August 2011 Archives

Au cours de la prochaine semaine ou deux, je vais faire des changements sur ce site web pour changer sa composition et son apparence. Le but de cette manipulation est de rendre plus facile pour naviguer et pour trouver de l'information.

Au cas o๠que vous essayez de l'accéder et vous trouverez que ça ne marche pas comme il faut, S.V.P. ne pas paniquer. Il sera fort probable que j'avais essayé à  faire quelque chose que je ne devais pas faire.

Je vais affiché des messages sur le progrès sur le site Twitter et sur ma propre page Facebook. 

2011-09-01 mis-à -jour : veuillez-noter, S.V.P., qu'il y un problème avec les cartes Google qui sont intégrées dans les pages o๠on montre les localisations des terrains de jeu de toutes les équipes. Ceci n'est pas relié aux modifications que je fait sur le site web. En fait, il s'agit d'un problème provoqué par des changements chez Google. On peut toujours voir les cartes si on suit le lien qui nous montre les terrains sur une carte plus grande.

Je vais faire bientôt quelques modifcations pour contourner ces problèmes.

In the course of the next week or two I will be making some changes on this website to modify its layout and give it a new look. The reason behind this is to make it easier to navigate through the site and to find information.

In case you try to access this site and something isn't working as you expect, please do not panic. It's probably simply because I got too ambitious and tried to do something that I should not have.

I will post updates on the Twitter site and on my Facebook page.

2011-09-01 update: please note that the Google maps which are embedded into the pages showing field locations for all the different teams are not being displayed. This is not due to anything that I did. Instead, it is due to changes implemented by Google. Please note that if you click on the link to a web page that shows the fields on a larger map then everything works OK.

I will make some modifications soon to get around the problems created by Google's changes.  

Si on considére comment ils ils ont joué contre les Rhinos, l'équipe bantam des Stallions de St-Lazare devrait peut-être changer son nom et elle devrait s'appeler « Le Petit Train bleu », sinon bourgogne.
Avec seulement 27 joueurs, contre une équipe qui en avait 38, les Stallions avaient remplacé par la vitesse et par beaucoup de pérséverance tout ce qui leur manquait en termes de quantité et de taille.
Voici quelques exemples spécifiques: 

• parmi les 36 fois quand les Stallions avaient porté le ballon, 24 fois ils ont gagné trois verges ou moins. En fait, huit fois ils ont même perdu de terrain. Toutefois, sur les 12 autres courses, ils ont gagné en moyenne près de 20 verges par course
  
• parmi les 459 verges qu'ils ont gagné par la passe, 257 verges ont été acquis après l'attrappé (verges suite à  l'attrappé)

Lors de la partie, plusieurs joueurs se sont démarqué avec des performances exceptionnels:

• les 415 verges de Troy Rothdram sur 16 passes complétées est le nouveau record d'équipe bantam pour le plus grand nombre de verges par la passe dans un match. Il a detruit le record précédent de 339 verges établi par Alex Houle en 2004
  
• le jeu d'une course suivie d'une passe de 89 verges de Rothdram au joueur # 81 est le jeu par la passe le plus long jamais pour l'équipe bantam. Le record précédent était le jeu de 88 verges entre Quaid Johnson et Serge Pilon pendant la saison 2009
  
• les 219 verges gagnés par Jeremy Comeau sur 25 portées de ballon est la deuxième meilleure performance jamais dans un match. Le record de 233 verges a été établi en 2009 par Serge Pilon
  
• les 225 verges en réceptions par # 81 est également la deuxième meilleure performance jamais dans un match pour l'équipe bantam. Le record de 254 verges a été établi par Justin McLean en 2004
  
• les 28 points que Comeau a marqué au cours de la partie est la deuxième meilleure performance jamais. Le plus de points jamais marqués dans un match par un joueur des Stallions bantam est 31, réalisé par Justin McLean en 2004 Le fait qu'ils n'ont pas beaucoup de réservistes semble de ne pas géner l'équipe bantam.

Au cours de deux premières parties, plusieurs joueurs clés ont joué de deux côtés du ballon. Tant que ces joueurs restent en forme, l'équipe des Stallions bantam devrait être capables de rivaliser avec n'importe quelle équipe dans sa division.
À noter : la liste complète des meilleures performances de l'équipe bantam est disponible ici.

Considering how they played against the Rhinos, the St-Lazare Stallions bantam team should perhaps change its name and call itself "The Little Engine That Could".
Facing the Rhinos team that had 38 players on the roster compared to the 27 for the Stallions, whatever they lacked in terms of numbers and size they made up for it with speed and determination.
Here are some specific example:

• of the 36 times when the Stallions carried the ball, 24 times they gained three yards or less. In fact, on eight of those they lost yardage. However, on the remaining 12 carries they averaged almost 20 yards per carry
  
• of the 459 yards that they gained on passing plays, 257 yards were gained after the catch (YACs)

In the process, several players had record-setting performances:

