Intensity Loss to Fox Shatters Championship Game Quest

MEDWAY, MA - The New England Intensity of the Independent Women's Football League (IWFL), was just one win away from playing in the Championship Game this season.  A relatively-last-minute change to what was widely anticipated to be a playoff game versus Montreal, the subsequent scrambling to make travel arrangements (more on this later), the long trip, and facing a motivated and well-prepared Clarksville squad added up to a tough loss for New England.

On the heels of the emotional must win victory versus archrival Manchester on June 14^th, it was assumed that the geography of the New England-Montreal playoff matchup would logically lend itself to the two teams competing against each other for a third time this season.  However, league by-laws stipulated otherwise (points scored/points allowed/etc.) and the Intensity had to find a way to get itself to Clarksville, Tennessee in less than two weeks (Clarksville is about a 17-hour drive from Boston, an hour northwest of Nashville). Unphased, the Intensity rallied around this unforeseen obstacle and within 3 days everyone had a plane ticket, lodging, and ground transportation arrangements made.  Behind the scenes, the Intensity had its true teammates, with several players donating money to their teammates that were financially struggling to be able to make the trip.   "We are a team and we need as much of the team together in Tennessee as possible" was the overwhelming sentiment. 

Two solid weeks of practices had the team very confident and optimistic as everyone made their way to the various New England airports on Friday.  Head Coach Twitchell called the two weeks preceding the playoffs the best two weeks of practice the team had all season.  Unfortunately, Offensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach Bill Griffin was unable to make the trip as he and his wife spent the better part of the weekend in the hospital eagerly awaiting the arrival of their 1^st child, daughter Kelly (who officially joined the ranks of the Intensity faithful on June 30^th?congrats to Griff and his wife!!!).

With temps in the high 80s and humidity hovering around 55-65% in rural Tennessee that began to cool somewhat for the 7pm start, Jojo Gauthier kicked off to open the game and the speedy returner for the Fox looked as if she might break free for a TD to open the game if not for a nice tackle by Lizz Vogel.  Maia Goodall would come up huge on the opening defensive stand as she recorded three of her six tackle assists on this drive before Clarksville fumbled on the NE 14 and Game Day MVP Bridget Cambria recovered the loose ball. 

Bridget played the best game of her career en route to earning the Game Day MVP honors, finishing with an interception, two sacks, a fumble caused, and a fumbled recovered?and this was only her 3^rd full game at DE!!! 

The offensive woes that would ultimately define this game for NE were not evident at the beginning of the first drive as Captain Steph Samuelson and Tricia Donovan ripped off runs of 4 and 8 yards, respectively.  The latter being added to by a 15-yard facemask penalty against the home team.  Suzanne Dubey and Lisa Vincent would both contribute positive yards on this drive before Gauthier would make her first of 9 punts.  Another long special teams return for Clarksville set them up with outstanding field position again (this time the NE 49).

New England's defense, hard-nosed and tough for the vast majority of the season, dug its heels in and stuffed the potent running attack of the Fox for two short gains on the first two plays of the drive with Vogel making a nice solo tackle on first down and Kelly Kraynak (team leading 7.5 total tackles) and Kate Miechkowski doing the same on 2^nd down.   Goodall, playing inspired football for pretty much the entire season, sniffed out the loose ball on 3^rd down and recovered the fumble to give the Intensity possession at their own 43.

Two short runs, an offensive penalty and an incomplete pass later and this drive was over as Gauthier came out to punt.  In familiar fashion, the Fox return team ate up a large chunk of yardage to set them up on the NE side of midfield yet again.  This time it would cost the visitors, as a long pass on 1^st down brought Clarksville inside the 10, they promptly ran a sweep right and took a 6-0 lead with 1:52 left in the first quarter.  They were unable to convert the 2Pt pass attempt, though their tight end was wide open coming right to left across the endzone and the score remained 6-0.

The short kickoff was fielded nicely by Lisa Close who was able to advance the ball to the NE 46 where the ?O' hoped to get things moving.  Samuelson ripped of an 9.9 yard run (as a visiting team, it always seemed that Intensity was on the short end of the stick) that was spotted about 5 microns short of the first down.  Clarksville, to their credit, was beginning to solve the New England run offense and actually pushed the visitors to 3^rd and 1, stuffing two running plays, before the Intensity committed another offensive penalty (in all, NE was tagged for 7 penalties totaling 65 yards . . . more than they had in the previous two games combined), bringing up 4^th and 6.  No need to fear, Samuelson is here!  Finding seams and dragging defenders with her, Steph somehow scrapped her way to a first down to open the 2^nd quarter and keep the drive alive.  This joy would be short lived as Dubey was stopped for a 3 yard loss on the next play and NE would fumble the ball away on 2^nd down?Clarksville recovered on their 48 yard line. 

