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12-14-2008, 04:15 PM
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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How about that end of that 9-and-a-half-month hiatus?
Honestly, as usual, I'm not sure I'm going to update this thread regularly, if it all in the future. At least I felt about updating this thread and decided to write recaps of the three most recent seasons. Recaps for those three were missing anyway. Given that I hope to graduate 'college' in April, requiring to write a paper by the end of March, I can use the flow and desire to write again. I could really use the writing exercise. As long as I don't spend all my creativity and inspiration on this, I should be good, no?  That's all for now, folks.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-16-2008, 08:25 AM
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#52 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2019
Off Season It was time for change. Following two straight 6-10 seasons, clearly things were broken in Maassluis and needed fixing. Contrary to the usual wheeling and dealing, the off-season started with a much bigger change. Head Coach Leroy Van Der Woude was shown the exit after 14 seasons. A tough decission, but inevitable. It became apparent that VDW wasn't able to keep his team disciplined enough, which kept resulting in truckloads of penalties. Costly penalties. So in came inexperienced Edward Wolfe (who went 5-11 with the Vicksburg Vipers in 2017) and coming with him was the Houston Outlaws' defensive coordinator, Les Adderly. Defensive end Jermaine Burks was franchise tagged. A somewhat dumb move as it made his agent think he was worth star player money. For monthst the Merchantmen management and Burks' agents negotiated. End result: a two-year contract wort $25 million that made Burks a top ten player in highest salary. So much for that unwillingness to give defensive ends pay days... But Burks was kept for a reason, the Merchantmen management wanted to keep him and 2018 rookie Broderick Amadro together as the pass rushing duo. To boost the defense, two big name cornerbacks with championships on their resume were brought in. Randall Allen left the Rochester Lake Monsters, while Ben Greer came over from the Fairbanks NorthStars. To complete a studly secondary, San Antonio Volunteers' safety Sherman McDaniel joined the Merchantmen on a one-year $7 million contract. More trades and free agent signings happened, but those were just for depth. The draft brought along two new starters. Wide receiver Freddie Upshaw was taken in the second round to fill big shoes. Vince McAlister suffered a career ending knee injury in the 2018 season, creating a huge gap on the Merchantmen offense. Left tackle Ronald Dole was the other draft day addition to te starting lineup. Dole was originally taken in the first round by the Georgia Gridlock, but for mysterious reasons they felt the need to trade him right away for a low third round pick. The Merchantmen lived up to their reputation and quickly jumped into the trade opportunity. Only to second guess themselves two games into the regular season after Dole was carried off the field with a compound leg fracture. End of season and a likely miss of spring training as well. The other big news in the off-season were the hold outs of quarterback Louie Flannery and linebacker Fernando Reese. But both were quickly talked into signing a new deal and reported in Maassluis for training camp. Roster cut day ended not only Vince McAlister's stay in Maassluis, but also running back Tommy 'Free' Wheeler. The Merchantmen decided to put more carries on T-Bone (Tom Bone) and go from five to four running backs. The second shocking release was of Winston Van Pelt. The long snapper was released after 10 seasons of service and replaced by Aaron Blake. Season to be continued...
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-16-2008 at 08:26 AM. |
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12-16-2008, 10:01 AM
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2019 Merchantmen roster breakdown
To get y'all acquainted with the Merchantmen roster, here's a quick roster overview. I'll break down the roster by position group. Roster
Quarterbacks Still our guy is Flannery. He's getting up there in age, but still has that strong arm and decission making skills. And that interception proneness. South thinks it's about time to get the starting job, but I disagree. I wouldn't mind giving him the ball, but I prefer to see where we go with Flan' first. The old man is on a mission to break a couple of league records in the career section. South has superior decission making skills, but has a weaker arm and is less accurate than Flan'. Francis was purely a mentor signing. With South having that ability too now, Francis became our short-term emergency quarterback. In fact, we might go out there and pickup a promising fourth quarterback during the season. We actually have a roster spot to spare... Running backs During training camp T-Bone showed flashes of being a better runner than he used to be. This season he's going to be a 15-carries back. Evjen was supposed to become our feature back, hence spending the summer Solecismique. But Evjen fails to make progress. Depending on my mood he's either the #2 or #3 option. Mallon is a punt returner first, a running back second. Yet, Mallon has proven to be a ypc type of back. Ray Ray is the big name here. He's still got some of his speed, but has a clear case of fumblitis, which made me decide to push him back to the #4 role, which is usually an inactive player. Fullbacks and Tight ends I'm quite pleased with Harless and Malicki. Harless is a skilled run blocker, technically even the most gifted in the league. Malicki is a welcome backup to him, still having the skills to play ball. D.McDaniel has become our clearcut starter, even though he never reached his potential in run blocking skills. Blake is actually the overall better blocker, but for cohesion reasons I prefer McDaniel's sticky receiving hands. Blake is also our long snapper. Stewart isn't exactly what I hoped he would be. He's still very green in run blocking experience. I'm not sure he's going to be with us in 2020. Wide receivers The star of the team is Springer. He's been a beast and posted three straight 100-catch seasons. Upshaw looks promising to me. He's got the speed and agility combo I like in receivers. Fulton is even faster than Upshaw, but doesn't have the creativity and hands to be a anymore than a 750-yard receiver. He makes a fine #3 guy. Marshall never lived up to the hype, but does seem to be a good in 3+ receiver formations and also serves as a kickoff return alternative. Flowers is still just that: a return man. Centers and guards For a late third round pick, Swift turned out to be quite okay. Low on power and stamina, but makes up with his technique. Steverson backs up Swift, but also serves in our rotation at the guard positions. Reilly and Griffin remain as our starters at guard. Carlisle is green, but has the looks of a Griffin-like lineman. J.Gomez appears to be a nice backup option, but in the first bunch of games has been a bit of a weak spot when given a chance to play. Offensive Tackles With Dole out for the season, we're down to only three guys. Zuccolotto is as good as any other left tackle in the league, aside from the true elite guys. He fits nicely in the Merchantmen left tackle tradition. England has never lived up to the hype of being a true pass blocking star, but does start because of Dole's injury. Franklin was acquired to play the right side, but father time came along and told him he's backup material from here on. Defensive Linemen I really like the Amadro and Burks duo here. They're both very fast and have the technique to go around the tackles and pressure the passer. Waldroup is still in the mix for the end slots due to his superior run defending skills. Hansen remains to be a solid backup option as a pass rusher. Sawyer is a typical Charles Gomez look-a-like: an all-round talented defender. Mathews is mostly a run stuffer, which is the key ability a defensive tackle should have. I don't worry if he has to start as our nosetackle. Linebackers Playing a 3-4 defense these days, we brought along seven linebacker. Bitkowski doesn't count as he entered the season on injured reserve for a pre-season injury. Reese is our run stuffer on the strong side, Everhart our blitz-backer. In between, Sales is our top run defender. Watson is the allround middle man, while Turnbull has enough skills to be a reliable backup. Burns also has the speed to play blitz-backer, while Kurpeikis is quietly turning into a solid run-stuffer, who can be relied on when forced onto the field. Cornerbacks With Allen and Greer we have a shutdown star duo. If it wasn't for the San Antonio Volunteers' younger tandem, these guys would be considered as the best cornerback duo in the league. Sanderson is our premier backup, based on his man-to-man and zone defense skills. Castillo and Pennell are our nickelback and dimeback, because both have superb ballhawking skills. Gaines would have missed the cut, had he not picked up a very minor injury in pre-season. Safeties We still rely on Cole as our strong safety. As we're trying to mingle more pass defense variaty in our game plan, Cole is a bit of a weakness now, being mostly a zone defender. Yet his run stopping skills make him an almost irreplacable guy. S.McDaniel was a welcome addition in the off-season. He's a complete pass defender. Campbell his quickly grown into being our rotation backup. He's got the man-to-man and zone defense skills to not be a weak spot on our defense. Gillespie has lost some of his speed and agilty, but remains to be a guy who knows how to force interceptions.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-17-2008 at 07:46 PM. Reason: fixed something that isn't true |
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09-08-2012, 08:30 AM
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#55 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Wow, nearly 4 years (real time) have passed by, which in FOF years in IHOF means no less than 17 seasons, including the "where were we?" 2019 season. As you can imagine, that's quite some time! I'll try to do what I did to start this second dynasty thread: recap all the seasons that have gone by and show where we are now.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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09-08-2012, 08:58 AM
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#56 | |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Quote:
Season The regular season kicked off with a nice bang. Gabe Springer enmassed 16 catches for 229 yards and 2 scores in his Merchantmen debut against the Paris Musketers. Louie Flannery connected for no less than 364 yards and 4 touchdowns. Things looked bright and hopeful. A week three 24-13 victory at the North Plainfield Plague made an even bigger promise. The Merchantmen looked ready to break back into the upperechelon of teams. Well, not quite. After a 2-1 start, the Merchantmen lost 8 games straight. Naturally, six of those were by a single score. And as to be expected with the Merchantmen, of the final five games, four were won. It meant the difference in draft position, but by now people know that the Merchantmen don't care for that late in the season. The end results was just a 6-10 record and a surprisingly high 6th overall pick for the 2020 draft, winning tie-breakers over six other 6-10 teams. For the first time in his career, Springer actually missed some games, but in 13 games he still posted 105 catches for 1,379 yards and 9 touchdowns. Rookie Freddie Upshaw proved to be a useful #2 receiver, recording 75 receptions for 773 yards and 6 scores. Louie Flannery had an okay season, but also finished his 14th season with a career low of 12 games played. The European division was won by the Bordeaux Vineyards with a 9-7 record. Divisional record seperated them from the Gothenburg Giants, whom also finished at 9-7. The Merchantmen finished third, with a 6-10 record, holding off the Paris Musketeers on divisional record as well. The Vineyards proved to be playoffs unworthy, getting demolished 59-21 by the 10-6 Tucker Tigers. The Tigers lost 38-31 in the next round at the 13-3 op seeded Syracuse Mohawks. In turn, the Mohawks lost at the 12-4 Houston Mustangs 44-13. In their second season in Houston, the Mustangs already march into the IHOF Bowl! The 13-3 Asheville Axemen eventually won IHOF Bowl XVI with a 28-26 score, the game-winning play being a Lamont Holm interception at the Axemen 23-yard line with a minute left to play.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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09-08-2012, 09:48 AM
