(Dean Thompson (ball) tries to get around Ryan Stevens (24) and the Braves defense.) (Pictures by Sean Goodwin.)
WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y.- Mondays flag football games came and went, and it left me with a very tough dilemma. I had to choose just one game to cover when I could have honestly wrote about all four of the games. There was Dynamite against Hellagoods, which was tight all game until the last minute when Hellagoods secured their victory. Southside picked up their first win against Vengeance, in a game that was decided on the final play of the game. There was also the two point win by Team No Name over No Fly Zone to end the night. However, none of these games had quite the story lines that the first game of the night had. It was Mega Chargers versus the Buffalo Braves. The teams were at completely opposite sides of my flag football power ranking as well as the standing of our flag football league. Mega Chargers are a new team playing at Epic Center this session. They were 2-0 and had won those games with a combined score of 117-12. Led by the Scibilia brothers (Nicholas at QB Mike at WR Joe on DEF) they demolished the two weak teams of the league by two insane score lines. Then there were the Braves who actually brought in a 0-2 record to the matchup. The Braves have been playing here every session since I started last year, and they were one of the top teams to play here at Epic Center for a long time. Recently I just have not seen any of that type of top level play from the Braves. Their quarterback Chris Lonzi was not having a terrific start to the season. Damon Powell was playing a lot more effectively when he played for his second team Team No Name. Big play receivers like John Helbringer and Yusef B. were just not on the same page with Lonzi this early in the season. It only continued against the Mega Chargers.
If the Braves were going to have any chance at beating the Mega Chargers they were going to have to take great care of the ball, while being productive on offense. None of this came to be for the Braves as Lonzi was not able to get time in the pocket early on, and threw two interceptions on their first two drives. Following the second interception, Nick Scibilia hit his brother Mike on a deep pass to end zone from 38 yards out. Mike was turning out to be the early favorite for touchdown leader as his production was sky high from the first two games, and it continued with more this past Monday. Nick S. made his first mistake of the season on Mega Chargers next drive. While rolling right he decided to throw across his body to the left of the field, and waiting for him was Yusef who walked in the end zone for a short pick six. At this point the score was 7-7, but on the Mega Chargers next play, Dean Thompson decided to run past the entire Braves defense for a 50 yard score. The Braves again could not answer the score from the Mega Chargers, and were forced to punt after a drive of only negative plays. Nicholas hooked up with brother Mike once again on a 40 yard bomb on first down, and it was 20-13 at the end of the first half.
The Mega Chargers looked at their seven point halftime lead and immediately realized this was not good enough. So they went on to play a second half of perfection in which they scored 28 points without giving up one to the Braves. Mike Scibilia got his third touchdown of the day, and the other brother Joe Scibilia went deep as well for a 60 yard touchdown. The final score was 48-13, and their was little to no doubt who the team to beat in this years session was. It was some-what difficult to not give the player of the game to the Mega Chargers defense for that tumultuous second half of lock down pressure they put on Lonzi and the Braves. However It was impossible for me to look past what Mike Scibilia did during the game. He caught 4 passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns. Mike also had an interception returned for a TD to go with one flag pull on the defensive side. Honorable mentions were given out to Tom (4 sacks) and the QB Nicholas Scibilia (13-22 325 6 TDs). Expect another great stat line from these boys again when they take on Southside next Monday, who they recently defeated 65-0. As for the Braves they will have another shot at defeating Hellagoods who they recently lost to on PAT as time expired.