Donegeal, the Rock County Gladiator

[Donegeal]

Rock County has only about 180,000 to 200,000 people. It really is just tw cities... Janesville at 61,000 and Beloit at about 40,000 plus a bunck of smaller communities. Also, I believe the report they send is really just a fan who happens to work for the paper.

The newspaper, The Janesville Gazette, covers Rock, Walworth (where I work and a population of just over 100,000) and Green Counties (about 60,000). It is the primary newspaper for all three of those counties, so it actually has a pretty big readership.

[Donegeal]

So last night we traveled by team bus (we got ourselves a coach) to Lake Station Indiana to play the only team in our league that we haven't played yet, the Northwest Indiana Hitmen.

The Hitmen rolled into the game on a 3 game win streak and were 4-2 in league play.

We came in with a 6-0 record. A win here means we clinch the regular season title as there are only 2 games left in the regular season.

RC Gladiators 50
NWI Hitmen 21

They played us the hardest of all the teams (except for the defunct Wolverines), but again the score was no indictive of the game. Twice our receivers had beaten coverage deep and the ball goes just off the finger tips. Plus the first TD they scored was only because of poor clock management by the refs. The league rules state that the clock is susposed to start after a dropped pass or out of bounds play as soon as the ball is placed on the line. That never happened. They wouldn't start the clock until the ball was snapped. Now if you know football, that's alot of time. Because of this, they got in about 3 extra plays they shouldn't have and ended up scoring. Their last TD was also a BS call because it was a jump ball in the End Zone where both the WR and DB came down with the ball. All 4 hands were on the ball and neither could claim it, but it was definately caught. The ref should have waited to see who came up with the ball to make his call, but he didn't. He called a TD. Our DB came up with the ball.

I got to hand it to the Hitmen though. They did score a TD against us. That's the best anyone has done for over a month.

If anyone is going to beat us, it will be the Hitmen. They have a VERY good RB and their strength is in the running game. If our defense has a weakness, it is in stopping the run, so its as good a match up as anyone's got in this league.

We will most likely see them in the Championship game.

Their problem is that nobody has a passing game like we do. They don't even have the players to pratice defending against a game like ours. Namely that comes from Danny "Soup" Roberts. this week he was 18-22, 297 yards 6 TD 0 Int. MVP of the team... MVP of the league.

[SlowwHand]

I knew you were playing them, by the web site.
I need to find a place that reports scores quicker.
Congrats.

[Donegeal]

We played the Wolfpack again this week, however, I was not at the game. The wife and I had a vacation planned that I was not going to miss for a football game. Hell, two days before we left, my wife was hospitalized with the removal of an internal organ and discussion about missing this weekend never even came up.

Gladiators 32
Wolfpack 0

I guess the team can manage ok without me.

[Donegeal]

Well, it's been two weeks. We played our last regular season game last Saturday against the Wolverines. They are the team that we beat in the twilight in Gary Indiana about a month and a half ago (close game) and then got kicked out of the league the following week for racial slurs and lewd behavior. They signed a one game contract to abide by league rules so they could get a chance to play us again. The Wolverines and the Gladiators were far and away the two best teams in the league. This was kinda the unofficial championship. I didn't make it to the game. The night before the game I had a temp of over 102 and was puking all over the place. By the time the game started I was feeling better and just about ok enough to play, but I was working for someone that night and you don't call in sick when you're working for somebody (cause then they get charged for a sick day, not you).

Like I said in the last message, the team can manage without me.

Gladiators 35
Wolverines 22

Gladiators finished the regular season 9-0!

[Donegeal]

Yesterday, we played our first playoff game against the Illinois Seahawks. We beat them both times we played them, 44-12 and 50-0.

Before I get to the game, let me do some explaining about what has been going on inside the team:

We have 4 legitimate superstars on offense. Each of them are capable of taking over an offense and putting up great stats and win games. The problem is that there is only one football. People were getting upset with touches. So much so that the team started to splinter and snap at each other during practices. Last week, the snapping flowed over into the game against the Wolverines. It continued to the next practice last Wednesday and resulted in one of our guys leaving practice early and then subsequently having practice cancelled. It was getting very ugly. Things seem to settle down till game time. Even then, it seemed fine. But then for some reason, 10 minutes before the start of the game, one of our 4 superstars quit. Just walked off the field and left his jersey in the locker room. It was our starting Full Back.

You know what that means? It means that I got the starting FB spot again. I played alot in this game, and I did good. Very good. I didn't get any carries, but our two halfbacks put up good numbers and a great average running behind my blocks.

Anyway, the result was the same as always:

Gladiators 34
Seahawks 0

We scored 34 points in the first half. The second half we came out with a long time consuming drive (down to the 3) with all runs. Then we ran a fake toss naked boot and our QB got murdered. He hurt his shoulder and they recovered the fumble. The entire second quarter was just about shot, and our starting QB was out. We don't have a legitimate backup QB. Our offense drifted for the rest of the quarter and all we did was run the clock out in the fourth quarter.

This Saturday, we play the Great Lakes Wolfpack for the league championship. In the two games we have played them, we are a combined 66-0, however, they have been training like mad since the playoff started, and are going to be bringing their A game (and maybe a couple of extra players...). Soup will be fine for the game (Soup is our QB), and I will again have alot of playing time as the teams only FB.

On a personal level, I am extremely excited about this oppertunity. Back when I played in HS, the two years of varsity were 0-9 and 2-7 (and those two wins my senior year were the first two in five years for our varsity!). I have never played for a football championship, or even been in a playoff. It is great to be playing.

[Donegeal]

The Wolfpack refused to come up to Beloit for the Championship game, so we invited the regular season 2nd place team to come up and play, the Central Illinois Cardinals. They were 8-5 in league play. We never played them during the regular season, but we did play them in our last preseason game before they joined the NIFL. We beat them 38-12 then.

