2006 Season Game 2 & 3 - Cougars go 2-0 in Port Angeles
The Vancouver Cougars revitalized their season with a stunning 2-0 result from this weekend’s road trip down to Port Angeles.
Despite aiming for a 7am departure time, we yet again couldn’t co-ordinate 30 players and supporters to get out of bed in time to get going from Vancouver and head across the Border at such an early hour. We finally got going at 8am and bolted south. The long trip got a bit longer for some after Shane Burgess accidentally packed his old passport – Doh !! Thankfully, Teddy (who some say could make it on the F1 circuit at the speeds he drives) drove back and got it for him as he sat in citizenship limbo at the US Immigration office.
Pretty much everyone missed the shorter 10.15am ferry from Keystone so we had to head almost all the way down to Seattle to catch the 12.15 Edmonds ferry across to Puget Sound to get to Port Angeles. FINALLY at around 2pm – 7 hours later we made it to the ground.
The game was at beautiful Civic Field, which has to be one of the nicest grounds Seattle has ever managed to co-ordinate for a game. It was small, but in beautiful nick and had quite a nice grandstand to go with it.
Game 1 – Cougars v Grizzlies.
With 5 Eagles about an hour behind due to the “Burgess Border Incident”, the Cougars played Seattle in the first game. After a disappointing first up loss to the Eagles, the Cougars were strengthened tremendously by the return of Troy Macri (currently residing in Calgary) and Shine Edgar (the former Cougars, turned Eagle, turned back to Cougar). From the opening bounce, the Cougars centerline of Grills, Bowker, Macri and Vargo took control of the game and bombed the ball long into the full-forward line on the very short ground with the later 3 all kicking nice running goals at some stage in the game.
It didn’t take long before it was raining goals. Grills headed down to Full Forward in the second half and proceeded to grab everything that came his way, snagging 4 goals. First time player Mark McCutheon was proving a handful just about all over the ground. Starting at Full Back, he even managed to run the length of the ground and kick a goal, before later kicking another after replacing Grills in the ruck. Another first timer – Chris was racking up possessions across the Half Forward Flank. Coops as always was a dominant force in the backline while Settacasi relished a short stint in the Full Forward position taking some nice grabs and bagging a goal for himself. Edgar was all over the footy throughout the game, and while his disposal wasn’t up to usual lofty standards early (after a full year off from the game), he proved that he is going to be very dangerous as the season progresses.
All up a thumping win.
Final Score: Cougars – 12.8.80 to the Grizzlies – 3.2.20.
Goals: Grills 4, McCutheon 2, Settacasi 1, Campo 1, Vargo 1, Macri 1, Attwood 1, Bowker 1.
Game 2 – Cougars v Eagles.
Game 2 saw the second game in the Cougars v Eagles series. From the start, the Cougars weren’t having it as easily as they had against Seattle. Despite being without 2005 B&F winner – Louie and regular centreman Dale Wakefield, the Eagles centerline of Freeman, Atkinson and Harper were a strong force early and set up a number of Eagles drives. Thankfully the regular forces of Coops, Neufeld, Teddy and Campo were up to the task of squashing the Eagles forwards and refused to concede any easy goals.
As a result, the Cougars managed to keep their heads in front at every change. As the game wore on, the Cougars started to roll over the Eagles. Having picked up a few good stats in the first quarter, Coach Grills made a key move on Eagles player/coach Freeman – he applied the “Bowker Blanket”. For the next 3 quarters, Freeman could not move on the ground without the “Blanket” completely smoothing him and taking him right out of the game. With Eagles Skip Stevie Harper also going down with a Hammy injury, the Eagles began to lose control through the centre.
Despite aiming for a 7am departure time, we yet again couldn’t co-ordinate 30 players and supporters to get out of bed in time to get going from Vancouver and head across the Border at such an early hour. We finally got going at 8am and bolted south. The long trip got a bit longer for some after Shane Burgess accidentally packed his old passport – Doh !! Thankfully, Teddy (who some say could make it on the F1 circuit at the speeds he drives) drove back and got it for him as he sat in citizenship limbo at the US Immigration office.