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#57 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2020
Off Season The 2020 off-season became a turning point in Merchantmen history. With the 6th overall pick in hand, management was convinced that it would be possible to move up to the number one overall pick and to select Russell Harrison, an impressive Navy quarterback. The San Antonio Volunteers were the trade partners and settled for thatc 6th overall pick and the 2021 first round pick, which surely would be a high one, considering the change to a new quarterback. It started talk about whether Harrison would get the start from the get go, like Louie Flannery did back in the day, or that Flannery would get another season to show his skill, since he decided to stick around. The off-season saw the departure of several key players, especially in the secondary with the legendary Ben Greer leaving after just one season in Maassluis, safety Kennedy Gillespie joining Greer into retirement and safety Sherman McDaniel walking away as a free agent. Running back Ray Ray Lyle retired, but never really made an impact in Maassluis, guard J.J. Reilly decided that he wasn't going to be a pass protector for a new quarterback and also quit. But possibly most notably was the release of Al Bettis, the best kickoff kicker in IHOF history. To fill some of the empty holes, the Merchantmen acquired All IHOF guard Phillip Hastings from the Syracuse Mohawks for a third round pick, drafted satey Jimmy Chellino, kicker Paul Welker, tight end/long snapper Rondell Bowers, third round pick defensive end Roosevelt McCarthy and grabbed a steal in blitz backer Todd Clemens in the seventh round. Wide receiver Vince McAllister returned as a free agent, but didn't survive roster cuts. Leading up to the regular season, the main decission was whom to make the quarterback. After investing the first overall pick on Russell Harrison, it seemed obvious to go with the rookie, but Flannery was still the better passer of the two. Everett South stuck around to mentor Harrison, as Flannery proved to be incapable of doing such a favor. Shortly before opening day, the Merchantmen announced that a decission was made. Russell Harrison would be the 2020 opening day starter. Season Harrison's debut game proved to be a disappointment. In a loaded Oranje Haven, Harrison at times looked rusty and saw three of his passes intercepted, including one late in the fourth quarter that was returned for a touchdown, as the Merchantmen were rallying to come back from 21-19 behind. Despite the picks, Harrison had a decent game, completing 28 of his 41 attempts for 282 yards and 2 scores. Gabe Springer showed a good connection with the new passer, catching 11 passes for 117 yards. Following the 28-26 loss to the Gohenburg Giants, the next game was lost 35-14 at the Outer Banks Ospreys. Harrison had a respectable performance, completing 17 of 22 passes for 164 yards and a score, with one pass intercepted. The next seven games included five on the road. The Merchantmen recorded wins at Boston and Georgia, but lost the other five games. The 42-10 hammering at the 2018 champions Orlando was an eye-opener. Gabe Springer was missing and it showed that the wide receiver was crucial for any chance to win a game. But in true Merchantmen spirit, the team wasn't disorted from the 2-7 record. In a 45-17 demolition of the Gothenburg Giants, Harrison and Springer connected 14 times for 157 yards and 3 scores. And one week later, the Merchantmen fans saw progress for Harrison as he recorded his first home game victory. In a second half comeback, Harrison guided his team from a 13-0 deficit towards a 28-19 victory over the reigning IHOF champions, the Asheville Axemen. A breakout game of sorts, especially given that Springer was held to 69 yards and scoreless by the Axemen defense. The Merchantmen finished the season 7-9 losing the final game to the Paris Musketeers. Paris won the division at 9-7, but the Merchantmen finished a respectable second, but improved only one win compared to the previous three 6-10 seasons. After the slow start, 'Rusty' Harrison earned rookie of the year honors as he completed 375 of his 565 passes (66.4 percent) for 3,877 yards, 27 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Springer had 116 receptions for 1,413 yards and 12 touchdowns with eight 100-yard performances. Overall, the AOC was on an off year, as only four teams finished the season with a winning record. The Paris Musketeers (9-7) survived the wild card round with a 14-10 victory over the Syracuse Mohawks (8-8). In the conference semi finals, the Fort Worth Fury (10-6) needed a field goal in overtime to win 23-20. The Fury lost the AOC Championship game to the Tucker Tigers (13-3) 23-21. The Tigers had to take a road-game route, finishing second in the Southeast division behind the Orlando Knights (14-2) and subsequently derailed the Knights 42-35 in the conference semi's. In IHOF Bowl XVII the Tigers defeated the defending champions, as the Asheville Axemen (12-4) had no solution to wide receiver Kenny Delgado's 9 receptions for 137 yards.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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09-08-2012, 10:30 AM
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#58 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2021
Off Season After the change of seasons, the Merchantmen were relieved that only one player decided to quit the game: left tackle Jesus X Zuccolotto. The merchantmen decided not to address that position, thinking that Quinn England would be able to make from the right to the left, with Ronald Dole playing on the right side. On the inside center Brent Hickman was acquired from thre Boulder Blizzard for a third round pick. On the line, fullback Quentin Malicki was released after many years of service and replaced by fourth year veteran Luke Campbell. The most important part of the team, the skill positions on offense, were improved. The Merchantmen sent a third round pick to the Vicksburg Vipers for their starting running back Bryant Rickman, with T-Bone dropping a slot in the depth chart. Quarterback Russell Harrison made good progress in training camp and was happy to have the same guys behind him on the chart. Veteran tight end Darryl McDaniel failed to make the final cut, as the team decided to go back to three tight ends. Other notable chances were seen at punter, where Sean Smalley was replaced by rookie J.R. Copeland, a second round pick. Safety Martin Clayton was hired as a free agent to become the new punt returner. At linebacker Deoin Van Verth was signed as a free agent to play in the middle of the 3-4, replacing the released veteran Fernado Turnbull. Season Following the surprisingly decent 2020 campaign, expectations were higher than the past few seasons. The Harrison to Springer connection was said to have the potential to become one of the best in the league in the near future. But any hopes for that coming true in 2021 were overal after just one game. A couple of plays into game two of the regular season, Gabe Springer had one of his hamstrings snap and was ruled out for the rest of the season, ending the year with just 12 catches for 122 yards and 2 scores, all from one game of action. To add to the horror, Harrison also left the week two game early, with an ice pack on his sore knee. Despite a nice 2-0 start - with a 20-17 win at the Bordeaux Vineyards and a 27-17 win over the Frederick Red Menace - the season was already tagged a lost season. Running back Rickman proved to me a bit of a mis match and lost his starting job to T-Bone five games into the season. The passing game severly missed left tackle Zuccolotto and the Offensive line allowed 26 sacks of Harrison in 14 games, a huge setback after only 14 sacks in the previous season. In the following 15 weeks of the season, the Merchantmen disappointed heavily and managed to record only 3 more wins and lost 11 games, their worst season since the innaugural IHOF season. Despite that, the overall level of football played in the European division was abmyssal and the Merchantmen were still in the division title race for a long time. In fact, after week 13 Maassluis was only 4-8, but still lead the division on tie-breakers over Gothenburg and Bordeaux, with Paris just one game behind the rest. Eventually the Gothenburg Giants (8-8) crowned themselves European champions with a four-game winning streak to finish the regular season. In the wild card round they actually had a shot at upsetting the visiting Georgia Gridlock (12-4), but turnovers haunted them and forced them into a 40-21 loss. The Gridlock survived another road game, winning 35-20 at the Vicksburg Vipers (12-4). In the AOC Championship game, the Girdlock choked a 9-point lead late in the fourth quarter and lost 31-30 on a 49-yard field goal with just over a minute left to play. The Tucker Tigers (12-4) repeated as AOC champions, but despite an once again on-fire Kenny Delgado fell to the Chesapeake Chitterlings (13-3). It marked the Chitterlings first IHOF Championship in their sixth IHOF Bowl appearance.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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09-08-2012, 11:08 AM
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#59 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2022
Off Season After 16 seasons of service, the Merchantmen said goodbye to Louie Flannery. All in all, he played 239 regular season games for the Merchantmen, throwing for 47,472 yards, 327 touchdowns and 223 interceptions. He came a season short of the magic 50K mark, but also goes down for his infamy as an interceptions thrower. Flannery guided the Merchantmen to one AOC Championship game in four playoffs campaigns. He was joined into retirement by long-time rotation defensive end Luther Hansen and veteran guard Phillip Hastings. Hastings' departure lead to further revaming of the offensive line after last season's disasters. Veteran Johnnie Griffin was released and in the lineup replaced by Casey Kappers, who joined the Merchantmen in 2020 as an undrafted rookie. The big fishes of the off-season were guard Reuben Perez and tackle Harold Lucas. Perez was acquired for a third round pick from the Miami Sharks and was regarded as an elite interior lineman. Lucas was argued to be the best offensive lineman to play in IHOF, holding championship rings with the Boston Rhinons and Orlando Knights (two rings), and joined as a free agent. Another key free agent signing was quarterback Patrick McDonnell, as an insurance policy in case Harrison shows injury proneness. Despite the 5-11 record, the Merchantmen held only the eight overall draft pick in the draft. Attempts to trade down failed and cornerback Greg Proehl was their choice of player. Later on, the Merchantmen added young defensive lineman with Donnie Sinclair as a third round pick and run stuffing tackle Winston Tanaka as a late round selection. Pass rusher Tyrus Willis joined as a rookie free agent. Season The Merchantmen started the 2022 season with a visit to the Paris Musketeers. In a close game, the Merchantmen forced overtime, but running back Bryant Rickman funbled the ball early and the Musketeers replied with a succesful field goal attempt. A week later, the Merchantmen bounced back with another fourth quarter rally, to come down from 14-0 behin and win in overtime over the Albuquerque Wrong Turns, also on an early fumble being replied by a succesful field goal. A couple of freak games that set the tone for the first half of the season. The next bunch of games were as much of a rollercoaster as the first two, losing one game and winning another. The trend continued throughout the first 10 games of the season, including four convincing wins over the San Antonio Volunteers (31-3), at the Houston Mustangs (27-17), at the Fort Worth Fury (28-10) and the Gothenburg Giants (38-7), but also four disappointing home game losses at the hands of Syracuse, Vicksburg, Paris and Bordeaux. The final five games the Merchantmen looked uninspired and lost all of them. With the loss in the final game, the Merchantmen dropped to fourth place in the division with a 5-11 record, not quite what was expected with the personnel around. The Paris Musketeers (10-6) won the division and joined a playoffs field crowded with 10-win teams. Paris actually received a bye into the second round and beat the Orlando Knights (10-6) 28-21 to reach the AOC Championship game. The Boston Rhinos (10-6) were the visiting opponents and completed a three-on-the-road series with a 40-28 score. In IHOF Bowl XIX Boston played the juggernaut of the season, the Asheville Axemen (15-1). Despite their regular season play and a productive second quarter, the Axemen struggled in second half and needed an unanswered fourth quarter touchdown to win 34-31. It marked Asheville's second championship in four season, also losing another IHOF Bowl in between.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 09-08-2012 at 12:14 PM. |
