The first week of the brand new season is complete. What does that mean? Most of you are probably sore, you’ve updated your profile picture on facebook, and you’re awaiting all of the awesome features that we provide for your post-game enjoyment. Once the action is over on Saturday, the creative gears start going to get up all of the highlights, awards, pictures, game recaps, etc. We always keep you guys updated with the progress of this stuff on our Facebook account. So if you aren’t already friends with us, add the TFFL on Facebook.
**ALL HIGHLIGHTS UPDATED ON YOUTUBE**
**PLAYERS OF THE WEEK UPDATED**
EnerG defeats Dream Killers 14-2
The first game of Season 2 pitted two new but, familiar faces against each other. EnerG, formerly the Winston Salem Predators and the Dream Killers, formerly the Whitsett Warriors would face off to see which team would get the first W of the season. Both teams added some new faces but the bigger of the acquisitions would correlate with the scoreboard. EnerG picked up new Quarterback and former Winston Salem State/Parkland HS standout Monte Purvis. In his TFFL debut, he looked very solid. He had a couple dropped passes that may have been able to boost his stats a bit. Mike Carr caught a TD from him and Dan Judge received a lateral touchdown from a pitch by Purvis.
The Dream Killers were without their new quarterback Chris Bray but the team still looked adequate. Billy Morehead was the defensive player of the week for his performance, racking up 6 pulls, 3 sacks, and 1 safety. Deon Jacob had 3 pulls and 1 interception. Kyre Myreon had 3 pulls too. Josh Morehead’s offense won’t really pick up until Bray arrives. With talent at the WR position and adequate blocking up front by Carl Mentz, this team just needs a QB to show out.
Conquerors defeat Prime Time Ballers 12-9
The 2nd match-up of the season pitted two brand new teams to the league against each other. Luther Brock of the Conquerors and TJ Simmons of the Prime Time Ballers both really wanted to get their first win. In the closest game of the day, it came down to the last minute. The Conquerors featured an offense ran by Jay Winton which was primarily run first. Whether it was the option or the HB belly up the middle to Jit Sanders, the Conquerors had the offensive line to move the ball that way. There were barely any completed passes by the offense but the only one that mattered came in the final minute. Down 9-6 after a PTB Ricky Nickerson TD, Jay Winton would connect with Jit Sanders on a deep pass down the left sideline for the game winning touchdown. Brison Lyons provided a lot of clutch pulls to keep the Ballers from getting first downs.
TJ Simmons looked great weaving in and out of defenders but him playing QB hurt the team since the defense stacked the box, as to not fear the throw. PTB QB Jeremy Ramsey was ejected from the game for tying his flag belt early on but for the 1 series he played, he marched the team down to the goal line. The Ballers are a young, enthusiastic bunch that with time will do good things.
Bombsquad defeats Dream Killers 24-6
The BOOOOOOMs were loud and clear. The Bombsquad was back in action featuring an interesting offense. Lamont Harris started at QB over Season 1 All-Star Jeremy Davis. The two QB’s rotated and both looked good. Harris threw 2 TD’s and no INT’s while Davis threw 1 TD and 1 INT. It would seem that the featured player in the offense was RB Glen Bell. He caught 3 passes and 1 TD and had several solid runs. The Bombsquad insisted upon getting the ball into his hands. Defensively Earl Wallace and Donte Murdock kept the pressure up high on the Dream Killers QB forcing several errant passes. One of which Alex Winters snagged with 1 hand and returned for a touchdown.
The Dream Killers were coming off a tough loss to EnerG and couldn’t get much going. Josh Morehead didn’t have any time to throw at QB as the rush was getting in very fast. The one touchdown for the Killers came on a center-handoff-snap play to Don Knight where he rumbled into the endzone nearly untouched from about 6-8 yards out. Chris Knight caught a beautiful bomb down the right sideline from Josh Morehead.
Regulators defeat Brothers in Arms 44-6
The Regulators had a very impressive TFFL debut with a large win over BIA. Regulators QB Travis Allred threw 5 touchdowns on the day. Among the receivers catching them were Antonio Hall, Brian Terwilliger, DJ Hall, Dee Hicks, and Lymand Roddy. The Regulators blocking up front was masterful as Allred had all day to make passes behind the blocking of Marcus Carter. Defensively Antonio Hall, Bo Willimson, and Chris Noel intercepted passes. The Regulators did as they pleased offensively and defensively.
Brothers in Arms did not look like the team that made it to the semi-finals of Season 1. They were without Leo Guavera and Tyriek Able but still should have had a much better showing. Captain John Martin and Cam Baldwin had some athletic pulls and contributed on defense however there were some blown coverages they couldn’t make up for with their athleticism. Tez Moore and Tay Lowe had a couple very nice catches, one of which was a TD to Moore. BIA told us they will not have a showing like that again, as they intend to rectify what happened at practice this week. We shall see.
