Elephants Beat Milan

Very happy to have survived the shoot-out... and tired!

If every game is like this, the 2008 Italian Football Season is going to be unbelievable.

In stunning fashion, we opened the season with a stunning 47-40 road victory over the Milan Rhinos in our IFL Series A debut.  And like all good things in life, it didn’t come easy.

Facing Milan – a very experienced opponent with a good quarterback, John Stocco from Wisconsin, and a strong running back – we knew we were in a for a challenge.  However, there were also a number of off the field challenges that our team proudly overcame.

First, we had a long day of travel before the game – waking up at 4am to catch the flight and later bus connection to the game.  But much more importantly, we were traveling without our head coach Davide whose wife has been in labor for the past 2 days with their first child.  It was the first game Davide would have to miss in 15 years, and I know he was dying to be with us… yet obviously his wife Daniela and family comes first and we all were cheering them on!  

In a joyful moment, we received the good news to our lockerroom just an hour before kickoff – the latest member of the Elephant Family, Alessandro Guiliano had been born – and the team cheered loudly!

We took the field under glorious conditions – bright blue skies and 75 degree weather.  The stadium itself is a “velodrome” built for cycling, and has hard Astroturf that isn’t afraid to dish out its own punishment in the form of ‘turf-burns.’

 

Milan received the opening kickoff, and immediately drove for a touchdown.  We answered on our first drive – and the pace was set for a classic ‘shoot-out.’  In fact, as the game wore on I had the feeling that I was playing more of an Arena-style game than a normal American-rules game.  They scored on their next two possessions and took a 20-6 lead.

However, our players were very determined and did not let any adversity get them down.  We came roaring back, scoring three consecutive touchdowns to take a 28-20 halftime lead.  Luckily, we had ‘deferred’ after winning the coin toss that began the game, and got the ball again to start the second half.  We scored on our opening drive of the second half, which finally gave us a little breathing room… however their high-powered offense would not go down without a fight, and we spent the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter exchanging touchdowns.

 

Matt Epperson was spectacular all day long, making a pair of leaping grabs in traffic during crucial situations, while darting all over the field on both Special Teams and Defense.  In fact, all of our wide receivers contributed in a big way – with Matt, Iacopo, and Greg all catching great touchdowns and everyone else making important catches.  However, in my opinion the players of the game were our OFFENSIVE LINE and our RUNNING BACK, Enrico Lombardo.  As Milan started dropping more defenders to stop our passing attack, our running game took over… with Brandon, Mathieu, Guilio, Gilberto, and Alessandro opening up big holes.  I was most proud of Alessandro (fittingly, with the birth of Davide’s son!), who is a young player and had never really played much before in a big game like this… and with Davide out of the lineup, and our new German lineman, Franky, out with food poisoning, he had to step in and did a fantastic job.

Our "reluctant" head-coach-for-a-day George calling out instructions to the defense.  George will officially retire as an Italian Head coach with a perfect record, 1-0.

Yet in a game that would produce 87 points, it was our defense that made the big play to seal the win.  Clinging to a 47-40 lead with just two minutes to play, Milan had one last chance to tie the game.  On a third down play at midfield, Stocco dropped back and fired a long pass down our sidelines to his favorite target, but stepping in front of the ball was our cornerback, Massimo “Chipolata” (call me SMITH!), for the biggest play of his career.  We all mobbed him, and then took a knee to run out the clock.

 

It was an unbelievable game, as I have mentioned, and as I told an Italian TV reporter in my post-game interview, “If every game is like this, this will be a season I will never forget.”

 

And even more important than the scoreboard, it was great to see our team “grow up” in the course of 48 minutes, all while having a BLAST playing the beautiful game of Football. 

 

It was also great to have family at the game – as Christie’s mother Lynn and her friend Wayne came all the way to Italy to watch this game!  (Oh yeah, and see all of Italy on a 3 week trip.)  Playing football is such a family “experience” – and to get to laugh and share a meal after the game made me feel like I was right back at Joey Tomato’s in Edmonton (our post game spot back home.)

With a bye week, Christie and I are now headed to Barcelona and Venice… however I really could just sleep for 6 straight days after a game like that… and after not being “hit” for over a year, might be a little sore tomorrow!

~ J. Twice