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09-08-2012, 12:17 PM
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#60 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2023
Off Season The first news of the 2023 campaign was the retirement of Harold Lucas after just one season in Maassluis. He was joined by defensive tackle Maurice Sawyer and backup running back Bryant Rickman. To re-boost the team, the Merchantmen were holding the fifth overall pick, but after the selection of cornerback Proehl last season, what good would come from that? The Merchantmen management worked the phones and traded down from fifth to eighth and then nineth overall. In the process they added enough fodder to make a couple of blod moves. The nineth pick was used to select wide receiver Terry Thomason, a speedy receiver who should become an awesome one-two with Gabe Springer. With the added fodder, the Merchantmen managed to acquire the 15th and 20th overall picks to select linebacker R.J. Knight and defensive tackle Andy Cottle respectively. Offensive tackle Pete Jamison was acquired for a second round pick from Orlando and the Merchanmen looked ready to make strides. Not so fast, a day or two before the first game, the Merchantmen improved their offense by sending future first and second roud picks to the Neverland Ranch Hands for running back Stanley Givens. With Harrison, Givens, Springer and Thomason, the Merchantmen had collected a tremendous quartet of skill players. Season The Merchantmen marched into the regular season with three straight victories. The Gothenburg Giants were beaten on the road in the opening game, with both Givens and Thomason scoring their first two touchdowns for the Merchantmen. In week two the Superior Intellects had an answer to the Merchantmen offense, 'Rusty' Harrison had to run a touchdown in by himself to force overtime and in overtime the speacial teams unit won it with a blocked punt recovery in the end zone. The third game before the bye week was a 31-17 thumping of the Fort Worth Fury. After the bye, the Merchantmen lost a barnburner to the Tucker Tigers, 38-35. Harrison was tossing touchdown passes left and right, Givens was racking 100-yard games and Springer, Thomason and Freddie Upshaw were making the recptions. Despite the loss, the Merchantmen proved to be a potent team. The Merchantmen stumbled on the Goergia Gridlock in week 6, losing 20-14, but the 477 total yards on offense. From there on, the 'Air Show' continued for the Merchantmen. A 3-interception game against the Paris Musketeers was won 34-23, and in week 8 the Snapfinger Jazz were demolished 38-21. But disaster struck as well, with 6 minutes left to play, Harrison went to the ground after a late hit and a shoulder injury would rule him out for the next six games. At that point, the arrival of Parick McDonnell a season earlier proved worthy. The Merchantmen struggled at first, barely winning at the Bordeaux Vineyards (41-34) and losing at the Orlando Knight (24-17). In week 11, McDonnell found his swing, and mostly Gabe Springer. McDonnell threw for 460 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 267 yards and 3 touchdowns to Springer, in a 55-14 demolishion of the Gothenburg Giants. The Chicago Norsemen (23-20), North Plainfield Plague (27-17) and Minnesota Miners (20-7) were also beaten. On Rusty Harrison's return, the Merchantmen were 10-3 with the division title pretty much clinched. In one and a half quarter against the Bordeaux Vineyards, Harrison threw five touchdown passes, before getting injured and replaced midway through the game. The Merchantmen ended up winning 55-7, with both Harrison and McDonnell throwing for 200 yards and multiple scores. McDonnell then guided the Merchantmen to a 42-17 win over the Muscatine Mosquitoes, but in the final game, with Harrison back, the Merchantmen choked a 20-7 lead against the Paris Musketeers to lose 24-20 there and miss out on a bye week, despite a 12-4 record. The Merchantmen did end the regular season as European division champions, scoring a league high 507 points. The Paris Musketeers (10-6) finshed second, but miss the playoffs, in a top-heavy AOC, with all playoff teams being 11-5 or better. No less than seven teams in IHOF finished with a 12-4 record, not counting the 14-2 Rochester Lake Monsters. Individually, Harrison and McDonnell both topped 2,000 yards with 20+ touchdown passes and 6 interceptions each. Givens scored 19 touchdowns, Springer and Thomason 12 each, with Springer also IHOF's second in receiving with 1,669 yards. In the wild card round, the Merchantmen were to host the Tucker Tigers (12-4). The Tigers scored first, but the air show quickly replied and took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Paul Welker missed a field goal, but converted another late in the second quarter for a 10-6 half time lead. After a Stanley Givens touchdown run, Maassluis extended the lead, but apparently that also woke the Tigers up. Kenny Delgado scored a touchdown, then Harrison got intercepted, which led to another Tucker touchdown. Givens replied with his second touchdown run, banking on his 180 yards for the whole day. Late in the fourth quarter another Tucker touchdown turned things around, but with 150 seconds left, the Merchantmen were confident to score last. The Merchantmen marched towards the 5-yard line, but penalties pushed them back, Paul Welker was to attempt a 34-yard field goal to tie the score, but failed. A disappointing end for the best Merchantmen team to date. The Tucker Tigers (12-4) failed to follow up on their win in Maassluis, losing 44-35 at the Rochester Lake Monsters (14-2). In the next round, the Lake Monsters struggled in the AOC Championship game and lost 20-10 to he Vicksburg Vipers (12-4) at home. IHOF Bowl XX looked like a good matchup with the Viscksburg Vipers (12-4) and Superior Intellects (12-4), but ended up being a painful loss for the Vipers, with turnovers in three of their first four possessions. Superior lived up to their name and won 38-10.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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09-08-2012, 12:21 PM
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#61 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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That's it for now. As you can see, it takes almost 45 minutes per season to summarize. Five down, twelve more to go!
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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10-28-2012, 08:29 AM
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#62 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Oh boy, that's 13 more season to recap. Y'know what? I'll postpone the recaps for a bit with a series of flashbacks. For know, I'll pick up where we are now: two days after IHOF Bowl XXXIII, the 2036 season league championship game.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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10-28-2012, 09:14 AM
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#63 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Start of the 2037 season retirement news
"Welcome to the 2037 season!" Yup, the IHOF is about to enter its 34th season since inception. Consequently, this will be the Maassluis Merchantmen's 34th season as well. The news of today is the retirement of four players players on roster and a couple of former Merchantmen that were released in the previous off-season. Who are calling it quits? Wide receiver Travis May leaves Maassluis after four seasons. In the 2033 off-season, May was acquired from the Tucker Tigers in a trade for a first round pick, to boost the passing game after a series of disappointing 9-7 non-playoffs seasons. May played 52 regular season games for the Merchantmen, in which he scored 16 receiving touchdowns, excluding one score in the 2035 playoffs. May was a regular starter in his first two seasons, but failed to record a 1,000-yard season. In 2035 he played the WR3 role and last season May spent most of the game on the sidelines in his street clothes. Defensive end Steven Clark leaves half a year after his 30th birthday. Selected in the 4th round of the 2029 season, he spent his entire IHOF career with the Merchantmen. Clark played 109 games and barring his first and last season was a regular player in the rotation mix. Clark was said to be a run stopping expert, usually bumping and pushing linemen to make room for the faster and bigger linemen. Linebacker Harvey Owens was a 3rd round pick in the 2024 draft. Owens never emerged as a regular starter, playing second-string to the legendary middle linebacker R.J. Knight, but still spent 13 seasons on roster. He played in 175 regular season games and 10 playoffs games. Defensive end Dwight 'Double' Dibble joined the Merchantmen through trade in the 2032 season. Dibble arrived after an All IHOF first team 14.0-sack season with the Neverland Ranch Hands, but never lived up to the hype. Dibble played and started in 76 regular season games, recording 26.5 sacks, with a season-high of 6.5. He ranks 10th overall in all-time sacks in Maassluis. Defensive end Bryce Ferich joined the Merchantmen in the 2026 season as a 3rd round pick in the draft. Ferich was a large pass rusher, but never was a regular starter. In 10 seasons, Ferich was a regular player in the rotation and noted 30.0 sacks, which makes him rank tied for 7th all-time in Maassluis. Ferich left the Merchantmen in the 2036 pre-season, being a roster cuts casualty, and didn't get any calls from elsewhere in the IHOF. Wide receiver J.J. Gabay was est known for his kickoff returning. Gabay joined the Merchantmen in 2028 as a 3rd roudn draft pick. Gabay played in 127 regular season games, missing just one game in an 8-season stint. In those games he scored 5 touchdowns, one of them on a kickoff return. Gabay still ranks second overall in kickoff return yardage for the Merchantmen. Gabay was a 2036 pre-season roster cuts casualty and failed to find a new team. Running back Mark McConnell is the Maassluis Merchantmen's all time rushing touchdowns leader. McConnell was a late 5th round pick in the 2027 season, yet emerged as a suitable change of pace back from the start. In his fourth season he promoted into the starting lineup, posting his only 1,000-yard season, with 10 touchdowns and a stellar 5.1 yards per carry average. After the arrival of Darrin Keegan he returned to the second string and in 2035 he was demoted to an inactive role. McConnell played in 131 regular season games, scored 42 touchdowns, but is mostly known for his 277-yard single game performance in 2032 against the Tucker Tigers, which also marks the franchise high single game for all-purpose yards and yards from scrimmage. Also leaving the game after less spectacular stints in Maassluis are quarterback Craig Porter (2 games, 1 start in 2035), wide receiver Lawrence Rendon (scored 3 touchdowns in 16 games in 2032), linebacker Arnie Drake (played 49 games in 2027-2030), linebacker Victor Clifton (played in all games in 2035), cornerback Rex Frisch (played 2 games in 2026), cornerback Colin Powell (emergency start in late 2035 season), cornerback Artie Plangeard (4 interceptions in 2031-2032), cornerback Arnie Sisco (emergency starter in 2035) and safety Leroy Powell (dimeback in 2033-2034). All in all, we lose one starter (Dibble), three thrid-string backups (Clark, May and Owens) and saw three 2036 roster cuts casualties with second-tier roles in Maassluis leave the game. Thanks to all of them for their efforts!
