Mission Bowl 2011 Recap

 (much of this is my own memory, so help me out with any errors I might have made.)

Prologue: (skip this to get straight to the recap)

It's been a LONG time since I've written a recap of Mission Bowl.  The last recap i wrote was Fall of 2008.  Before that I wrote one for Feb 2008 (we had two tournaments in 2008) and before that it was Feb of 2007.  Go ahead and read that if you want to know more about Team United's history.  There was no tournament in 2009 because they pushed the Fall 2009 tournament back a couple of months to Feb of 2010.  Last year, Feb 2010, I coached team United to a 3-0 round robin record and the #1 seed, but we were beaten by Kairos in the semi-finals 7-6.  That was my last year of coaching.  This year, Eric Chan took over as head coached and installed Steve Chen as his offensive coordinator and Clarence Chiu as his defensive coordinator.   

I didn't go to many of the practices because I was not a coach but I did go to some because Cindy was on the team this year.  I really didn't know much about this team except for what Eric told me.  The last practice of the year, Eric had a lot of the coaches and guy helpers play scrimmage against United.  I was shocked when United's offense basically scored at will against a team full of guys.  I knew from that point that this team would be good.  They were out running us, out jumping us, and Sylvia and Kelly both had precision passes that were flying right over the defender's hands and into the hands of the receiver.  

Hope:

This years tournament started off with Hope.  Hope seemed to have a very different team this year than in years past.  In years past, Hope would constantly run the option, but this year the option was gone. They brought a lot of pressure against us and the offense stalled a couple times due to some bad snaps.  When Hope had the ball, they quickly threw a couple of long passes up the sidelines and they were up 6-0 and then 12-0.  Our defense was not moving around very well in the zone.  We were down 12-0, how could that be?  I knew that the team was good because of how well they performed in practice so I was confident they would make a comeback if they just got the snap problems fixed and once the defense was less nervous.  Quickly before half time our offense drove down the field and scored a TD making it 12-6.  After the half, the offense quickly scored again making the score tied at 12-12.  At this point, Hope changed up their strategy and started rushing 4 at Sylvia.  Our offense quickly adjusted and started throwing screens to take advantage of this, but even though the offense would gain yards, it could never break the big play.  With the first down being every 20 yards, we needed the big play to score.  It didn't happen and the game ended in a 12-12 tie.    

Southland:

The next team we played was Southland.  Southland was last year's defending champions.  They had beaten Kairos to win the championship last year and we had never played them before.  They came down from Orange County and were rumored to play women's football tournaments all the time.  They only brought about 15 players to this years tournament because of a date conflict, so we didn't know what to expect.  Were they going to be the dominant team that they were rumored to be?  Or would they be a weaker team due to the lack of players?  We knew that they loved to run the ball, but we'd never seen them in action.  I think we scored on our first or second drive.  It was a very quick score taking advantage of a couple long passes.  Southland seemed to be caught off guard with how easily we were able to throw the ball. 

Southland's offense was a double wing offense with no wide receivers.  They would do a lot of tricky misdirection and fake hand offs and then run the ball.  Our defense was prepared however.  They contained the run fairly easily and even when Southland was able to gain some yardage, it wasn't much.  They quickly resorted to throwing the ball.  Their passing offense was not as refined as their running plays.  Our defense had forced them out of their comfort zone and they weren't able to move the ball around very much.  I was so excited because I love seeing teams getting forced out of their comfort zone and needing to adjust.  

Southland's defense adjusted to our throwing style of offense and was able to shut down a lot of the long passes.  Even when we were able to complete a long pass, they wouldn't give us the second long pass that would lead to the touchdown.  The game ended up being a defensive struggle that ended in a 6-0 win for United.  After the game, I still didn't see what enabled Southland to run over teams last year.  They were still a huge mystery to me.  Were they good or not?  

