Elephants Lose Heartbreaker 64-57

Today the Parma Panthers (yes, the John Grisham Playing for Pizza Panthers) came to town for a good ol' fashion Sicilian Shootout... and after countless lead-changes and a passion filled Elephant comeback, escaped with a last second touchdown and a 64-57 victory.

The weather today was perfect - 85 degrees (30 Celcius) - and bright sunshine.  After a 10 minute official referee delay (in response to last week's Palermo Corsari brawl where players unthinkably attacked the referees!), play kicked off with us getting the ball first.

On the first play from scrimmage, Matt Epperson took a short out-route up the sideline for a 50 yard gain, only to have the ball knocked loose for a turnover.  It was one of three first half fumbles, and allowed the Panthers and their own high-powered offense to build a 2 touchdown lead 28-19 at halftime.

However, we did not go down without a fight, and by scoring every possession in the third quarter and recovering an onside kick at the beginning of the fourth, had finally tied the score at 49-49.  The Panthers were resilient as well, and a long kickoff return by Harvard Grad Corey Mazza brought the ball all the way to our 10 yardline.  Two plays later they scored to make it 56-49 with four minutes to go.

On the ensuing kickoff, disaster struck when Matt landed on a Parma player, injuring his ribs and being forced to leave the game.  Our players rallied around him, and vowed to drive the ball.  With just over 2 minutes to play, Claudio Mangano got free down the sideline and made a beautiful catch in the corner of the endzone to bring us within 1, 56-55.  We made the decision to play aggressively and go for the win, and after a scrambling to the right, I found Claudio again to give us the lead!  Elephants 57-Panthers 56.

However, the Cinderella story did not end there, as Parma got the ball one last time.  Our defense played tough with great crowd support from our vocal supporters, and were able to force a 4th down and 8 from our 35 yardline with only 45 seconds to play.  A perfect blitz was called, and their quarterback, freshly imported Scott Zettzs from Youngstown State, backpedalled 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and heaved the ball downfield into a crowd of players.  Like out of a novel, #80 leaped in the air for the miracle catch and a first down.  As they rushed to the line, they pulled a "Dan Marino versus the New York Jets" - faking a spike and throwing the ball into the corner of the endzone for the game-winning touchdown.  Final Score: Panthers 64, Elephants 57.  

On the field after the game, I thanked our players from the bottom of my heart for the effort they gave.  While trailing at half-time, I had encouraged them that no matter what the score was, we had to play with our hearts and leave everything we had on the field.  Even though we came up a few points short on the scoreboard, the Elephants became a better team today and have grown a lot over this season... lessons that will carry over down the road both on and OFF the field.

~ J. Twice