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 10-28-2012 at 12:34 PM. |
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10-28-2012, 10:26 AM
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#64 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 start of the off-season overview
We're entering the 2037 off-season with 49 players on roster, 9 draft picks in hand and $21.11M negative cap space. Factoring n the draft picks, we're supposed to find $30.56M of cap room to start the season. We've got several key players with large salary figures signed long-term to have enough space potential to get under the cap. Here's our position by position breakdown. As per usual I'm rounding up/down to 5s. Quarterback QB: 60/60 Jay McGee, 35/35 Kerry Lewis, 15/25 Harry Osborne McGee is roughly a top10 quarterback in talent, he's coming off his best season and now is in a last year of contract situation. We've got him signed for a $5.14 cap figure, which is peanuts for a starting quarterback of his caliber. Odds are that he'll go into hold out mode if we don't give him a new contract and I suspect he'll ask for something like $15M-20M per season over 3 or 4 years. Barring cap miracles, we'll have trouble to afford that. McGee doesn't have a strong arm, yet showed an ability to connect with the gazelles around him, especially with two new starters last season. Also, in recent years seems to have gotten rid of his turnover proneness, except for recent playoff games that is... Behind McGee we have Osborne and Lewis, in that order in my opinion. Osborne was our 2035 third round pick and made some improvements while riding the bench, but is yet to live up to his very decent combine scores. In limited action (3 games) he played good, but far from great. I was tempted to push him into the satrting role last season, but McGee finally picked it up when he got a couple of new receivers and Osborne could be left to waiting for when McGee becomes unaffordable. Lewis has been our kick holder and emergency quarterback for 8 seasons and I won't worry if for whatever reason we'll have to see him throw the ball for the first time in his career. Backfield RB: 70/70 Darrin Keegan, 35/40 Alfred Brew, 20/25 J.T. Patterson FB: 50/50 Albert Shalon, 45/45 Aaron Carter Keegan is entering his 6th season and I won't be surprised if he's going to lose some of his speed. In his first five seasons with us we've let him carry the ball quite a lot, with a 264-carry figure as his minimum. We've been blessed that he missed only 3 games so far, but has slowly turned into a bit of a fumbler as well (10 last season). Keegan remains reliable at 4.7 yards per carry and is destined to become our all-time rushing leader. Patterson is mostly here as one of our two kickoff return specialists. Last season we promoted him from no-carrier to change of pace back. I don't really think much of his running skills, he's basically just an elusive guy. Brew is also elusive and has hole recognition as well. He was a stellar RB2 in 2035, with a 4.7 average and 100-yard performances in his two career starts. Perhaps he deserves more credit after that and should be back as our RB2 in 2037. Both Patterson and Brew will have to be talked with for a contract extention, being in their last years. Carter is our blocking fullback, Shalon is basically our 3rd down back. Shalon converts roughly 2/3rd of his 3rd down carries for a 1st down, which makes him one of the best in league history. forecasting training camp, I expect both of the to look worse than before. Tight end TE: 40/40 D.J. Cahill, 35/35 J.T. Hall, 10/10 Rusty Arpaci Cahill was our 1st round pick for us 7 seasons ago and always plays above his ratings, so to speak. We can basically expect 500 yards and 4 scores from him per season. Hall is a a pure run blocker and relaively new to the team, but is bound to lose some speed entering his 9th pro-season. Arpaci will enter his 13th season in IHOF, he's purely a long snapper and odds are I'll look for a replacement this off-season. Hall and Arpaci are both in a last-year situation and might be extended if they make the 53-men roster. Wide receivers WR: 50/50 Russell Holliday, 40/40 Terrell Haskell, 40/40 Casey Brown, 35/35 Adam Brautlacht, 30/30 Skip Dillon, 25/35 Charles Pomeranz Haskell was our 6th overall draft pick last season and comes off a rookie of the year campaign. That's quite the feat in IHOF, as he's only the third wide receiver to ever get the award. Reality is that he won it because Harlem's running back Tommy Anthony got hurt mid-season. Haskell's overall 'ratings' are perceiving, he's got the getting downfield and big play talent to be a productive WR2. With Holliday around, Haskell was able to play that role well and lead the team in catches, yards and scores. Holliday is a reliable flanker and will occasionally draw the double coverage away from Haskell. Brautlacht has been a quality WR3 and will be in the mix for the punt return duties, which I might take him out of after a 5-fumble season. Dillon and Pomeranz are fast backups and can punish defenses for focussing on the top two guys too much. Second year player Pomeranz is a restriced free agent as he joined us on a one-year contract last season. Brown lacks the big-play ability to be considered into the mix, the sole reason to keep him has been about his gunner skills. He's a restricted free agent, but I'm undecided on whether we'll lock him up in the pre-draft free agency. Holliday is in his last year, but won't be talked with until after training camp because of his age. Offensive line C: 50/50 Arnie Croft, 40/60 B.J. Samuels, 40/40 Shawn Hudspeth G: 90/90 Ricky Castillo, 50/50 Gilbert Rhodes, 50/50 Nate Hurnblad, 35/45 Julio Ferich T: 75/75 Kerry Zumdahl, 50/50 Tom Bush, 50/50 Edwin Crangle A quality unit, anchored by the most talented guard and second most talented left tackle in football. Bush is a tremendous run blocker, but we can change gears by putting Crangle in as a pass blocking expert. Rhodes and Hurnblad basically are a tag team, lacking stamina, but both being all around quality linemen. Croft is our starting center, Samuels is talented and Hudspeth is a 13th season veteran with plenty left in the tank to do well if we need him. We'll have to get around the table for extentions with Craft, Rhondes, Hurnblad and creepy Ferich. Kickers P: 65/65 Edward Rice K: 60/60 Charles Anthony, 30/50 Al Beuvelot Rice is a decent punter entering his 7th season in IHOF. No need to look elsewhere, barring injury or training camp disaster. Anthony is a top-notch kickoff returner and a very reliable short field goals kicker. We don't let him attempt many long kicks, but he's been able to go against the odds and kick 50-yarders at times. Beuvelot is a pure kickoff kicker and entering his second season. We drafted him as a potential replacement for Anthony, but didn't need him to play last season. Anthony turns 36 in the off-season, which for a kicker isn't extremly old. We've bot Beuvelot ready to step in, if needed, but we'd likely also need a true field goals and PAT kicker as well then. Defensive line DE: 40/40 Johnnie Warren DT: 50/50 Ralph Campbell, 45/55 Jerome Tyson, 45/45 Brenden England, 35/40 Dwight Hutton, 30/30 Roger Finch After Dibble and Clark both retired, we're short on true defensive ends. Warren has been a quality all-rounder, but we need a decent backup behind him because of his lack of endurance. England played that role last season, behing our DL5 and surprisingly being the most active lineman and getting all IHOF 1st team honors. Campbell and Tyson are all around players, with Campbell a potential target for ageing. Hutton is a run stoper and Finch a pure pass rusher. We'll have to add two defensive ends in the off-season to cover the losses of Dibble and Clark. We'll need one of them to be a pass rusher, even though we're still pretty deep there with the returning bunch. Linebackers ILB: 40/55 Wesley Devine, 40/40 C.J. Boo OLB: 80/80 Fred McCorkle, 30/30 Trent Kaiser, 25/25 Cole Dooley, 50/50 Butch VandenBosch VandenBosch is out for the entire 2037 season, which means we're missing our WLB. McCorkle is the SLB for us, being arguably the most talented passing downs linebacker in football. Devine and Boo have both shown good play, with Devine the better pass defender and Boo being all around decent. Kaiser could be used as a blitzback. Dooley is a free agent after a late-season signing when both VDB and McCorkle were on IR. We might try to re-sign Dooley as a pass defending expert. At the very least we'll have to look into option for the replacement of VDB. Both Devine and Boo are talented enough to start, but I'd prefer Boo to play the LB4 role as backup to both the SLB and MLB, with Kaiser or Dooley as the second WLB option. Secondary CB: 60/60 Herman Hatton, 40/40 Tito Close, 35/50 Britt Rice, 35/35 Carlton Hall, 30/30 Winfred Alcott, 25/35 Bernie Gordon S: 50/50 Thurman Hopper, 45/45 Perry Walker, 40/40 Quentin Gonzalez, 15/45 Xavier Witt Hatton is good enough to be a shut-down corner. Close has been around long enough to be a good enough option at CB2, but don't be shocked if I'll try to improve our team once more at this position. Rice was a new signing last season and emerged as a decent nickelback and our premier kickoff returner. Hall missed most of last season and will miss the games before our open weekend this season as well. He might return incapable to return as our rotation backup CB. Gordon might be better suited to play safety, so I'm likely to switch him to that this off-season. Alcott is purely a punt returner and we actually didn't use him there last season. Hopper is a quality free safety and is indisputable. Walker is our strong safety and is basically our weakest link in the pass coverage, I may demote him this off-seasn, but I'm undecided so far. Gonzalez was a very reliable dime back for us and is good enough to actually play free safety if needed. Witt is a special teamer and might be a better cornerback, so I'm opting to switch him to that.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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10-28-2012, 12:28 PM
