Top Teams Keep Winning After Recovering From the Blizzard of 2016

League play resumed on Saturday and the four hottest teams in the league, Sharks, Supersonics, Ballerz and Almost Brown Bombers picked up where they left off before the “Big Chill”!!!!! Six other teams, Pink, Gold Rush, the Wolverines, Maroon 10, the Tropics and Cuse are in a death match for mediocrity as they continue with exciting yet inconsistent play. The race for the bottom is led by the Greyhounds, Terps and Dub-Nation with one win apiece yet not to be out under performed by the likes of Money, who finally won their second game and PPE who is also struggling to stay afloat. ICE, the true definition of frustration, sits alone in 11th place with three wins.

The day’s action began with a flurry as the nearly winless Greyhounds jumped out to an early lead against the notoriously slow starting Wolverines. They held a 22-15 halftime lead on the back of Devin “the Diesel” Naylon’s 11 points, as the green team continued its poor shooting that has plagued it throughout the season. Things changed in the second half as the Broomfield Brothers, Cole and Bennett, AKA Sunshine, combined for 19 second half points to squeak by with a 42-38 victory. The Wolverines, led by Bennett Broomfield with 14 points and Cole Broomfield with 12 points worked their record to a respectable 5-4 having won 4 of their last 5 games. The Greyhounds were led by Naylon with 15 points and Matt “the Ginja Ninja” Norfolk with 5 points as they fall to a league worst 1-8 record. The Hounds play the equally disappointing ICE on Thursday while the Wolverines look to continue their hot streak against the dangerous Tropics.

ABB continues to win ugly beating the upstart Terps 44-35 in a game where the brown team took an early lead and never looked back. The Bombers were lead by Kevin Foster with 14 points and Ryan “Long Ball” Luthe with 9 points, all in the fourth quarter. The Terps stayed in the game with Jake Filomena with 12, Trevor Moore with 9 and Brennan “Mr T” Lipski with a season high 7 points. While ABB has lost as many games as the Terps have won….meaning 1 game, this game was much closer than expected. ABB faces the Ballerz on Tuesday night it what will be their toughest test of the season. The Terps face the unbeaten Sharks Thursday…..YIKES!!!

The streaking Supersonics continued in their high scoring winning ways by besting PPE 47-30 in a game that was never close from the outset. The Sonics jumped out to an early 15-8 lead on the back of Trevor “el Diablo” Mackinson’s 10 first quarter points and never looked back as the best defensive team in FABL shutout PPE in the second quarter to go to the locker room with an impressive 27-8 lead. Mackinson finished the game with 16 points but Nolan “the Chief” Heydon proved to be the anchor fo the offense with 17 points, including a late three to make it nine straight games where he has scored in double figures. Kevin “Dab Daddy” Lynch added 6 points for the winners. PPE was led by Michael “Hard Work” Burke with 13 points, his 7th double figures game of the year, and Camden “Senor Dab” with eight of his own. The Sonics face Gold Rush this week in a much anticipated 7:00 PM Thursday matchup between the leagues leading scorer, Mark “the Blur” Conway and the strong inside out game of Heydon and Mackinson. PPE faces the inconsistent Maroon 10 with an upset in mind.

In the 4:00 game, the Gold Rush and the Ballerz played a classic sea saw game between two evenly matched teams. Ballerz held a one point lead at the first break 11-10 then league leading scorer, Mark Conway entered the game and scored 8 points in the second to lead his team to a 24-20 lead at the intermission. The Ballerz showed off their balanced offense in the third quarter as all five players on the floor scored as they closed the gap to 36-34 at the end of three. Gold Rush was again paced by Conway with two big three pointers in the quarter. The Ballerz clamped down on defense in the fourth quarter as Ben Agostino, 14 points for the game, led his team back to victory by outscoring Gold 12-8 in the fourth to avert the upset and take a 46-44 victory from the streaky Gold Rush team. Conway led all scorers with 22 points, his ninth game in double figures this season and he was complimented by Joe Jascur with 7 points. Along with Agostino, the black team saw Kyle Sheetz put up a season high 9 points and Gerald “the Honey Badger” Matthews add 6. The Ballerz and ABB face off Tuesday night while Gold Rush takes on the white hot Supersonics on Thursday.