The Lunch Break:

During the lunch break we looked at the standings.  At this point the most fearsome team looked to be Kairos.  They had beaten Lighthouse 27-6 and Harbor 19-6.   27 points was amazing.  You can look back on my previous recaps.  27 points was the most points I had ever heard of being scored on a team.  20 points would usually guarantee victory in this tournament.  They were dominating with a high powered offense. We weren't going to play them in the round robin and we didn't want to play them in the first round of the playoffs, so we knew that we needed to win and get a good point differential in order to get the 2nd or 3rd seed.  In the last two years, United only had 2 losses in the entire tournament and both of them were to Kairos.  We also tied with them for the co-championship in Fall 2008 so we knew how good they could be.  Their passing style of offense always gave our defense trouble and their defense knew how to play the pass which has traditionally been our strength. 

Harbor:

Harbor is always the team that had the same colored jersey as us.  They were very good in certain years and not so good in certain years.  This year we had no idea what to expect.  The game started off 12-0 for United.  Sylvia started clicking and she kept hitting the corners to Jess and a couple to Crystal.  There was a long play where Harbor threw for a touchdown against us.  The long pass has always been our defense's weakness, but we pretty much held Harbor in check.  They had to throw a lot because they were behind and it ended up in a couple interceptions for us.  After the TD for Harbor, Sylvia started becoming even more deadly accurate.  She hit the QB zone where every pass was made.  They kept throwing to all of our receivers.  Kelly, Tam, Jess, Natasha, Crystal, all caught TDs or big passes.  Jess made a couple of spectacular grabs and then would turn and run ditching a bunch of defenders in her wake.  At half it was already 27-6.  we were blowing the other team out.  27 points at the half!  WOW.  That was crazy.  Where could we go from there?

Eric decided to rest Sylvia at that point and put in Kelly at QB.  But we still want to get more points in case it came down to a tie between Hope and us for the 3rd seed.  Again, we didn't want to play Kairos. The second half was more of the same.  Kelly threw touchdown passes and even ran for a touchdown herself.  She kept darting between defenders.  Her playstyle was very similar to Sylvia's.  We scored two additional touchdowns and the final score was 40-6.  40 points!  I was going crazy!  We kept on throwing and throwing and nothing could stifle Sylvia or Kelly the entire game.  They had nobody to match up against the height of the receivers!  It was amazing. At that point I knew that this team was insane.  I had NEVER heard of any team getting close to 40 points in a game against ANY opponent.  This team was a cut above ANY team I had ever seen offensively and execution-wise.  I knew Sylvia had grown up from being a decent quarterback two years ago, to a good quarterback last year, to a great one this year. 

Berean:

At this point we were 2-0-1 and it looked like we were going to make the playoffs.  We were playing this unknown Berean team that was also from Orange County just like Southland.  If they were from Orange County and coming down to San Diego to play a football tournament, they must be really into football.  Berean had also just knocked off Kairos which was interesting.  At the lunch break we thought Kairos was the scariest opponent because they had scored 27 on a team, which is considered a lot.  In the course of one game, Berean beat Kairos (22-19 I think was the score?) and we had just put up 40 points on a team.  Berean was 1-2 at this point.  They had not even scored a point until they put 22 points on Kairos.  That's strange.  What happened during the lunch break?  Was this team a good team or not a good team?  I had no idea.

The offense started off slowly in this game with the first drive sputtering without doing much.  Berean came out with their offense and featured a running game with a very good fake.  It was an end around and a fake end around.  This run tricked our defense into getting out of position a number of times and they ran for pretty big yardage a couple times.  The defense was not sealing off the edge and Berean would run along the sidelines for big yardage.  Right when the defense was flustered at the inability to defend the run, Berean would throw a long pass down the middle of the field to their Tight End #87. The name on the back of her jersey was "Beast."  The defense was getting very flustered at their inability to stop Berean's offense. 