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen Ring Of Honor
Retroactively, I decided that any professional american football team isn't complete without a 'Ring of Honor'. My decission was to make it a limited club of players, meaning only one player can be entered at every start of the season. I decided that the ring of honor had to be started in 2014, as a celebration of ten years Maassluis Merchantmen. I wanted the candidacy to be as objective as possible, laying down the following ground rules: 1. a player is eliglible as soon as he is retired. This means a player that retired at the start of the 2037 off-season can be introduced into the Ring of Honor immediately. 2. players with 10 seasons of service with 100 or more starts, including playoffs games, are automatic candidates, have priority over non-qualifying players and will all eventually be inducted. The order in which they are introduced is subjective and based on 'likeability' factor. 3. if there are no candidates based on the 100+10 rule, a player with exceptional talent and achievements will be introduced into the Ring of Honor. Again the 'likeability' factor will be there as a subjective tie-breaker. In effect, most players introcuded will have met the 100+10 rule, some of them will have been on the waiting list for a couple of seasons. To put into perspective, entering the 2037 season, 22 different players have met the 100+10 rule. One of them (Shawn Hudspeth) is still active. The 100+10 rule can be unrewarding to special teams specialists, which makes it that much more important for them to do exceptionally well. At the same time it makes sure only those that played at a very high level of football and spent a majority of their career in Maasssluis will be honored. The (retroactive) list of players inducted includes:
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 10-28-2012 at 12:32 PM. |
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10-31-2012, 12:56 PM
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#66 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen hire new lead scout
Today the Maassluis Merchantmen announced the signing of Erik Cheshier as their new lead scout. Cheshier is new to IHOF and brings young blood to the office as a 37-year old staff member. Cheshier takes over from Thomas Lowe, whom spent only one season on the Merchantmen staff. General Manager M.IJ.B. explained: "We thank Thomas (Lowe) for his hard work to discover Terry Haskell, amongst others. This season we're looking in different positions and we have faith in Cheshier to fill the role in many years to come." The Merchantmen are known for out of nowhere staff changes. Prior to the 2036 season, the entire coaching and scouting staff was replaced, despite that the team snapped a drought of playoffs-less seasons. Rumor has it that former IHOF Coach of the Year Pete Hernandez is on the hot seat and the Merchantmen are looking for a significantly younger replacement. Gossip News reports that former Merchantmen cornerback Myron Stevens has been interviewed recently, but for now all eyes are on Jeremy Monroe. The jobs of coordinators Joe Boulware and Nick Jennings are said to be save. Both are former IHOF pro football players and have been praised for bringing that additional experience into the team. Offensive Coordinator Boulware ran over 10,000 yards in IHOF, whilst Defensive Coordinator Jennings has over 10,000 yards receiving on his resume.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 10-31-2012 at 12:59 PM. |
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11-01-2012, 02:47 PM
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#67 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen fire HC Hernandez
After a one-season spell, the Merchantmen already fired head coach Pete Hernandez. Despite an 10-6 season with a wild card round victory, the Merchantmen found Hernandez responsible for a high number of games where team discipline was horribly low. "Penalties were a big reason why we lost 6 games in the regular season," said General Manager M.IJ.B., "plus, it kept us from upsetting the Tucker Tigers." As his replacement, the Merchantmen hired the 29 years younger unknown Jeremy Monroe. A short resume around the league resulted in surprising results, claiming Monroe is one of the worst coaches in the league, but has a very good reputation in disciplining his team. The Merchantmen hope to groom Monroe and have him develop into being one of the best coaches in football.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-01-2012, 04:15 PM
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#68 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2024
Off Season Following the disappointing wild card round exit, the Merchantmen found themselves in a good spot to build on the previous season's success. Granted, no less than nine players retired and some of them had been reliable starters, like cornerback Randall Allen and center Ted Hickman. Others retiring were former starting wide receiver Dean Fulton, long time startering safety Eddie Cole, rotation starter/backup linebacker Fernando Reese, tight end Corwin Piniella and return specialists Cary Flowers, Byron Mallon and Warren Pennell. With little cap space to work with, the Merchantmen focussed on keeping the key players together. With quarterbacks Rusty Harrison and Patrick McDonnell, running back Stanley Givens, wide receivers Gabe Springer, Terrry Thomason and Freddie Upshaw on offense. On defense the team relied especially on tackle Andy Cottle, linebackers R.J. Knight and safety Jimmy Chellino. With a severly weakened selection of draft picks, the Merchantmen only acquired a couple of backup defensive backs in Burt Washington, Rick Jannot and undrafted Kent Burroughs, as well as linebacker Harvey Owens and undrafted kick holder/quarterback Alan Logan. Most notable free agency acquisitions were kickoff returner Horace Lowell and backup tight end Pete Fredrickson. Season All expectations for the 2024 season were severly hurt just minutes into the season. Quarterback Rusty Harrison suffered a severe hamstring injury and was ruled out for the remainder of the season. In relief, Patrick McDonnell was called upon, without too much fear for loss of performance after his amazing 2023 campaign. McDonnell lead the Merchantmen to a convincing 37-13 victory over the Bordeaux Vineyards, keeping the hopes for repeat of last season's success up. In the next stretch of games, the Merchantmen went into up and down mode, alternating between impressive wins and horrific defeats. By mid-season, the Merchantmen even had to replace McDonnell for a bit, nursing his own severe injury. Journeyman Jermaine Guthrie was signed off the street and started a couple of games, but failed to record any wins. During Guthrie's stint, former Flannery understudy Everett 'Going' South was still around and came off the bench to guide the team to a 17-13 victory over the Paris Musketeers. McDonnell returned just in time to play in the crucial road game at the Bordeaux Vineyards. Running back Stanley Givens carried the team with 150 yards on the ground, whilst McDonnell threw for 217 yards and 2 scores towards a convincing 30-14 victory. In the last four games of the regular season, the Merchantmen stepped it up and won three straight. In the middle of that streak, Stanley Givens aggravated a shoulder injury bad enough to be ruled out for the season. It meant the Merchantmen would miss another key player in the week 17 clash with the Gothenburg Giants, which turned out to be a winner takes the division clash. On a rainy night, the Merchantmen defense dominated Oranje Haven and kept the Giants scoreless for 55 minutes towards a 13-7 victory. In a twist of faith, the Merchantmen (11-5) and Giants (9-7) would repeat their clash right away, encoutering again in Oranje Haven in the wild card round. The Giants had the best possible start, seeing Kendrick Moss score on the first kickoff return of the game. On their first possession, McDonnell was sacked, fumbled and set up for a short Gothenburg touchdown and a 14-0 lead within two and a half minutes. From there on, McDonnell's receivers Gabe Springer and Terry Thomason both topped 100 yards, yet McDonnell himself struggled and added 2 interceptions to his turnover tally. Trailing 17-10, the Merchantmen punted with 2 minutes left and capitalized on a 30-yard pass play that charged their final time out. The Giants wouldn't keep on running, falling early and hard at the Tucker Tigers (12-4) with a 30-3 score. The Tigers marched on, winning the AOC Championship game at home, beating the Syracuse Mohawks (12-4) 27-13. In IHOF Bowl XXI the Tigers would fall to the Boulder Blizzard (12-4) on a touchdown scored in the final minute for the 24-20 final score. One and done, just like last year. Not quite what was anticipated with the so-called best quarterback, running back and wide receiver triangle in football...
