Monday, April 27, 2009

POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week (2)


New York Sharks linebacker Blessing Withers was named the POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week for April 25th. She was selected by broadcaster Pat Brown after her fine performance on defense despite the Sharks loss to the Boston Militia 21-7.

POWERADE ZERO is the sports drink with zero calories, zero limits.

Game Day: Militia at Sharks



Brooklyn, New York, April 25, 2009
It was only the second game of the season but they don't get much bigger than the New York Sharks (1-1) contest with the Boston Militia (2-0). These division rivals were the early favorites to battle for the top spot in the division but this was the only time during the regular season that the two would meet. The winner would give that team a considerable edge in their playoff run. Probably more so for Boston as the Sharks have one of the toughest schedules in the league this year.

It was an incredible day in the Big Apple with clear skies with game time temperatures in the upper 60's. By the end of the day, record temperatures would be recorded in the city.

New York won the coin toss and unlike the season opener in Schenectady, the Sharks braintrust elected to receive the ball. After a good kick-off by Boston the Sharks started their first drive from their own 35-yard line. The Militia had shut out the Manchester Freedom in their season opener and it looked like their defense was still running on all cylindars as they shut the Sharks down on 3 plays. Chrissy Pagan, the regular Sharks punter this year was out of the game with a leg injury and so veteran wide receiver Jen Blum was pressed into kicking duties. Unfortunately her first punt attempt was a memorable one, for Boston fans that is. It really wasn't a bad attempt at all, but the Sharks offensive line sagged badly up the middle and three Boston players were able to get to the punter. But it was Jessica Penta's hands that actually blocked the punt. New York recovered the ball but Boston was about to start their first drive of the game from the Sharks' 14-yard line only 3 minutes into the game.

On Boston's first play, quarterback Allison Cahill ran to her right and tried to turn the corner. However New York's Mandy Oppel was there and limited Cahill to only 2 yards. Next the Militia got called for a holding penalty and the ball was moved back to the New York 20-yard line. It looked like the Sharks might dodge a bullet but two running plays to Donaldson and the Militia had a first down and the ball down to the 2-yard line. From there Mia Brickhouse powered her way in to give Boston the score. Allie Roderique's extra point attempt was short, but the Militia had the early lead, 6-0 with 9:48 left in the first quarter.

On the Sharks next possession, they turned the ball over to the Militia after Karen Mulligan's pass was intercepted by Briannah Gallo. This gave the ball to Boston at their own 28-yard line but the Sharks defense held and quickly the Militia punted the ball back to New York.

Starting in good field position at the halfway point of the field, the Sharks started to march down the field. Mixing the call playing between run and pass plays along with the help of a major facemask penalty, New York moved the ball into the red zone. But the Sharks came up empty handed. Boston came in on a blitz and were quickly on top of Mulligan who scrambled and fended off two would be tacklers. With one Militia holding on to Mulligan's ankle, the quarterback overthrew her receiver and Veronica Milinazzo got the interception. Two times in a row the Sharks possession was stopped by a Boston interception.

For the rest of the first half, the defense for both teams took over and each drive ended with a punt. At the half, the Sharks defense was playing big while the offense was making little headway. Still it wasn't too bad as New York was only down by 6 points and the Sharks have a history of being able to come from behind.

With the start of the second half, Boston received the kick-off. Showing a strong running attack, the Militia was able to march down the field. Mostly on the legs of Brickhouse who rushed for 35 yards on 5 carries during this drive, Boston widened their lead. A pass by Cahill to Rachel Toal for the 2-point conversion, made the score 14-0 with 7:38 left in the third quarter.

Disaster struck the Sharks on their next possession. Running back Oppel fumbled the football during the handoff and Boston recovered the football on the New York 45-yard line. Cahill then made the Sharks pay for their third turnover of the game with a 45-yard strike to Ginger Snow for Boston's third touchdown of the game. Roderique's extra point attempt was good and Boston had a 21-0 lead with 3:41 left in the third quarter.

Down three touchdowns limited the Sharks offensive playbook. To try and make up the points and fast, Mulligan consistently went to the air. But this was no secret to Boston and they played their defense accordingly. In the second half alone, Mulligan threw the ball 20 times but was only able to connect 5 times. Sometimes her throws just missed the mark but there were also a few dropped passes. On the plus side, one of the receptions was a 34-yard bomb to rookie Chante Bonds for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Lauren Pringle kicked the extra point, but it was too little, too late as the Sharks fell to the Boston Militia by the final score of 21-7.

This was a big loss to a division rival and things don't get any easier in the future with games against last year's Atlantic division champion Pittsburgh Passion and two games against the always tough D.C. Divas. The Sharks will have to go back to the drawing board to get the offense back up and running. But there were still many pluses from the loss. The defense played strong despite being on the field for most of the game and having to fend off three Shark turnovers. Plus the rookie filled offensive line provided good pass protection most of the time and not allowing a sack.