Fortunately for the Intensity, the Defense was not about to yield.  On 2^nd and short,  MVP Cambria sacked the Fox QB and caused a fumble that Captain Jennifer Edwards (2 solo, 2 assists) recovered on the NE 46.   Sadly, Clarksville, having no doubt taken note of the one-dimensional tendency on offense of New England, really began to turn up the heat with 4-man run blitzes.  Without their Offensive Coordinator, New England was not able to make the necessary adjustments. The results were as predictable as they were disastrous [for NE] as two runs for negative yards were followed by a sack . . . and then a short punt.

Stacey DeLuca, another greatly improved performer, downed the short punt to prevent another damaging return by Clarksville.  A few plays later, she was in on the tackle stuffing the Fox for barely a one yard gain on first down, and followed that up with recovering the fumble by the home team on 2^nd down, stopping their drive on the NE 32. 

Increasingly, it was proving tough for the Intensity offense as another three and out was what transpired after the strong defensive stand.  Preferring a short punt with no return to a longer punt that would give the Fox a chance to really break one, Gauthier aimed away from the returners and the punt went out of bounds at the NE 44.

Despite the strong efforts of Kraynak (1 solo and 1 assist on this drive) and Torrance Brown (2 solo tackles on this drive), the home team found the endzone.  This time on a pass from 8 yards out with just over two minutes left in the first half.   Once again, their 2Pt attempt would fail as Cambria sacked the QB, minimizing the damage to only 12-0. 

As someone once said, it was déjà vu all over again . . . two short runs, a sack, then a short punt out of bounds and New England found itself in the unenviable position of having to make a strong stand to keep Clarksville from really pulling ahead before halftime.   Enter Bridget Cambria.  Diagnosing the play from her DE position, she stayed low back in her containing position, likely out of view of the Fox QB, then, reading the eyes of the QB, she sliced into position to pick off the 2^nd down pass play?New England's 4^th takeaway of the half!!  With less than a minute remaining, nothing occurred that caused the 12-0 score to change before the teams headed to the break.

The Intensity, trying to regroup and figure out how they could take some of the steam out of the high flying defense of Clarksville, decided to narrow their splits on the O Line?though 5 blocking 9 will never work, regardless of the splits, what was really needed was a few successful short pass plays to force the 4 blitzing LBs to stay at home more. 

New England was set to receive the ball to open the 3^rd, and Donovan rattled off a 23-yard return (she had 50 total KO return yards on the day) to give NE the ball just their side of midfield.  Not much had changed on offense though, as two very short runs, followed by two false-start penalties (one on Brown who, in her 6-year career, had never been whistled for a penalty before . . . talk about bad-timing!) and another short run brought out Gauthier for another short punt out of bounds. 

Sameulson, though having a tough day on offense (20 carries for 22 yards), was having a very busy and productive day on defense (2 solo and 2 assists as well as an interception)?this really was becoming the norm for her as she would end up tied for 10^th on the team in total tackles as her role on defense grew over the course of the season.   She saved a touchdown [albeit only temporarily], by chasing down the Fox runner after an 18 yard scamper.  Brown and Goodall combined for a two yard tackle for loss on the next play, but, being dinner time, some good ol' southern home cookin' was due and a questionable facemask was called on Goodall.  Clarksville would score on their next play to push the score to 18-0.   The ensuing 2Pt pass attempt fell incomplete.

A relatively deep kick by the Fox was returned for 18 yards by Samuelson, bringing the O back out on their 44.  The first play on this drive was a pass attempt--doubtless to try and catch the defenders off guard?that was picked off and run back all the way to the NE 14, where Donovan was able to save the sure touchdown for Clarksville.

At this point in the game, down by 3 scores and struggling mightily on both offense and special teams, the Intensity could have easily rolled over and let the game get away from them.  In years past, that probably would have been what happened.  The 2008 squad, however, has never done that all season and they were not about to now.  The defense, rallied by the adversity and by their cheering and uplifting teammates, took the field with only 14 yards between the ball and their goal line.   Their stand went like this:  incomplete pass, false start on Clarksville, run stuffed for a two yard loss by Brown (team leading 4 solo tackles and 3 assists) and Kraynak, short pass completed, block in the back on Clarksville, and an interception on the 5 yard line by Samuelson who brought it back to the NE 32.  How's that for true grit!!!

It was just not meant to be for the O this day, as two runs for negative yards forced a passing situation that was intercepted and returned even deeper into NE territory, this time to the 8 yard line before Dubey (6 assists) and Captain Anita Barnes (1 solo and 4 assists) ran the play down. 