__________________
* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-01-2012 at 04:52 PM. |
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11-01-2012, 05:15 PM
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#69 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Maassluis Merchantmen 2025
Off Season Retirement Day was not too bad for the Merchantmen, going into the 2025 off-season. Accoladed guard Reuben Perez called it quits, as did irreliable left tackle Quinn England and tight end/long snapper Aaron Blake. At the end of the off-season long time members like defensive end Roman Waldroup, defensive tackle Keith Mathews and notorious cornerback Hurt Daddy Gaines failed to make the final 53-men roster. The same applied to long time backup quarterback Everett 'Going' South and and running back T-Bone. At the other end of the spectre, the Merchantmen had a good draft, adding three linemen with the potential to start for years to come: center Shawn Hudspeth, pass blocking guard Wes Mason and run blocking tackle Jorge Harding. Through trade, the Merchantmen acquired cornerback Thomas Nordbye and from the free market a couple of special teamers joined in rookie long snapper Rusty Arpaci and two-time IHOF champion kickoff return legend J.R. Ritter. Season In the first four games before the bye, the Merchantmen had all their starts active and played their fabulous football, yet failed to blow away their opponents. Still, aside from the first tie in franchise history, recorded at the Frederick Red Menace, the Merchantmen won all their games by a field goal. After the bye, the offense got into scoring mode, scoring 34+ in three games against Deep South opponents. Rusty Harrison picked up his annual mid-season injury, but the Merchamtmen didn't really care, remaining undefeated with good old Patrick McDonnell in. Week 11 resulted in the first Merchantmen loss of the season. The Gothenburg Giants silenced Oranje Haven just like last season, forcing turnovers, taking a first half lead and holding off a comeback attempt with a 17-12 win. It turned out to be the start of a four-game losing streak, despite Harrison's return to the lineup. In week 15 the Merchantmen got their vengence, of sorts, winning 26-20 at the Gothenburg Giants and pretty much ending the Giants' playoffs hopes. A week later the Merchantmen went wild on the Williamsburg Colonials, scoring touchdowns on their first four drives towards a 38-13 victory. In a road game the the Bordeaux Vineyards they had minimal chances to win a bye week, which they ended up missing, despite a 27-20 win. Being the AOC's fourth seeds, the Merchantmen (11-4-1) were to host the defending conference champions Tucker Tigers (11-5). With all their starts active, the Merchantmen felt confident to end the one-and-done trend from the previous seasons. But barely a minute into it, a Harrison pass was intercepted and returned 51 yards for the 7-0 Tucker lead. After an unsuccesful drive, the Merchantmen would get the ball back following a sack and fumble of Shaun Duncan, with Winston Tanaka responsible for both stats. Several first down passes later, Harrison found Gabe Springer in the end zone for the 7-7 score. The Tigers managed to take the lead and extend it to 17-7 in the second quarter. At that point Rusty Harrison had been pulled by the coaches, after he got hurt once again, yet claimed to still be able to play. Patrick McDonnell once again had to take over at quarterback, yet halfway into the third quarter, the Tigers improved to a 20-7 lead. A 34-yard kickoff return from Xavier Marshall, a 33-yard reception for Terry Thomason and a pass interference penalty then set up a 6-yard touchdown pass to Thomason to narrow the margin to one touchdown. After series of punt exchanges, the Merchantmen were pinned deep inside their own red zone, yet a massive catch and run from Freddie Upshaw for 98 yards turned things around, giving Maassluis the 21-20 lead. A Paul Welker field goal with 8 minutes left increased the lead to 4 points, which was upheld into the two-minute warning. Long bombs galored and the Tigers managed to score a touchdown with 49 second left. A 29-yard catch for Thomason get the Merchantmen into field goal range with 13 ticks on the clock, however Paul Welker missed... Game over. In the next round, the Tucker Tigers looked out of energy, getting hammered 44-3 at the Georgia Gridlock (13-3). In the AOC Championship game the Gridlock marched on, destroying the Houston Mustangs 37-10. In IHOF Bowl XII, the Gridlock were to face the defending IHOF champions Boulder Blizzard (12-4). In a bit of a defensive struggle, the reigning champions lead 13-7 at half time, scored a kickoff return touchdown to start the second half and were tough enough to hold on and win 30-10. For the Merchantmen, the fan base was left in tears, having seen, by far the best collective of players to ever play together in Maassluis, but three one-and-done post-season trips later, they had nothing to show for it.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-03-2012, 07:14 PM
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#70 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes: Cap Magic Day!
A beatiful day today, as we managed to get out of a $20 million cap hole and end up with $20 million to work with. My spreadsheets tell me we saved $40.54 million in cap space, which should assure us to keep this team together for another year. To top that, this should keep all these players happy for a while. By my estimation, we're going to spend about $8 million of that relief to extend some contracts, most notably those of quarterback Jay McGee, wide receivers Russell Holliday and Adam Brautlach, center Arnie Croft, defensive lineman Brendan England and linebacker C.J. Boo. Butch VandenBosch will spend the 2037 season on injured reserve. VDB was one of the 17 players that we renegotiated with. We gave him a signing bonus of roughly $3.5 as compensation for a total salary reduction of about $2 million spread over four year. Another thing that we're going to do is telling our second-year pro's Bernie Gordon and Xavier Witt they will switch positions, with Gorden moving from cornerback to safety and Witt the other way around. Our scouting staff expects Gordon to be better suited for safety, despite that he's undersized for a safety. Witt might not be better off, but both of them will have to work their bottoms off to make the final 53-men roster anyway. Jerome Tyson will be our entrant to the Ligue Solecismique this season. Our first round pick from last season was a regular starter last season, but we feel he still needs to improve a lot to stick around as a starter. Brendan England made a case for being a starter last season, although it won't really matter, given that we're going to stick with a rotation of six to eight linemen anyway. Free agency is starting in two days and we're hoping to get some useful players for a decent price. We might have a bout $10 million to play with, after aforementioned contract renegotiations and having spent signing bonus money on incoming rookies. Our draft position is mixed, with no picks in the first and second round, but a grand total of four third round picks to compensate for it. We also have an additional fifth round pick to play with, aside from our own fourth through seventh rounders. It's no secret that defensive end should be our main target. We're in the market for linebackers, with VDB out, but might be better served with a veteran replacement. I'm always looking for wide receivers, offensive linemen and defensive backs, so we'll be likely to spend some picks in those areas. Interviews with rookie prospects had some interesting results. We talked with three quarterbacks and one of them could be an interesting prospect. We're not really looking for a new passer, with the current threesome, but it's always a position where everybody thinks they can come up with a new super star. More importantly, and a position of similar high expectations, we talked with a lot of wide receivers and there's one of them that I feel we could make an attempt to trade up for to get. We could play the waiting game for him to fall to the third round, but there aren't many suitable and similar prospects out there. All in all, we talked with 60 rookies, but most of them were the kids that skipped the combine. After recent success in the draft, I feel that we've built a good knack for finding talent based on film from their combine workouts. For the fun of it, I'll give a list of arguably the top 5 players in the class. With no top picks and no ammo to make a move for them, there's little risk to give a top 5 of sorts, afterall, we're not going to get any of these players anyway. 1. Duke QB Gino Greenburg 2. Temple WR Norm Pineo 3. Pittsburgh WR Levon Paeth 4. Alabama - Birmingham RB Vinny Keck 5. Nebraska TE Seth Schroeder
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-08-2012, 12:35 PM
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#71 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 Early Off-Season Report
Not much going on in Maassluis at the moment. The IHOF draft started and free agency has kicked off as well. The draft is somewhat dull for now, with our higest pick in the third round. Free agency is also very quiet with just $10M of cap room available and most of that reserved for renegotiations with some of our last-year players. We agreed terms with wide receivers Charles Pomeranz and Casey Brown for new two-year contracts, both were restricted free agents. Pomeranz should be our WR4 next season, Brown or gunner and hopefully stay far away from our team when the offense enteres the field. We also hired a new player. Cornerback and kickoff return specialist Melvin Karluk signed a three-year deal with us. It's not like it we'll actually use him in 2037, Karluk is recovering RCS and league doctors rule him out for the entire season and the next one as well. He might see the field in 2039, until then he'll be a Merchantman on injured reserve. Karluk previously played with his first pro team, the Iowa Cobbers. Last but not least, our contract negotiations with Jay McGee have started. McGee and his agent turned down our first offer for $55M over 4 years. A bit of a bummer, since the overall value was simialr to what they were asking for, except we offered less guaranteed money.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-09-2012, 06:22 PM
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#72 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 Off-Season Mini Update
Our contract talks with Jay McGee resumed today, we made McGee an offer that's very similar to what his agent put on the table as his requests. We've toned down the salaries across the board, will offer slightly less bonus money and moved balanced the year 1 and 2 salaries to be equal. It could be pretty crucial to get him to sign now, because McGee went into hold out mode 5 years ago and we can't really afford him to repeat, or worse, to not want to sign anything. Plan B would mean going to another quarterback on roster and trading McGee...
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-10-2012, 07:55 AM
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#73 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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McGee agreed terms with Merchantmen
No stale-mate in Maassluis, the Merchantmen and their quarterback Jay McGee agreed terms on a new contract. McGee and the Merchantmen today signed a new four year countract, with a value of $55 million, including a $22 million signing bonus. McGee is coming off his best season in Maassluis and was in his last year of contract, being due just over $5 million this season. McGee's agents hinted that McGee would hold out if there wasn't a new deal signed before the end of the draft. The signing also ends all talks about the Merchantmen looking away from McGee and handing over the offense to third-year quarterback Harry Osborne. Merchantmen general manager M.IJ.B. said: "McGee is a top ten quarterback in this league, he deserves the benefit of doubt now after a stellar 2036 campaign." On Osborne, M.IJ.B. added: "We had a plan with Harry, we still do, but at this point he'll have to improve a lot to be our starter. We gave him a shot in 2035 and one game last season against Tucker to prove himself, I'm not convinced he's there yet." Kerry Lewis is expected to go into his nineth season as the Merchantmen's emergency quarterback. M.IJ.B. said: "Kerry is a team player, if we'll need him at some point, I'm convinced he'll do well." Aside from McGee, four more players signed a new contract. Backup running backs J.T. Patterson and Alfred Brew were extended through the 2038 season, as was pass rushing lineman Roger Finch. Linebacker Cole Dooley, a mid-season signing last year, signed a three-year contract in Maassluis. Dooley was hired after Butch VanDenBosch went out for the season and with VDB ruled out for the 2037 season as well, a longer stay foor Dooley was an obvious option. The Merchantmen did look for other options, but settled with Dooley.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-11-2012, 11:31 AM
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#74 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 Draft: Merchantmen pick DE Matheson
The Maassluis Merchantmen filled a gap on their roster. Harold Matheson was seleced in the amateur draft as their new defensive end. The Florida graduate clocked the third fastest 40-time amongst defensive linemen. With the retirements of Dwight Dibble and Seven Clark, the Merchantmen were down to just one defensive end on roster. General Manager M.IJ.B. explained: "Matheson will immediately jump into the rotation. We expect him to be an all downs player, with the speed to be an immediate replacement for Dibble in our pass rush." The Merchantmen used the seventh pick in the third round on Matheson. Earlier on the day, the team traded their three other third round picks to the Outer Banks Ospreys for a collection of future second, third and fourth rounds picks, one each for every round. General Manager M.IJ.B. added: "We had too many decent picks for the number of open roster spots. We could use another player or two, but that will be it. We'll take a gamble with the later round picks and hope to make good value of those future picks."