On defense, Berean put a LOT of pressure on the quarterback.  Sylvia was getting pressured in a lot of different areas.  They would run corner blitzes and kept Sylvia off balanced.  We were able to score one touchdown in the first half but after that, it was very difficult for the offense to get on track.  We went into halftime down 12-6 

At halftime the coaches made great adjustments.  They put Kelly in on defense specifically to shut down #87 and also reinforced the defense's need to contain the run and also for the corners to cut off the sidelines.  With those adjustments in play, the second half went much better.   Bereans offense could not do anything at that point.  They couldn't run though they tried a couple times.  They couldn't reach the sidelines so they would cut back through the middle gaining 5 yards or so which is not enough in this league.  They tried to throw to the corners instead of the middle targeting receivers other than 87, but the receivers would drop the ball or the pass would be off or defended.  Without the 87 connection, their passing game was much worse.  Kelly made a couple of big plays in the middle of the field denying #87.  The defense came up with a couple of big stops and the girls started getting big smiles on their faces.  This didn't happen the entire first half and now they were stopping Berean.

Right after the half the defense got a stop and then the offense stalled on their first drive of the half.  The defense got another stop and then the offense moved the ball to the end zone and scored.  It was difficult to score given the amount of pressure that Sylvia was under, but the good gameplan came through.  We were tied 12-12.

It was a defensive struggle for the rest of the game and Berean had the ball near the end of the game.  Berean was behind and time was running out so they needed to throw the ball.  They threw the ball to the middle again, but Kelly intercepted the ball and ran it back for a game sealing touchdown.  We won the game 19-12.

Semi-Finals - Kairos:

Kairos played Southland in their final round robin game and lost 0-6.  They weren't really trying their hardest given that they had to face either Hope, or United and perhaps they preferred to face United due to the history?  Kairos has long been an arch-nemesis of United.  Like I said earlier, in the past two years (now 3 years), United had only lost two games total, both were to Kairos.  In the past 5 years (since 2007) United had only lost 4 games total, 3 of which were to Kairos.  We shared a co-championship with them in 2008 and we had never beaten them in a playoff game.  We played Kairos four times in the past two years and every year since 2007.  We were a combined record of 2-3-1 against them.  Kairos was an important team to beat if the team was to win a championship. 

The game started off slowly.  There were a couple three and outs before Kairos started throwing the ball long.  There were two huge deep completions from Esther to Superstina and our defense quickly made adjustments to play #1 really deep whenever she was in the game.  They allowed her to get some yardage in the middle, but after that the deep ball was largely stopped.  Kairos' offense had a number of play fakes in the back, but they rarely ran the ball.  They often faked it to runningbacks and then threw the ball deep.  Our safeties played very deep the entire game.  Kairos was able to move the ball, but they were never really able to break the defense. 

On offense, Kairos also knew how to play against the United offense.  They moved quickly in their zones and played fairly deep zones.  We were still able to move the ball, but not consistently.  One on fourth down try, Eric ordered up a trick halfback pass.  Sylvia dumped the ball off to Kelly.  As Kelly was catching the ball, Sylvia herself ran a slant across the middle of the field and Kelly hit her in stride for the first down.  It was a great play and a great call.  The offense then scored on a screen pass to I think... Eleasa? The score was 6-0.

Kairos came back with a trick play of their own... the patented reverse.  They run this play every year at least once against us.  The co-championship year ended with this play.  They usually get a good number of yards and this year was no different.  They gained about 20 yards and a first down on the reverse.  The defense continue to play deep and play solid not giving up any big plays.  The offense then put together another drive near the end of the game sealing the score 12-0. 

Championship Game - Southland

Southland beat Hope easily to reach the championship game.  They had not been scored on at all since the first game which United played them.  They had rolled over every opponent 14-0, 16-0.  They didn't score a lot, but kept the ball and never gave up touchdowns.  I watched a little bit of the Southland/Hope game and it was clear that Southland was playing completely different from when we saw them in the first game they played.  The defense was faster, the quarterback was rolling out and throwing the ball accurately on the run.  It was a pretty scary looking team.  I don't know if they just got warmed up or if they were holding something back during the first game.  