After the game, Sharks broadcasters Pat Brown selected Blessing Withers as the POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week. She was consitently in the middle of the action both on offense and defense. POWERADE ZERO is sponsoring the selection for the Player of the Week.

The Sharks will next travel to the city of brotherly love to face another division rival the Philadelphia Firebirds (1-1) on Saturday, May 2nd. The Firebirds are coming off a big victory over the Connecticut Crushers. Game time is 6:00pm (EDT). If you can't make it to the game, you can still follow all of the hard hitting football as Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell will describe all of the action live to you on the official flagship station for New York Sharks Football, www.blogtalkradio.com/wfnradio - the Women's Football Network, broadcast will start at 5:45pm.

Boston Militia 6-0-15-0: 21
New York Sharks 0-0-0-7: 7

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
BO - (09:48) Brickhouse 2 yard run (kick failed)

Third Quarter
BO - (07:38) Brickhouse 4 yard run (Toal reception from Cahill)
BO - (03:41) Snow 45 yard pass from Cahill (Roderique kick)

Fourth Quarter
NY - (05:31) Bonds 34 yard pass from Mulligan (Pringle kick)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

"The Case of the Missing Jersey - Part 2" or "New Jersey Pirates"


The football jersey that New York Sharks owner Andra Douglas loaned to the Sports Museum of America has been located. It is being stored in a warehouse in Newark, New Jersey. But like the pirates of Somalia it is being held for ransom along with hundreds of other sports items that were loaned to the museum before it declared bankruptcy. The items include Brandi Chastain's sports bra she wore in the Summer Olympics, Tony Hawk's childhood skateboard, Richard Petty's sunglasses and Jesse Owen's gold medal.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, titled "My Sports Bra Is Where, Exactly?" said that soccer star Brandi Chastain received an email while in the Bahamas. The email demanded that she pay $250 plus shipping and handling if she wanted her famous sports bra back.

Now why are they demanding $1,500 from Andra and only $250 from Brandi seems kind of strange. Did that extra amount include the shipping and handling?

Another article appeared in the Star-Ledger.

Maybe we need to send in the Navy Seals to stop these pirates.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

New York Sharks e-Trading Cards


The great philosopher and fussbudget Lucy Van Pelt once said, "How can you say someone is great who's never had his picture on bubble gum cards"? Well we want to say that the Sharks are great and to prove it, we have created an e-trading card for each New York Sharks player. Each card features a picture from our ace photographer Amber Hopkins. You can view them on each player's webpage on our site. And you can turn each e-trading card of your favorite player into an e-postcard and send them to your friends and family.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Game Day: Sharks at Nemesis



Schenectady, New York, April 11, 2009
The New York Sharks (1-0) have started each of its previous 10 seasons with a victory, the longest streak in women's football. Tonight they were going for their 11th straight win, but this one was going to a challenge. Playing on the road is never easy, but the Sharks were facing their division rival, the New York Nemesis (0-1). Last year the Nemesis went undefeated during the regular season and made it as far as the second round of the playoffs. They are led by former Sharks quarterback Val Halesworth and star running back Xiomara Diaz.

It was an overcast sky at the start of the game with temperatures in the low 50's and gusts of wind around 15mph. Still there was no rain. When the Sharks left New York city by bus that afternoon it was pouring downstate, but 150 miles away the rain was kept away.

The game started with the Sharks kicking off to the Nemesis. Quarterback Karen Mulligan did double-duty by kicking the ball as last year's place kicker and punter Meghann Antonucci has retired. During their first series, the Nemesis game plan was quickly revealed, have Diaz run the ball and have Halesworth throw to wide receiver Lauren Manfred. It worked for one first down, but the Sharks defense stopped the Nemesis from getting another one in the series.

The Sharks started their first drive of the game in decent field position from their own 39-yard line. With many players not playing this year due to various reasons, it was great to see a few familiar faces coming back after taking last year off. One of those players was Mandy Oppel. She returned this year and was again put into the backfield on offense. Mulligan using 5 different players to either run the ball or throw to marched the visitors down the field for a quick touchdown. The 8-play drive was capped off with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Mulligan to Adrienne Smith to put the downstaters on the scoreboard. Lauren Pringle who had a nice 7-yard run during the drive kicked the extra-point to give the Sharks a 7-0 lead with 4:45 left in the first quarter.

The Sharks quickly got the ball back as the defense was able to stop Diaz and forced the Nemesis to punt after only 4 plays. The Nemesis punt was extremely short and the Sharks had great field position on the Nemesis 29-yard line. Mulligan quickly went to work and found a wide open Lisa Doran in the endzone on the very first play of the drive. Unfortunately the Sharks were penalized for illegal procedure and the touchdown was called back. Compounding the penalty was a bad snap in the shotgun formation that caused a loss of 14 more yards. The Sharks couldn't recover from those setbacks and turned the ball back to the Nemesis.