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-12-2012, 09:05 AM
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#75 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes: 2037 Draft late round picks report
Last night we finished our draft selection with five late round picks. One pick was a need pick, the other four were basically gambles in hopes of getting a useful player that may or may not unseat one of our veteran backups. Because of the void at defensive end, I used our 4th round pick also on a defensive end, just like the 3rd round pick. Eugene Johnstone out of Auburn ran a decent 40-time, which usually is a sign for good pass rush technique. Johnstone scored average or above average on every part of the scouting combine. From there on we just gambled on skill position players. Running back Donald Terry was our first 5th round pick. He ran the third-fastest 40-time of his class. Wide receiver Brian DiPaolo ran a decent 40-time as well and was our second 5th round pick. In the 6th round we took a gamble on underrated tight end Carlos Dixon, yet another player with a fast 40-time. We finished our picking with combine-skipping wide receiver Jack Money, whom we picked for his return skills.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-12-2012, 09:45 AM
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#76 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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FOF-technically, the post draft stage is very interesting to see which players are better than their ratings. Today's most notable differences in ratings (2 or more points shifted) are:
-3/-3 QB Jay McGee - he's still 55/55ish, does enter his 11th season as pro -2/-1 RB Alfred Brew - around 30/40ish, could lose his spot to rookie Terry -2/-2 WR Casey Brown - roughly 40/40, just a gunner, unsafe to make team +6/+6 WR Terry Haskell - now 45/45ish, the rookie of the year is for real +3/+2 WR Charles Pomeranz - still 25/35ish, increased his odds to stay here -1/-2 C B.J. Samuels - now 40/60ish, still projected to be starting material +2/+2 G Julio Ferich - about 35/45ish, remains to be our future third guard -2/-7 K Al Beuvelot - now 25/45ish, not the new Al Bettis, soon to be cut +2/+2 DT Jerome Tyson - now 50/60ish, maintained that 1st round value +3/+3 DT Dwight Hutton - now 40/40ish, the 6th rounder stays in rotation +6/+5 MLB Wesley Devine - 50/60ish now, not done improving so it seems +2/+2 MLB C.J. Boo - 45/45ish, should be a starter for us with VDB on IR -2/-2 SLB Fred McCorkle - still 80/80ish, remains as an all-world linebacker -3/-6 CB Britt Rice - became 30/45ish, at least his kick return skills are real All in all, awesome news. The 2036 first round picks are bound to make anoter one or two of those jumps and become legit first round picks by the numbers as well. The downers of the day are Beuvelot (not going to be a better kickoff kicker than Anthony) and McGee (on the decline), but neither really makes me feel bad. Once we're past training camp, we'll know where we stand, but right now, I feel good about this roster being on par with last season.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-12-2012 at 09:45 AM. |
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11-13-2012, 08:49 AM
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#77 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes 2037
Good news from around the roster. Five of six rookies signed the first offered contract. Only defensive end Harold Matheson decided to turn our initial offer down, we'll pick that up right before the draft. The scouting staff made assesments of how good they are, see below. At the moment I'm very happy about Terry and Money. Obviously there's a big chance neither will turn out to be as good as advertised here, but for now I'll cherrish these kids. DiPaolo is half-decent and will have a hard time to make the team. I fully expect Jonhstone to be better than that, so I have no real concers there as of yet. Haroldson hasn't been reviewed yet, the verdict there is still up. Dixon looks to be underrated, he doesn't look like one at all, but he could grom up to become an okay tight end some day. Speaking of tight ends, we hired fourth-year tight end Mike Bernstein. His strong points are his run blocking technique and his big-play ability, ain't that the best combo for a good tight end? He's no lock to make the roster, obviously, he's going to need to unseat J.T. Hall as our TE2 and hold off the rookie Dixon as well.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-13-2012 at 08:50 AM. |
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11-14-2012, 08:16 AM
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#78 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen sign FA rookie DE Lynn
The Maassluis Merchantmen announcent the signing of undrafted rookie free agent Joel Lynn. The former Bowling Green defensive end put his signature under a two-year contract. Lynn wasn't highly regarded in this year's draft class, but surprised with a decent 4.77 time in the 40-yard dash. General Manager M.IJ.B. said: "Lynn's 40-time was good enough to get an extra look. With Lynn on roster, we're also in a position where we have no pressure to sign Matheson."
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-14-2012, 11:05 AM
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#79 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 Project Starting Lineups
Below is an image of the projected starting lineups as I see them, pre-camp. Only a couple of spots could be battled over in training camp and (unlikely) in pre-season. Notes on that: Shalon and Carter usually share the FB role based on what kind of play we're about to run. Holliday might lose the starting WR role to Brautlacht. England is listed as the LDE, but we might put him in his natural DT role or make him the DL5 again, which would make room for rookie DE Matheson.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-15-2012, 07:43 AM
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#80 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen sign rookie CB Brady
The Maassluis Merchantmen announced the signing of David Brady. The Northern State cornerback signed a two-year contract with the dutch IHOF franchise. Brady is regarded as a guy with a nose for interceptions and has decent experience in special teams play. Brady is expected to make the Merchantmen's pre-season roster, as they're heading into it with 60 players on roster, but is a long shot to make the final 53.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-16-2012, 09:44 AM
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#81 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 Training Camp Report
The long awaited training camp rolled around and for the Maassluis Merchantmen things went pretty good, overall. The Merchantmen spent the majority of training camp in the United States, at the newly opened training facilities at UMass, built in a joint ventury with the university. Here you'll get a position by position breakdown per position or position group. Bolded are player names, in brackets you'll get the rough scouting assessments in current ability. Quarterbacks Jay McGee (60ish) looked like the same player that he was last season. Very good in seeing the pass rushers coming, good arm strength and his same old preference to throw short. McGee locked up his starting role in Maassluis, at least for the first couple of games. Kerry Lewis (35ish) is the same old, good decissions maker, but not so overwhelming in abilty to connect with receivers. Harry Osborne (20ish) is not living up to expectations. Our scouts say he's fully developed and in every area of the passing game he's outdone by Lewis. Here's your first big change in our depth chart: Lewis won the battle for the backup role in 2037. Backfield Darrin Keegan (65ish) enters his sixth IHOF season and showed no signs of having slowed down, yet. Overall he's a good to very good runner, excelling in his hole recognition ability. His fumbling troubles last season have been a concern, but it could be a side effect of overfeeding him. J.T. Patterson (20ish) remains to be the elusive backup type. Alfred Brew (35ish) looks better overall, with his excellent elusiveness and a good eye for holes in the defense. Donald Terry (25ish) is the awesome rookie with an impressive breakaway speed and very good elusiveness. Terry is our new RB2. Patterson and Brew are hanging on for now, but after pre-season one of them will likely be gone. Fullbacks Aaron Carter (35ish) and Albert Shalon (45ish) both lost some of their speed and power. Carter will remain as the premier run blocker, but Shalon will be used as well there. Shalon still looks like the best option on the team for the third and short carries. Tight ends J.T. Hall (35ish) appears to have lost the battle for the running downs role to Mike Bernstein (30ish). Both are good run blockers, where Hall has a little edge in knowing the game plan better, but Bernstein will provide the team with a better receiving option. D.J. Cahill (40ish) remains as the starter on passing downs, although Bernstein did show he's better in gettinh open downfield. Rusty Arpaci (5ish) will hang on, but not because of his receiving or blocking skills. Carlos Dixon (5ish) didn't show enough of his speed or any ability to block in training camp to make the pre-season roster. Hall and Bernstein are still in a roster spots battle, although Arpaci might be the eventual loser there. Wide receivers Russell Holliday (50ish) and Terry Haskell (45ish) both showed their speed and agility in camp to prove they are a top five receiver tandem in the league. Adam Braulacht (35ish) maintained his role on the team as the third option at wide out. Skip Dillon (30ish) lost the battle for the fourth slot to Charles Pomeranz (30ish) once again. Pomeranz showed more speed. Dillon will not return to Maassluis after training camp. Brian DiPaolo (20ish) showed good speed and fair overall potential, but he won't make the team. Jack Money (20ish) isn't much of a receiver, but just like Casey Brown (40ish) sticks around for other duties. Offensive Line For the third season in a row, the exact same ten men will be the Merchantmen offensive line. Roles will be somewhat reshuffled though. Kerry Zumdahl (75ish) remains as the complete left tackle. Ricky Castillo (85ish) remains as the all-round excellent right guard and Tom Bush (55ish) will once again play right tackle as the team's best run blocker. Veteran Gilbert Rhodes (60ish) looked better than ever and is going to play the left guard role. Nate Hurnblad (55ish) is the same old and with the lack of endurance for both Rhodes and Hurnblad, they will time-share anyway. B.J. Samuels (50ish) looks ready to step in at center, hopfully living up to his very good potential. Arnie Croft (50ish) remains as a quality alternative for Samuels or the guard positions, if needed. Edwin Crangle (40ish) appears to be a bit slower and sluggier than before, but is still a quality backup left tackle. Julio Ferich (40ish) made good strides and if injuries strike, he'll be a good option at right guard. The veteran of the bunch, Shawn Hudspeth (40ish) will likely spend the season as an emergency backup, although the center is still a good option to plug holes up the middle. Defensive Line All eyes were on the rookie defensive ends, to see whether they can do what Dwight Dibble did the past seasons. Harold Matheson (30ish) made some progress, but didn't wow. He showed decent pass rush speed, but could spend most of the season watching from the bench. Eugene Johnstone (20ish) made good progress in camp and despite being the weakest link on the line so far, the Merchantmen might use him in rotation as a left end. Johnnie Warren (40ish) is the best defensive end on the team now and will once again