The championship game began with uneventfully.  We couldn't get much going and Southland started running on our team.  They were able to get a few runs in the middle of the field where we missed 2-3 flag grabs.  They then scored on a deep pass along the sideline.  We were already down 0-6.  Southland was an extremely quick team and very disciplined.  This team really scared me just watching them because they looked so good.  The flags they were pulling were one handed while running full speed or while diving or while sliding.  The defense was swarming and extremely fast.  The offense was able to run the ball a lot better than in the first game because they were so fast.  While they did have good blocking, the evasiveness and speed of their players really made it difficult.  This was probably one of the fastest all around teams I had ever seen. The first part of the game was extremely difficult for our team. 

But then our offense got going.

Sylvia began connecting with receiver after receiver.  It was Crystal going up and yanking the ball down while covered by two receivers.  It was Kelly coming out of the backfield on a screen pass and running for 20 yards.  It was Jess on a corner route.  We quickly scored making it 6-6 tie.  While the defense was having a difficult time against Southland, because they didn't throw the ball downfield consistently, they couldn't score as easily.  They would move the ball close to the goal line but then stall.  Cindy caught an interception on one of those drives.  YAY!  Sylvia got the back back and drove down for another score putting us up 12-6.  That is when the half ended.

We were up 12-6 at the half and the first offensive possession of the second half we scored again putting us up 19-6.  Then we started to feel comfortable.  But immediately on the next drive, Southland answered with a deep pass to the sideline.  Their receiver ran with so much speed all the way down the field and with one play, it was 19-13.  We were only up by 6 points.  When we got the ball back on the next drive.  Sylvia drove the ball down the field methodically hitting Crystal on a deep corner pass again that moved United close to their goal line.  The very next play, Sylvia hit Crystal again o a deep pass to the corner.  I thought the ball was thrown out of bounds but Crystal made the best catch I had ever seen with two toes in the end zone and a full extension grab barely in bounds.  Touchdown!  The score was now 25-13.  

Southland wasn't done yet.  They began to expose the middle of the field.  We put Kelly in the middle to stop their passes, but they kept completing slants and would weave down the middle of the field.  They scored on an amazing pass to the sideline.  There were two defenders on the receiver but the ball was placed so perfectly that the receiver barely caught it in the endzone and in bounds.  It was still a very tight game.  There were only about two minutes left at this point and we got the ball back.  We wanted to run out the clock as best as we could so we ran a couple of running plays, but it didn't eat up enough time.  The offense couldn't convert the third down and we had to give the ball back to Southland with only 50 seconds left.  It was up to the defense now.  

Southland threw the ball a couple times and moved the ball to midfield.  Then on the next pass, it went to the middle, and into Kelly's arms for a game sealing interception!  We had won the Championship!

Conclusion:

This year's team was amazing.  It was definitely the best team I had ever seen in the 2 years that I was offensive coordinator and the 3 years that I was head coach.  This team definitely deserved to win the championship.  

6 years ago, we began this journey with 13 players and a team called "Girls play hard 2."  We lost every game going 0-3.  Every year we built upon the previous years getting better and developing deeper relationships.  The 2nd year, we went 2-1 but just missed the playoffs due to point differential.  The 3rd year we went 4-1.  We were the # 1 seed in the playoffs and were undefeated going into the championship where we lost to Lighthouse.  The 4th year, we went 4-1-1, tying Kairos in the championship.  The 5th year we went 3-1, again gaining the #1 seed but losing to Kairos in the semi-finals. 

Yesterday we won the championship going 5-0-1.  Along the way we made a lot of friends and a lot of good relationships were forged.  CEC and CBC have seriously formed a tight bond between the two churches that 6 years ago I never would have thought was possible.  We won a co-championship along the way.  Unfortunately, I don't think anybody was satisfied with the co-championship.  Kairos spoke of the co-championship year like they really won a championship but we spoke of it as coming up short.  But we told the girls that this team was not about winning first.  It was about the fellowship and relationships first.  United has always been about that.  The name itself reflects that culture that we've developed at United.  This year we finally won the championship and it was great to see the sheer joy in Sylvia's face as Eric handed her the trophy.  Her face was the HIGHLIGHT of my day.  We never got to hold the trophy during the co-championship year, but this year we did.  It was amazing feeling that only highlights the relationships that have been developed.  Congratulations ladies!

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