Since the team that we were susposed to play didn't come up, we declared ourselves the champions and called this came the Gladiator Bowl.

Gladiators 55
Cardinals 12

By the end of the first quater, we were only winning 13-6. At half it was 34-12. With the final of 55-12, guess how the second half went.

I didn't think I was going to get to play. In the last game, I got stepped on real bad. The pain got progressivly worse to the point where I could barely walk. I didn't go to a doctor because I know that he would tell me to not play. I tried to practice on Wednesday, but only made it for about 10 minutes before I had to pull myself out. My coworkers were nice to me over the next couple of days and let me work the desk, so work was no problem. Come this morning, I was still limping, but the pain was very minor (but the injury was looking bad. My ankle was swollen and my middle three toes were turning black and blue.). During pregame warm ups, I was a step off. I just couldn't accelerate with my left foot. I told the coach, but he put me in anyway. I played one series on offense before I was yanked from O. I did miss a couple of key blocks when I was out there, and I should have yanked myself. On kick covereage, I played contain. I never got within 20 feet of the ball. I was yanked off kick return from the start. Oh well. I actually played better than I thought I would.

The post season is over, and we finished 11-0 and 13-3 including preseason (which should count because you play balls to the wall in preseason too). We are now looking to nationals. I'd rather not play them and just get the break, but if the team plays, they can count on me. We will see in the next couple of days where that is going.

I will be going to the doctors on Monday for my foot.

Go Gladiators!!!

[-Jrabbit]

Congrats on your first championship, Donegeal!

[ColdWizard]

Good luck with the foot.

[Donegeal]

From the Janesville Gazette

Gladiators collect league title

The Rock County Gladiators put an impressive cap on their season, pounding Central Illinois 55-12 for the Northwest Indiana Football League championship Saturday.

As usual, the Gladiator's passing attack reigned supreme. Quarterback Danny Roberts completed 14 of 21 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns.

The Gladiators' Deejay Spencer returned pass interceptions, 41 and 65 yards for touchdowns. Spencer had three interceptions.

Rock County scored 36 points in the second quarter to put the game away.

"The offense just played well," Gladiators' coach Carter Linneman said. "Deejay made that first touchdown interception and the offense just exploded after that.''

The Gladiators finished the season 13-3 overall.

"We definitely will be back next year,'' Linneman said.

GLADIATORS 55, CENTRAL ILLINOIS 12

Central Illinois 6 6 0 0-12

Rock County 13 36 0 6-55

[Donegeal]

From the Beloit Daily News

Gladiators romp past Cardinals

Team rules NIFL

It's hard to say whether the Rock County Gladiators or the Northwest Indiana Football League will be happier when the two part ways.

The Gladiators are likely bored with pummeling the other teams in the NIFL and their opponents, well, who enjoys being pummeled?

Obviously not the Great Lakes Wolfpack. When notified that they were playing the Gladiators for a third time in the NIFL Championship Game Saturday they said thanks, but no thanks.

That was OK with the Gladiators. They'd won the earlier meetings by a combined 62-0 score and thought the Central Illinois Cardinals, who did accept the invitation, were the better team anyway.

The appreciative Gladiators crushed the Cardinals, 55-12, at Rock County Football Park.

“This team actually had a better record than the team we were supposed to play, but they entered the league after the season had begun so the league said they were ineligible for the playoffs,” said the game's Defensive MVP, DeeJay Spencer. “We thought that was wrong to begin with so we were happy to play them.”

Rock County led only 13-6 after the first quarter, but put up 36 points in the second to bury the Cardinals and finish 11-0 against NIFL teams. They're 13-3 overall.

“We've come a long way since May,” Gladiators head coach Carter Linneman said. “After we lost to the Roscoe Rush, I think our team stepped up and we got better every week. We are fortunate to have so many playmakers.”

The game's Offensive MVP, quarterback Danny Roberts, completed 14-of-21 passes for 205 yards and four touchdowns. Safety Spencer, the ex-Turner Trojan, intercepted three passes and returned two for touchdowns of 41 and 66 yards.

“Coach said I'm usually in the right place at the right time, so I can't argue with him,” Spencer said. “My first love is still running back. Once I get the ball, the running back instincts take over.”

Roberts threw TD passes of 6 and 11 yards to Nate Wallman, 21 yards to Jermar Ayers and 19 yards to Josh Fox. The Gladiators also had TD runs of 6 yards by Preston Parker and 5 by Curtis Parker.

Despite the lop-sided score, the Cardinals kept up a steady torrent of trash talk, which didn't bother Spencer a bit.

“I talk trash, too, so I'm not going to complain,” he said. “I think my trash talk isn't bad. It's not the, we're going to meet you after the game stuff. It's just fun and games.”

NOTES: The Gladiators' season could still go on. Linneman said the team has received an invitation to play in the AA national tournament. At any rate, they have seen enough of the NIFL. Linneman said they have invitations from “around six leagues” about next year. He also said the team hopes to return to the old Beloit Catholic field. “I was amazed with the support we received from the community in our first year,” he said.

[Donegeal]

Another note: Jemar Ayers, the WR pictured above, might not be with us next season. He was invited to tryout for the Chicago Rush next month.

[notyoueither]

Congrats on the championship, Done.

[MOBIUS]

Congrats on a perfect season!

We fell at the penultimate hurdle losing out to the eventual Div 2 Champs in the Semis, so no embarrassment there...

Our overall record was 9-1 in the regular season, and 1-1 in the playoffs.

I had a decent season as a 2nd string halfback with my best play being a 20yd TD run. There's definite room for improvement for next year as I finished this season strongly, so I guess I'll be around for a little longer...

[SlowwHand]

Cool deal.