From the Inbox (bluffssports@hotmail.com)

Nick writes: "You are saying this years St. Albert team is better than last years? Being some one who follows football every year... I'm going to have to agree to disagree... Paul Rochelle, Eric Murhpy, Brock, and Joel, and Dan the Man? Wow, that's tough to compete with. Regardless of what you say, I believe Gentile is better than Fischer any day... Plus the teams this year that S A plays no where near as competitive as last years....!"

Nick, I'm not trying to say this year's Falcons are better than last year's (although that's pretty much what I wrote last week, my bad, it just didn't come out right). What I mean to imply was that I was fairly certain we would see a dropoff from last year to this year. There isn't one. Sawatzke's comment about "as good or better" is true. They are as good as last year's team. Better? We'll have to see. As for Gentile vs Fischer, they're different backs. Joel was more likely to break off 4 straight 20 yard runs, while Brandon's more likely to break off the 80 yarder. Either way, no one's stopped the SA ground game all year.

Akron Westfield Never Stood a Chance...

..and apparently neither did the chain link fence at Al Leber Field according to the Sports Zone's Robert DiCenzo. While he was getting shots of St. Albert fans going crazy for the camera, the fence they were leaning on gave way. No one was injured, which is good, and there's a guy in the fence-making business out there that's pretty happy about the whole deal. The numbers crunchers at St. Albert have had better days, but hey it would've stung a lot more had the Falcons lost.

At Least They're Both Named after Birds of Prey

But other than that, there's not a lot of shared friendship between Underwood (Eagles) and St. Albert (Falcons), who will meet on Monday to see who's going to the dome. There are some parallels between how each team plays ball and their respective mascots' place in the natural world. The Falcons are sleek, and much quicker than their Eagle counterparts. The Eagles meanwhile, are...well...endangered.

Good Riddance

Yes, Bush-league (err...I mean Bishop) Heelan is a good football team, but the MRC will be a better conference without them when the Crusaders move to 3A in 2006. First, they wouldn't let TJ use their locker rooms to change, and they tried to do the same to AL last night in the playoffs. It took a call to the state level to prevent that from happening. But that's not the only bush-league behavior Heelan engages in. Behind the visitors bench is a large grandstand with plenty of seating. Same side of the field as the press box. But what do the Crusaders do? They don't allow visiting fans to sit in the grandstand. At all. So what's behind AL during the game? Nothing. No cheers from the fans who made the trip. No encouragement from the student body. Nothing. Visiting fans can only sit in 2 small bleacher sections that stretch from the 20-yard line to the end zone, while the concrete grandstand sits empty. Does that give Heelan an "edge"? Absolutely. Does it make them look immature and ridiculous? Ditto.

Quick Slants

-St Albert's Matt O'Connor is back. It took him his freshman year at IWCC to adjust to the college game. If the season opener is any indication, dude's figured it out quite well. 18 points, 6-7 from the field, 4-5 from the 3-pt line. And he's now listed at 6'9.

-By the way, Reiver games are worth checking out. The guys (#22 in the country) scored 112 on opening night and the gals (#16) got a 31-point performance from 5'3 Cherelle George.

-This just in, its starting to get cold out.

-Finally, no more political campaign commercials! Notice how every candidate promises to lower taxes, while claiming their opponent has a history of raising them? Every single candidate says that. So if we're to believe all the ads, then they ARE ALL LIARS. I'm Mark Kraynak, and I approve this message.