Money lived up to their potential by putting up 57 points in a 10 point win over the defenseless Dub-Nation. Predictably, these two struggling defenses, Money is ranked 16th and Dub-Nation is ranked 14th, managed to put up the highest point total of any two teams combined this season with 104 points. Chance “Rio Bravo” Brunner had a career high 23 points and Joe “In Your Face” Case also had a career best 19 points while Anthony “the Flash” Cirri rained in five 3 points for 15 and Dylan “the Villian” Van Reena hit for 15 as well. Money moves to 2-7 with a win while Dub-Nation flounders at 1-8 with the loss. The future isn’t much brighter for these teams as the white team faces Pink this week and Money goes up against the streaking Cuse team.

Speaking of Cuse, they opened a can of whoop ass on the Tropics posting a convincing 49-33 win to continue their high powered offensive run. They are averaging 51 points a game in their last three games….all wins. Three players scored in double figures for the “Beast of the East” including Soencer Kirin with 16 points, Justin Roach with a season high 13 points and Tyler Roach with 10 points as the Roach Coach continues to roll. The Tropics had a balanced scoring attack led by Matt Leonhartt with 7 points and Matt Wade, Eli Carpenter and Patrick Marchinko with 5 each (hard to mention nicknames when you score 5 points)…The Tropics have faced the most difficult part of their schedule and hope to return to their winning ways against the Wolverines this week while Cuse should continue their high scoring ways against the leagues worst defense in Money this Thursday.

In no surprise, the unbeaten Sharks doubled ICE 47-23. One wonders if ICE’s pregame meal included the Elvis favorite grilled peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich to set the tone for their high powered (sic) offense. The Sharks continued to grind out wins led by Owen “Dead Eye” Gams with a game high, season high 22 points that included three 3 point shots and Michael “the Howitzer” Fenn, Aidan “I’m Batman” West and Zach “BFD” Lyons with six each and countless offensive rebounds. The anemic ICE was led by senior Justin ” the Floor General” Lamb with 10 points and Toby “the Preacher” Liska with a disappointing 7 points. The Sharks hope to go to 10-0 as they face the Terps Thursday at 9:00 while who knows which under performing team will win the epic battle between the Greyhounds and ICE on Tuesday at 6:00….maybe it will snow instead.

Pink pulled pulled out a close victory it what was predicted to be the best game of the night as Jake “the Great Wall” Ihasz hit a buzzer-beater to carry his team to a 42-40 victory over the high powered Maroon 10. Pink is known for it’s stingy defense while Maroon 10 loves to put up big numbers on offense. Something had to give!!!! Pink jumped out to an 11-9 lead at the end of the first period with balanced scoring and it’s signature shut down defense. Jared Cirulli had 6 clutch points and Ronnie “the Rainmaker” Shaney made a big three pointer that carried Maroon 10 to the locker room with a 22-19 lead. Cirulli continued with his hot hand in the third scoring 5 of his game high 18 points as M10 held a 31-27 lead with nine minutes to go. Pink proved to be a lot tougher than their uniform color in the fourth by outscoring Maroon 10 15-9 in a frenzied finish that included Alex “the Poet” Stefanick hitting a huge three pointer to tie the game at 40 and then the unlikely hero Ihasz made the difference maker as time ran out. Besides Cirulli’s 18 points, Maroon 10 also got good output from Kevin “the Bomb” Hanson with 7 points and Tommy O’Neill and Nick Fiorelli with 4 each. Stafanick led all Pink scorers with 9 points while IHasz had a season high 7 points and Boeckman, Alford, Hunter and German had 6 each in the winning effort. Pink Faces Dub-Nation this week while Maroon 10 looks to take out their frustrations on PPE in Thursday’s opener.

One final thing….we still need a tee shirt design for our FABL Class of 2016 tee shirt for the seniors. submit all entries to fablshowtime@outlook.com.