The D came out swinging again, as Brown stuffed the run for no gain . . . though another questionable facemask on Goodall halved the distance to the goal.  Clearly agitated by the officials, Goodall teamed with Dubey to stuff the runner in her tracks on the next play.  The valiant effort by the D in almost impossible conditions was not enough to keep the Fox from scoring again.  A 3 yard TD run with 2:12 left in the 3^rd to widen their lead to 24-0.  26-0 after their successful 2Pt run.

The third Quarter number would end 26-0 and NE would open the 4^th with another short punt that was fortunately downed?this time by Close, at the Clarksville 49.

The wounded but not slain defense took the field again and it was the Brown/Kraynak/Goodall show as the stuffed the home teams runs for very short gains on the first three plays of the drive.  DeLuca defended a 4^th and 7 pass attempt and NE would take over on downs, hoping to post a few points before the contest ended.

No such luck.  Three and out was the order of the day it seemed, followed by a short punt that went out of bounds at midfield.

The Fox QB, under heavy pressure, heaved up a desperation pass that was, sadly, caught for a 50 yard touchdown, pushing the score to 32-0 with just over 10 minutes to play.  Close defended the 2Pt pass attempt?either Clarksville has no kicking game whatsoever or they have no class whatsoever?and the scored stayed 32-0.

Donovan managed 17 yards on the kickoff return, but there was no change in the offensive production.  Three plays later Gauthier was punting again.  The defense would not rest, pride was still on the line even if the game was not.  As Nancy O'Loughlin and Kim Kisiel jumped right in and boosted the weary front line by contributing to a couple of stops for very short gains.  Edwards ensured that there would be no more points scored on New England with a very athletic pursuit and tackle for loss, pushing Clarksville out of NE territory?quite a violent hit that was altogether fitting a proper, given that the home team did not have to even run this play (they could have taken a knee).  This would be the last tackle by the Intensity this season as Clarksville finally decided to take a knee and ran the clock out on the next play. 

For all of the hype surrounding the Clarksville offense, the Intensity D held quite well.  The 32 points are not indicative of how the game went, especially given the difficulties New England had on offense, special teams, and having one one coach versus 7 on the Fox sideline.  In fact, NE had an average starting position of it's own 40 yard line, while Clarksville, on average, started on the Intensity 42.  New England forced 6 turnovers (4 fumbles and 2 interceptions), but was unable to capitalize on them.  Clarksville was held to 149 yards on the ground (on 36 carries?barely a 4 yard average) and 103 in the air on 13 attempts (almost half coming on the 50 yd Hail Mary TD pass in the 4^th quarter).   What Clarksville was quite proficient at was stopping the Intensity's attack, holding them to only 19 rushing yards and no passing yards.  So, in the end, the Fox prevail 32-0.

A comparison of the 2007 and 2008 seasons reveals some very promising trends and provides a few closing notes:  New England rushed for almost 700 more yards in 2008, averaging 1.5 yards more per carry (3.9 in 2007 vs. 5.4 in 2008).  The Intensity scored 61 more points and gave up 63 fewer than 2007.   Despite losing the starting QB from 2006 and 2007, the NE average yards per receptions was virtually unchanged in 2008 (11.1 in 2007, 11.0 in 2008).   The 2008 team also broke the 2006 team's record of yards per game (304.9 in '06, 315.1 in '08).

The 2008 defense had more tackle assists, sacks, fumble recoveries, fumble recovery yards,  interceptions, interception return yards, passes defended, safeties, blocked PATs, and blocked punts than 2007. 

On special teams, New England's 2008 squad improved their kickoff return average by almost 2 yards per return and their punt return average by almost 8 yards per return compared to 2007.

The 2008 squad also had fewer total penalties and penalty yards, as well as no unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (they had 3 of these in 2007).  Also improved was the average starting position for the Intensity . . . N37 in '07, N48 in '08.

Most important barometer, is the won-loss column.  In 2007, complete with all Veteran players, the team was 3-5 and did not qualify for post season play.  The 2008 team, that lost 13 starters form 2007, finished an impressive 5-3 and made it to the Conference Championship Game. The Intensity's success was largely due to hard work as attendance improved from 70% to 83% and acquisition of new talent to balance out hole sin the depth chart due to the loss of the 13 starters. 

Head Coach Bob Twitchell, oftentimes a one-man band, did move into a tie for all time wins by a head coach for the franchise, and into sole possession of the all time best winning %.  Way to go, coach!!

The Intensity expresses its heartfelt gratitude to all the loyal fans, volunteers, family and friends for their support of our organization.  It also wishes to express thanks to everyone that is a member of the organization for the sacrifice, dedication and positive attitude.  Without these things, we would not have made the strides we did this season!