey passed without event, and as the team checked in to the Dis-Comfort Suites the 65 degree weather gave no indication of what was to come. But as most of us know by now, Portland travels with its own black cloud...they just hadn't arrived yet.
The lodgings proved to be adequate, if a little overpopulated by kids and old people. Nevertheless it was off to the neighborhood western-themed steakhouse, which was doing its best to emphasize the "ugly" in Coyote Ugly. Just as well, since the Portland boys were not in need of distraction, but rather a good feed and an early night.
The following morning dawned to reveal steady rains and a 20 degree drop in temperature, indicating that the Portland weather had indeed arrived. It proved to be a long morning of pacing around as the team prepared to square off against Old Blue C-side at 2:30 that afternoon. Having talked with Hudson Valley the previous week, we knew that Old Blue was capable of producing some very different sides, depending on what that their SL and D1 side was up to on the same day.
Arriving at the field we learned that Syracuse had run the Wolfhounds close in the other semi-final but ultimately come up short. This meant that a victory would assure us with a "date with destiny" the following day. Before that however, there was the small matter of Old Blue in weather and pitch conditions which were not going to bring out the best in either team. So, as the Portland team did their best to get warm in the rain, we began to wonder where exactly Old Blue were, and whether they had been scared off by the inclement weather. It was only later that we learned that they had actually rented out an indoor facility in town for their warm up, and then hopped on their bus (complete with Park Ranger escort) to arrive pitch-side all revved up and raring to go. Oh, how the other half live...
Winning the toss, Portland elected to get the hard stuff out of the way early by playing uphill and into the wind for the first half. If we could minimize the damage, we could then use the elements to our advantage in the second half and pile on the pressure. The wisdom of this strategy looked a little questionable in the early going however, with Old Blue swinging the ball wide to their speedy wings and scoring an early try. Kicking was going to be difficult in the swampy conditions, so Portland got away with just a 5-0 deficit from the early lapse.
After the wakeup call Portland set about putting up some sort of resistance, and began tackling anything and everything that moved. This included a tackle from Jerry Alves that required him to take a "short breather" face down in the mud. Once he came-to, he was helped off the field on wobbly legs, only to return to his expletive-hurling self within a couple of minutes - much to everyone's relief.
A stalemate ensued for the remainder of the first half, with Old Blue playing a tactically naive game, as the continued to run the ball down the slope, rather than take advantage of the wind at their backs. With both sides pushing a couple of penalties wide, the scoreline remained unchanged by the time the half-time whistle blew.
With Jerry off the field, Scotty Derrig moved to scrum half and Spyder to fly half, and immediately the second half began we started launching bombs into the corners, proving that while the Old Blue wings might like to run, they looked conspicuously ill at ease under the high ball. This pressure was soon to yield results, with Fred Hayman capping of a well executed move in the corner. Shortly afterwards Hannes Bouwer broke through the Old Blue defenses at the 22 to barrel over for another score. In no time the 5-0 deficit had been turned around in to a 10-5 lead in Portland's favor.
Old Blue were not out of it however, with the introduction of their Super (league?) Sub at flanker, who charged down two kicks in quick succession to pin Portland back in their own half. Under constant pressure from Old Blue, the Portland defenses finally gave way to allow a second try and tie the scores at 10-10. With the clock expiring, the possibility of extra time looked very real.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man; Portland soon returned to their aerial assault, raining down misery on the Old Blue wings, and before long the pressure told. Once again Hannes was the man of the hour, scoring his second try, and giving Portland the scent of victory. Shortly afterwards Andy Nelson made the only kick of the day from a penalty, taking the scoreline to 17-10 and effectively putting it out of reach of Old Blue.
So that's how it all ended up, with the rain stopping just as the final whistle blew. Bloody typical. Nevertheless the Portland smiles were all sunshine, having overcome the early scare and grinding out a hard fought win.
Back to the hotel where we attempted to clean of the many layers of mud that had accumulated during the game. After about an hour of that it was off to the after-party at some dingy Syracuse hang out, that had the statutory two dishes of pasta to serve four teams and all their hangers on. WTF? We exchanged a few polite words with the Wolfhounds before their curfew meant they had to leave, and after a few drinks we bade a hasty retreat behind them, back to the steakhouse that we just couldn't get enough of.
Of course, all that steak makes you thirsty, and this clubs swills more Jack & Coke than chics at a hen night. Nuff said. Back to the hotel, and of course Portland has yet to meet the bar that it doesn't like, so it was another couple of rounds before the sensible ones started drifting off to bed. Meanwhile a few others scared up what passes for female companionship in the Dis-Comfort Suites, and a raucous dice game ensued. I'm sure it only ended in tears.
Sunday dawned overcast but at least it wasn't raining. First on the "honey do" list was to find a laundromat and try to clean up our kit before getting it filthy all over again that afternoon. Trust me, nothing starts your day off better than a couple of hours in a Syracuse laundromat. Good times.
The rest of the morning passed without event before the ride out to the
...and that's about where the fairytale ended. It's my sad duty to report that Portland pretty much rolled over and played dead in the final, giving the Wolfhounds an easy pass to South Carolina. Even playing down the slope in the first half Portland failed to mount much in the way of offense, unless of course you count a sin binning. Meanwhile the 'hounds came out fresh and handled the ball well as they scored with depressing regularity. Andy Nelson was able to stroke over a couple of penalties in an attempt to get some Portland mo-jo going, but we never really got out of first gear. Final score 43-6. Ouch!
So the Wolfhounds move on to the National Sweet 16 in Columbia, SC, and lets hope they go on to win it all in San Diego, so at least we can say we were knocked out by the National Champs. Ah well, its probably going to rain anyway.
A quick rub down to get the worst of the mud off then back in the cars for the 7 hour ride home. I'm sure that few tears were shed as Syrcause fell away in the rear view mirrors.
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