Ninja Turtles defeat Bulldogs 20-16
One of the most entertaining games of the day was the Bulldogs and Turtles. The Turtles played with 9 guys and the exhaustion caught up with them going both ways but they pulled it out in the end. The Turtles jumped out to a quick lead but the Bulldogs would battle back. CJ Shook would find Spenser Lebbano in the flats for a touchdown in which he would shake a defender to get in. Rayshad Horton connected with Noah Johnson on an option-jump pass. Luke Ledwell would step in to blast a 2pt extra point, thus becoming the first successful kicker in TFFL history. Rayshad Horton would have a very clutch pull at the 1 yardline with less than 30 seconds in the game forcing a turnover on downs for the Bulldogs. The Turtles had a great showing considering they were down players. Once Marty Hassett‘s full team is there….watch out.
The Bulldogs looked rough to start out. They had a slow 1st half but they really picked up the ball in the 2nd half. Ronte Gamble caught a TD from Chris Ettson after Marcus Walker was relieved of duties after being ejected for the 1st half. Upon his return Walker returned with a whole new swaggar. He was able to find Desmond Jordan for a touchdown, and find him again for the extra point. Down 20-14, Walker would orchestrate a solid drive that would come up short at the 1 yard line on 4th down on a scramble of his. Overall the Bulldogs showed a lot more fight in the 2nd half. With potential all-stars at almost every position if they can get some composure and worry about playing ball, they will do serious damage in this league.
Predators defeat Spartans 14-0
The Predators looked a lot more like the House Dawgs in the first game of the season. Over half of the team was missing due to other obligations but, a win is a win for them. 2 Predators from last season were in attendance, while the other 8 were House Dawgs. The Spartans had a great opportunity to steal a win away. Season 1 offensive player of the season DF Littlejohn would toss 2 touchdowns to De’Andre Stevenson who also had 7 catches. Season 1 WR of the Year Brandon Stokes was held to 1 catch but he made it count as it was over 40 yards. The blocking of the Predators was amazing. Chris Hinson, Antwan Washington, and Jason Jackson had a great performance. It was interesting because it’s almost as if they were “too good” blocking thus giving Littlejohn all of the time in the world but somehow still had difficulty getting rid of the ball. Defensively the Predators pitched a shutout, most impressively holding the Spartans from scoring on 2 redzone trips. The Predators weren’t happy about their performance, despite winning short-handed, expect a big change next week in points scored.
The Spartans are a new team led by Alex Wolfe who will be doing more coaching than playing due to injury. His team was very good holding a very elusive Littlejohn to just 14 points and no big runs. Josh Severns at QB moved the ball but couldn’t punch it in near the goal line. John Umberger and Tavarius Henderson were both solid players on both sides of the ball getting some catches and pulls. The Spartans were without big playmaker Will Wolfe who has big playmaking capability. Would have been interesting to see him match-up against the Predators defense. It was a great showing for the Spartans in their first TFFL game. The Predators are a top-tier team even missing a chunk of their team, we will see how the Spartans perform against the rest of their schedule after starting out with a very tough game.
Bengals defeat HeadHunterz 36-6
Well….the Bengals continued to follow their adage of “All we do is win ball games” by winning the first ball game of the season. Robert Baker’s team looked absolutely….scary. Offensively and defensively the HeadHunterz had no answer. The rush of Robert Baker, Gene Carrington, Brandon Williams, Xavier Carrington, and many others was giving the HeadHunterz QB no time to pass. Anything more than 2 seconds was normally a sack. The scary part of the defensive pressure generated was that the rotation of rushers was nearly every other play meaning fresh rushers….4 of them…were coming at the QB. Franklin Terry and Michael Pace had a very nice INT —> lateral touchdown. Kirby Williams didn’t allow much to get past him. Offensively Damien Whitehead‘s TFFL debut was very impressive. 3 of his first 4 offensive plays were passing touchdowns. He wound up throwing 4 TD’s on the day, 2 to Darius Cobb, and 1 to Nicolas Means, and Michael Kee. It’s honestly hard to recap who all performed well because honestly….every player played nearly flawless.
The HeadHunterz were without a couple of their best players, against one of the toughest teams on their schedule, that combination is never good. Without Brandon Wiggins and Deonte Seaberry the defense didn’t get much pressure on the opposing QB allowing him to make easy throws. When you give up several easy passing TD’s you have to count the plays where you don’t give them up as successes. Tyler Lee was able to break up what would have been a TD to Ward. Offensively Anthony Crews impressed everybody on the field. Any other QB would have been sacked 10 times but Crews was able to escape the pocket and at least salvage 75% of the plays by running or finding a WR. The lone HeadHunterz score came on a back corner throw from Crews to PJ Neely. New blocker Jeff Neal and veteran Delfphon Cole did the best they could to hold the rush back but 2 blockers can’t contain 4 coming every play. Against other teams Crews should have all day to throw. Dylan Gibson and Ryland Clark both had a couple nice grabs that would have been interceptions had they not made great snags.