• the 415 yards on 16 completed passes by Troy Rothdram is the new bantam team record for the most passing yards in a game. He smashed the previous record of 339 yards set by Alex Houle in 2004
• the 89-yard TD 'catch-and-run' play from Rothdram to #81 is the longest ever bantam team passing play. The previous record was an 88 yards passing play from Quaid Johnson to Serge Pilon during the 2009 season
• the 219 yards that Jeremy Comeau gained on 25 carries is the second most rushing yards in a game. The record of 233 yards was set in 2009 by Serge Pilon
• the 225 receiving yards by #81 is also the second highest total in a game ever for the bantam team. The record of 254 yards was set by Justin McLean in 2004
• the 28 points that Comeau scored during the game is the second highest total ever. The most points ever scored in a game by a Stallions bantam player is 31, done by Justin McLean in 2004

By using several key players both on offense and defense the lack of depth did not seem to hurt the Stallions. As long as these players don't get injured, the Stallions bantam squad should be capable of competing with any team in their division.
Note: the complete list of bantam team records is available here.

Lanaudiere - TD, Sébastien Asselin, 80-yd run (convert kick blocked) 10:32
St-Lazare - TD, Alexandre Normand, 4-yd catch (convert kick blocked) 14:32

• les 190 verges au sol cumulées par Serge Pilon étaient le 7-ème plus grand total jamais réussi dans un match
  
• sa course de 61 verges sur laquelle il avait marqué un touché était la 7-ème plus longue leu par la course tandis que la course de 57 verges de son frère était la 9-ème plus longue jamais

• 190 rushing yards that Serge Pilon accumulated was the 7-th largest total for rushing yards in a game
• his 61-yd TD run was also the 7-th longest running play while his brother's 57-yd run was the 9-th longest

As a special treat to all the readers I have posted the information above about the Lakeshore Cougars midget team's game against the Victoriaville Vicas.
The reason why this was done was due to the fact that game had a very direct and immediate connection to St-Lazare because the former head coach of the 2005 and 2006 Stallions midget team Ray Gaston is now the coach of the running backs on the Lakeshore team.

Just by coincidence the game between the Lakeshore Cougars midget team and the Vicas from Victoriaville was the second game of the day that I attended at the same time as Mathieu and Patrice Ménard from Footbec.

If the outcome of this game is anything to go by then the Cougars will be one of the top teams in the QMFL this year. The way they played this game they reminded me of the last Lakeshore midget team that was the class of the field, which was the team from the 2005 season. I will be surprised if they do not finish amongst the top three teams in the division. They don't have a lot of players on the team but they have everything they need: speed, depth and size where it matters. The only area where they need some improvement is ball security but I'm sure that their coaches will address it.

Cougars scored on the opening drive of the game, a 35-yd catch-and-run play from William Lemire to Christian Senechal, and they never looked back. They built up a 20-0 lead before Victoriaville finally replied with a spectacular 105-yd kickoff return TD by Guillaume Bedard. Cougars scored again at the start of the second half to make it 27-6 but the Vicas fought back to make it 27-12 near they end of the third quarter. However, Cougars' Greg Hansen restored his team's lead to 21 points with a TD on a 95-yd return after an interception, which was very similar to his first TD folowing a 94-yd punt return in the second quarter.

The most memorable play of the game, however, occurred in the middle of the 4-th quarter when the Vicas had a first down at the Lakeshore 2-yd line. On a second down play, Lakeshore's Lucky Daniels stripped the ball from Victoriaville's RB at the 1-yd line and with blocking help from Cougars' Patrick Samuel ran 109 yards all the way to the visitors' end zone. The touchdown did not count, however, because of penalties against both teams for unnecessary roughness, some of which resulted in an injury to Mathieu Vaillancourt from Victoriaville. The game had to be stopped for about 35 minutes until an ambulance arrived and took the injured offensive lineman, who could be seen moving and talking to the paramedics, to a hospital for an examination.

For the Cougars, on offense Peter Taddeo gained 87 yards on 17 carries, Senechal gained 82 yards on three catches while Jerome Miller had 79 yards on four catches. On defense, Hansen had an interception and a fumble recovery while Mathew Da Silva and Alexi Roy each had one INT and Frederic St-John had a sack. Leading tacklers were Samuel, Michael Zenobi and William Vendramini.

Another report on this game is posted on the Footbec website.

Personal observations: sitting in the stands at Parc des Bénévoles, taking notes and compiling game stats brought back a lot of good memories going back all the way to 2003. For those of you who do not know, it was during the 2003 season when I developed the spreadsheet application to capture plays during football games and to compile statistics. At that time, my younger son was playing with the Stallions mosquito team under coach David St-James while my older son had joined the Lakeshore bantam team, since there was no bantam team in St-Lazare, after his two years playing at the pee-wee level with the Stallions.

After one of the mosquito team's games I asked coach St-James if it would be useful for him to have some stats for his team and he enthousiastically agreed and gave me some initial ideas. After a week of work I had an initial version of the stats package ready and started using it for the mosquito team. I then approached Bob Mironowicz, who was the head coach of the Lakeshore Cougars bantam team and I asked him if he would like to get the game stats for his team's games. He also liked the idea and gave me some suggestions about additional information that he wanted to obtain such as play tendencies etc. The stats package continued to evolve during the course of that season with the input from both coaches and I have been using it, while making small changes and improvements, every year since then.