MONDAY, MAY 12
6:32 A.M. EST

Game 2 was our premiere home game against the Limhamn Griffins (the defending champs), who reside about 8 hours away from us.  This is also the team that ended the Crusaders' season just 8 months ago in a tight 9-6 overtime game with a last-second field goal in the championship round.  In the short time we’ve been here, I must have heard at least 6 different stories about last year’s game that was still fresh on everyone’s mind. So all week in practice it served as extra motivation.  “They have something that’s ours” was drilled into everyone’s head……

We arrived at the stadium to find most of the team waiting as others pulled in beside us. There wasn’t much talk, just head nods and regular game day questions of “are you ready?” and “how you feeling?”  First things first, I inspected the field as it was the first time we stepped foot on it.  It had very nice grass and surroundings... later I was told that it's the best stadium in the league.  Everything was typical of a game day -- players jogging around adjusting to the field, listening to music, warming up, and the constant reminder of what happened the last time they faced --  until it was time to walk out. The offensive starters were introduced as we all ran out of the tunnel to white smoke (something I wasn't told about).  It wasn’t a large home crowd, but they made up for it with their enthusiasm as they chanted, clapped, sang, and supported their Crusaders. 

Offensively, we started off just as we did the first game moving the ball steadily and scoring on the 6th play with a 50-yard bomb to a wide-out.  It was called back, however, due to a mental mistake by another wide-out (wrongly lining up on the line), so the drive stalled and we punted.  The next three drives we scored at will (all three passes to wide receivers), and we led by 20-7 when I left for the locker room with 2 seconds remaining in the 2nd quarter.  This was due to a direct hit to the thigh from a helmet I suffered early in the 2nd while being tackled.  It turned out to be a deep thigh bruise or “lårkaka” meaning a “thigh cookie” to the Swedish. When the rest of the team joined me, I learned the defense yielded a late hail-mary and 2-point conversion to end the half, which slimmed our lead to 20-15.  This infuriated the team as tongue lashes were handed out throughout the locker room due to extreme celebrations that were expressed by the opponent after the score.

Offensively we came out flat to begin the 2nd half, and Coach immediately called a time out for a much-needed inspiring pep-talk.  It consisted of some face-mask grabbing, helmet smacking, yelling, and some leaping that resembled a jumping jack to fire us up.  It worked as we drove down and scored on our next drive. The Defense also played inspired in the 2nd half as they shut Limhamn’s offense out, not allowing them much ball movement and creating turnovers for our offense, which we turned into scores.  It started with a very good play by our head coach and free safety, when he stripped the ball carrier and continued in stride running with ball before he was tackled.  It reminded me of a similar play by Wesleyan’s Justin Augustin in a game against CNU this past season.  The 2nd half turned into a rout as middle way through the 4th quarter subs were placed into the game.  After our last score, I noticed that a song was playing with the word "Crusader" in it.  Later on, I was told it was our "fight song" that is played after every score, which is pretty cool.  We managed to get through the game with little injuries compared to the week before, so everyone is feeling pretty confident heading into our bye week. 

After the game, I joined a lot of the guys for dinner at a pizzeria downtown.  Everyone was happy about the win, but many expressed feelings that it should have been a larger margin of victory.  They talked about the good but also the things that we need to work on.  Once I heard that, I nodded when I realized the team is looking for perfection, and those are the guys you want to have on your side.  We have two weeks to get healthy and prepare for a very good Stockholm team coming up.  We showed a lot of improvement from game 1 to game 2, and hopefully we’ll do the same heading into game 3. 

Oh yeah, shout-out to the Crusader offensive line... two thumbs up on the game they played!  I made sandwiches a couple of times back there, lol.  Also you can hear the fight song on YouTube, check it out..... Crusaders Ride!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwYRxK_WRa4

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