Pretty much everyone missed the shorter 10.15am ferry from Keystone so we had to head almost all the way down to Seattle to catch the 12.15 Edmonds ferry across to Puget Sound to get to Port Angeles. FINALLY at around 2pm – 7 hours later we made it to the ground.
The game was at beautiful Civic Field, which has to be one of the nicest grounds Seattle has ever managed to co-ordinate for a game. It was small, but in beautiful nick and had quite a nice grandstand to go with it.
Game 1 – Cougars v Grizzlies.
With 5 Eagles about an hour behind due to the “Burgess Border Incident”, the Cougars played Seattle in the first game. After a disappointing first up loss to the Eagles, the Cougars were strengthened tremendously by the return of Troy Macri (currently residing in Calgary) and Shine Edgar (the former Cougars, turned Eagle, turned back to Cougar). From the opening bounce, the Cougars centerline of Grills, Bowker, Macri and Vargo took control of the game and bombed the ball long into the full-forward line on the very short ground with the later 3 all kicking nice running goals at some stage in the game.
It didn’t take long before it was raining goals. Grills headed down to Full Forward in the second half and proceeded to grab everything that came his way, snagging 4 goals. First time player Mark McCutheon was proving a handful just about all over the ground. Starting at Full Back, he even managed to run the length of the ground and kick a goal, before later kicking another after replacing Grills in the ruck. Another first timer – Chris was racking up possessions across the Half Forward Flank. Coops as always was a dominant force in the backline while Settacasi relished a short stint in the Full Forward position taking some nice grabs and bagging a goal for himself. Edgar was all over the footy throughout the game, and while his disposal wasn’t up to usual lofty standards early (after a full year off from the game), he proved that he is going to be very dangerous as the season progresses.
All up a thumping win.
Final Score: Cougars – 12.8.80 to the Grizzlies – 3.2.20.
Goals: Grills 4, McCutheon 2, Settacasi 1, Campo 1, Vargo 1, Macri 1, Attwood 1, Bowker 1.
Game 2 – Cougars v Eagles.
Game 2 saw the second game in the Cougars v Eagles series. From the start, the Cougars weren’t having it as easily as they had against Seattle. Despite being without 2005 B&F winner – Louie and regular centreman Dale Wakefield, the Eagles centerline of Freeman, Atkinson and Harper were a strong force early and set up a number of Eagles drives. Thankfully the regular forces of Coops, Neufeld, Teddy and Campo were up to the task of squashing the Eagles forwards and refused to concede any easy goals.
As a result, the Cougars managed to keep their heads in front at every change. As the game wore on, the Cougars started to roll over the Eagles. Having picked up a few good stats in the first quarter, Coach Grills made a key move on Eagles player/coach Freeman – he applied the “Bowker Blanket”. For the next 3 quarters, Freeman could not move on the ground without the “Blanket” completely smoothing him and taking him right out of the game. With Eagles Skip Stevie Harper also going down with a Hammy injury, the Eagles began to lose control through the centre.
"The Bowker Blanket" - as worn by Chris Freeman
Edgar got a lot of the ball through the centre, while McCutheon was completely unstoppable all over the ground again, almost single-handed taking control of the game of the Cougars.
Vargo headed down for a stint in the forward line and bagged himself 4 goals to continue what is likely to become a season long duel with Grills at the top of the goal-kicking ladder. Grills snagged a late goal to take the season lead after (some say), stealing a long bomb from Matty Neufeld on the goal-line and tapping it through. Normally a backman, the goal would have been Matty’s first in 21 games with the Cougars – shame Grills, shame. Although in saying that, Matty proved he was definitely a backman earlier in the game when he sent a kick from 20metres out, directly in front - about 20 metres wide of point post and out on the full. Once again, some wayward kicking from the usual suspects prevented the scoreline from being even larger.
At the other end, Macri proved he is just as big a handful down in the backline, sweeping across the CHB line on regular occasions, to send the ball back the Cougars way time and time again.
In the end, a tough but strong win.
Final Score: Cougars 8.15.63 to the Eagles 3.2.20
Goals: Vargo 4, Macri 2, Grills 1, Josh 1.
To see a gallery of pics from the game, click on the picture below -
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