Again the Sharks defense was up to the task and forced the Nemesis to punt the ball away with 11 minutes left to go in the half. The rest of the second quarter was basically all New York Sharks except for one big exception. The Sharks ran off 21 straight plays and did not allow the Nemesis to snap the ball even once. The Nemesis did get to touch the ball briefly when L. Manfred intercepted a Mulligan pass at the Nemesis 10-yard line. She returned the ball upfield with a fine run but then tried to get some extra yardage and fumbled the ball back to the Sharks at the Nemesis 37-yard line. With less than 2 minutes left in the half, the Sharks were able to get the ball all the way down to the 1-yard line. Mulligan then ran the ball into the endzone on a quarterback keeper, but the referee called a penalty on the Sharks. The Sharks were hit with an aiding the runner infraction and the touchdown was called back. The 5-yard setback was too much for the Sharks to recoup as time ran out in the half.

It was a pretty good first half for the Sharks. The defense was holding the Nemesis in check by shutting down Diaz and Halesworth. The offense was moving the ball and keeping it away from the Nemesis but they could not add any points to their lead.

In the second half, the Sharks would be receiving to start the half. The Sharks offense started from their own 40-yard line and quickly marched down the field for a touchdown. The big play was a 39-yard pass from Mulligan to Smith. This was Smith's second touchdown of the day. Pringle kicked the extra point and the Sharks now lead 14-0 with 11:40 left in the third quarter.

The Nemesis made some adjustments in the second half and were soon starting to move the ball better on the Sharks. They did not have anything to show for it in the third quarter, but when the final frame rolled around, the Nemesis started marching down the field. Relying on short passes, Halesworth was able to get the Nemesis on the scoreboard with 8:04 left to go in the game. The snap for the extra point was short, but the Nemesis kicking unit made a nice recovery and was able to kick the ball through the uprights to make the score 14-7.

With the score, the game was becoming very competitive again. But Mulligan took the burden onto her shoulders and marched the Sharks downfield for another score. Again using her strong arm, she connected with Pringle for an 8-yard reception and then hit Doran on a 26-yard bomb in the endzone. Doran made a circus catch as the ball was near the out-of-bounds line. Doran caught the ball, got her feet to stay in-bounds as she fell out of the endzone. Pringle made it a perfect day by hitting her third consecutive extra-point and the Sharks were back ahead by 2 touchdowns, 21-7 with less than 4 minutes left to go in the game.

The Nemesis were not about to give up as Halesworth was forced to go to the air to try and get them back into the game. She connected with Kate Slack for a nice 21-yard gain, but when she went to find Slack again, cornerback Brooke McKinney intercepted the ball to effectively ice the game for the Sharks.

The Sharks came away winning their 11th straight season opener a record in women's football. It was a good win even though the game was not as close as the score would dictate. Twice the Sharks had touchdowns called back and they had possession of the ball for the majority of the game including 11 straight minutes in the second quarter. What was very impressive in the Sharks win was the performance of the offensive line. None of the starters on tonight's line were starters last year and half of them weren't even playing football last year. Hopefully as the year progresses, this nascent o-line will continue to get better and stronger.

After each game, Sharks broadcasters Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell will select a Sharks player to be honored as the POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week. POWERADE ZERO is sponsoring the selection and Smith was chosen to be the first player to receive the honor.

The Sharks will next host the Boston Militia (0-0) at the Aviator Sports Complex on Saturday, April 25th. It will be the Sharks home opener. Game time is 3:30pm (EDT). If you can't make it to the game, you can still follow all of the hard hitting football as Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell will describe all of the action live to you on the official flagship station for New York Sharks Football, www.blogtalkradio.com/wfnradio - the Women's Football Network.

New York Sharks 7-0-7-7: 21
New York Nemesis 0-0-0-7: 7

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
NY - (04:45) Smith 12 yard pass from Mulligan (Pringle kick)

Third Quarter
NY - (11:40) Smith 39 yard pass from Mulligan (Pringle kick)

Fourth Quarter
NYN - (08:04) Diaz 8 yard run (Bepko kick)
NY - (03:28) Doran 26 yard pass from Mulligan (Pringle kick)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week (1)


New York Sharks wide receiver Adrienne Smith was named the very first POWERADE ZERO Player of the Week. She was selected by broadcasters Pat Brown and Dave Maxwell after her fine performance that helped propel the New York Sharks to victory over the New York Nemesis by the score of 21-7. Smith caught two touchdown passes from quarterback Karen Mulligan at distances of 12 and 39 yards.

POWERADE ZERO is the sports drink with zero calories, zero limits.