face opposing left tackles. Five defensive tackles will return from last season's roster. Rookie Jerome Tyson (45ish) made little progress over the past couple of months, despite spending some extra time in Le Ligue Solecismique. Brenden England (45ish) hopes to follow up his All-IHOF campaign and will be the team's premier pass rusher once again. Roger Finch (30ish) showed good speed again, but will likely spend most of the season inactive, requiring injured teammates to get an opportunity to play. Dwight Hutton (40ish) showed good progress and will get more looks as a run stuffer in 2037. Ralph Campbell (50ish) was once again the bets run stuffer and tackler of the bunch and will see a lot of action on all downs. Undrafted rookie Joel Lynn (20ish) showed good potential in his pass rush abilty, but the defensive end won't make the team. Linebackers Fred McCorkle (70ish) looked out of shape in camp, but is still considered the most talented player on defense. He'll be the team's SAM again. Inside linebackers Wesley Devine (50ish) and C.J. Boo (45ish) will play the Mike and Will roles, with Devine as the all around talented man in the middle and Boo as the slightly better passing downs option. Pass rusher Trent Kaiser (25ish) is getting up there in age and will just make the team in a backup role. Pass defender Cole Dooley (20ish) didn't do much better in camp, but will still make the team because of the lack of others on roster. Injured reserve Butch VandenBosch (50ish) will miss the 2037 season, recovering free knee injury. The Merchantmen are likely to hire a sixth linebacker at the expense of not keeping a fourth tight end or fourth running back. Defensive Backs Herman Hatton (60ish) will be the shutdown cornerback, Tito Close (40ish) the fast veteran second corner, Perry Walker (50ish) the strong safety and Thurman Hopper (50ish) the all-over-the-place-plays-making free safety. Carlton Hall (30ish) was the projected backup corner, but he'll be out until October, recovering from a nasty hip injury. Britt Rice (35ish) grabbed the opportunity and solidfied his role as the backup corner. Winfred Alcott (30ish) somehow made the training camp roster again and somehow will make the final roster again, mostly based on his contributions in other areas than the pass defense. Rookie cornerback David Brady (15ish) didn't impress in camp and will be cut. Second-year pro Xavier Witt (15ish) had a decent camp after the switch from safety to corner, but it won't be enough to make the team. Corner Melvin Karluk (45ish) is out through the 2038 season, nursing repetetitive concussion syndrome. Quinn Gonzalez (35ish) will be the team's backup safety and nickelback. He's a very good option in the zone defense and showed his intercepting ability in camp. Second-year pro Bernie Gordon (25ish) made decent move from cornerback and did well enough to make the team as the fourth safety. Special Teams Kicker Charles Anthony (50ish) showed his usual accuary, but on kickoffs he looked worse than before. Still a top player in IHOF, but the team will take a look at Al Beuvelot (25ish) in pre-season as the kickoff man. Despite that Beuvelot has shown close to no improvement in his ability. Edward Rice (65ish) showed once again that he's a top-notch inside the 20 punter. In the return game, rookie Jack Money (65ish KR) will be the new kickoff returner, providing he doesn't fumble a lot in pre-season. Britt Rice (75ish KR) and J.T. Patterson (60ish KR) are the second and third options for kickoffs, Melvin Karluk (90ish KR) is on injured reserve. Adam Brautlacht (65ish PR) will be the punt returner again, with Jack Money (50ish KR) getting pre-season to prove himself as the alternative. Winfred Alcott (80ish PR) is league wide scouted to be a top three punt returner in football, but right now there's more faith in Brautlacht. Kerry Lewis (100ish KH) will stick as the kick holder, Rusty Arpaci (100ish LS) is likely to stay around as a pure long snapper, although D.J. Cahill (95ish LS) is a decent alternative.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-16-2012 at 09:47 AM. |
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11-17-2012, 08:50 PM
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#82 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen release WR Dillon, 5 others
The Maassluis Merchantmen today cut ties with six players. The releases followed in the lead up to the 2037 pre-season opener against the Albuquerque Wrong Turns. Most notable casualty was wide receiver Skip Dillon, after 98 games of service. Also recent draft picks wide receiver Brian DiPaolo and tight end Carlos Dixon were cut, as well as 2036 5th round pick cornerback Xavier Witt. Lastly, rookie free agent signings cornerback David Brady and defensive end Joel Lynn failed to make the 54-name roster. All six would have been allowed to stick around under the 60-man pre-season roster limits, but the Merchantmen decided to take their chances with the remaining 54 players. Still on the fench for the final roster cuts are several players at several positions. The Merchantmen are thin at linebacker, having only 5 healthy players signed, whilst they carry an extra running backs, tight end and kicker. After the final pre-season game the Merchantmen will decide on the final roster spots. Wide receiver Skip Dillon failed to get through another pre-season in Maassluis. Dillon joined the Merchantmen as free agent in 2031, initially on a one-year deal. Dillon burst into a starting role, catching 73 passes for 960 yards and 6 touchdowns. A year later he was switching between the WR2 and WR3 role, which resulted in lower production in catches and yardage, but he did record a career high 8 touchdowns. He spent three more seasons in the WR3 role, scoring 14 more touchdowns combined. Last season his activity was limited to just 10 catches, dspite being active in all regular season and playoffs games. Dillon leaves as a top10 member in Merchantmen history with 3,022 receiving yards and 28 receiving touchdowns. Contrary to Dillon, the others released had little experience with the Merchantmen, to date. Brian DiPaolo was a 5th round pick in the recent draft and was a longshot to make the team, hence the release of Dillon. Carlos Dixon's odds initially looked better as a 6th round pick, but those where gone as soon as the Merchantmen signed fourth-year pro Mike Bernstein. A 5th rounder in the previous draft, Xavier Witt was a signed mid-season and in training camp switched from safety to cornerback to improve his chances, but those were pretty low, eventually. Undrafted rookie David Brady's odds were equally slim. Joel Lynn showed good upside, but was fighting an uphill battle against two draft picks that in the end showed more progress in camp.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-19-2012, 05:57 PM
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#83 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen Lose 2037 Pre-Season Opener
The Maassluis Merchantmen started the pre-season with a loss. The Albuquerque Wrong Turns won 20-17 in overtime on a 47-yard Thurman Leboeuf field goal. Kerry Lewis was the Merchantmen player of the game, completing 27 of 38 for 318 yards and 2 touchdowns. In their home opener of the 2037 pre-season, the Merchantmen decided to play with their second string. Key starters Terry Haskell, Herman Hatton, D.J. Cahill and Ricky Castillo watched the game in the stands, whilst other starters like Jay McGee, Darrin Keegan, Russell Holliday and Kerry Zumdahl watched from the sidelines and played a couple of snaps on special teams. The Merchantmen struggled in the first quarter. The Wrong Turns made play after play, resulting in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Antonio Grande to J.B. Dawkins for the 7-0 lead. After a fumbled kickoff return by rookie Jack Money, the Wrong Turns kicked and missed a 50-yard field goal. The first Merchantmen drive resulted in a three and out, boosted by a holding penalty and a sack on 1st and 20. Tito Close intercepted Grande on the first play after the punt, but the Merchantmen offense followed up with another three and out. Antonio Grande connected on a 29-yard catch and run from J.B. Dawkins for the 14-0 lead to end the first quarter. In the second quarter the teams exchanged punts several times. Kerry Lewis finally got it going for the Merchantmen, eventually throwing it to Charles Pomeranz, who turned a short pass into a 42-yard touchdown. The Wrong Turns ran out the clock to go into halftime with a 14-7 lead. In the third quarter both teams started with a three and out. The Merchantmen followed up with a 12-play drive, settling for a 24-yard field goal kicked by Al Beuvelot. Following return of punts, the Wrong Turns marched upfield, but Perry Walker picked off an Antonio Grande pass in the Merchantmen red zone. The quarter ended with the Merchantmen in possession at midfield. Following the short break, the Merchantmen tried to go for it on fourth and 1, but a screen pass to Casey Brown resulted in a loss and turn over on downs. Antonio Grande connected with Herman Maxfield for 28 yards and with rookie Buddy Giba for 16 yards to set up a 20-yard field goal for the 17-10 Albuquerque lead. On their next drive, the Merchantmen once again went for it on fourth and short in Albuquerque territory, this time seeing rookie Donald Terry getting stopped for no gain. Following a three and out, the Merchantmen went into play-after-play mode, finishing it with Lewis' second touchdown pass of the game, finding new signing Mike Bernstein from 1 yard out in the endzone. The Wrong Turns failed to score back in the final 47 seconds, forcing overtime with the 17-17 score. The Merchantmen won the coin toss. They failed to make enough ground to get out of their half of the field and punted the ball away. Albuquerque's Antonio Grande guided his team up field, anchored by a 28-yard completion to Buddy Giba. The Wrong Turns decided to kick from halfway the Merchantmen half and ended the game with Thurman LeBouef's 47-yard field goal for the 20-17 final score. Merchantmen quarterback Kerry Lewis earned MVP honors, completing 27 of his 38 pass attempts for 318 yards, 2 scores and the 113.7 passer rating. He did get sacked 5 times behind a line that included three starters from last year. Charles Pomeranz was Lewis' favorite target, catching 10 passes for 137 yards and a score. Rookie running back Donald Terry ran for 54 yards with a 2.5 average and 1 fumble.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-19-2012, 06:18 PM
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#84 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen get crushed in second pre-season game
The Maassluis Merchantmen lost their second pre-season game of the 2037 campaign. The Iowa Cobbers dominated the game, winning 26-6 in their own stadium. Kicker Al Beuvelot put all point on the board for the Merchantmen, with a two for two field goal stat line. Kerry Lewis completed 19 of 36 for 204 yards and 1 interception. Rookie receiver Jack Money returned 4 field goals for a 37.0 average and was one of few sparkles in the night for Maassluis. The Merchantmen pass defense had a complete off day, recording not a single defended or intercepted pass, not counting two blocked passes by the two rookie defensive ends Harold Matheson and Eugene Johnstone. Merchantmen headcoach Jeremy Monroe showed disappointment in the performance. "A sloppy showing," said Monroe, "these players got a chance to prove they are starting material and few of them made a splash. Their showing last week at home was much better." On the bright side, the backups played the Albuquerque starters close and Iowa was also at full strength. "It's just pre-season," said veteran center Shawn Hudspeth, "we tried hard at home, but on the road we let the fans back home down. These results don't worry me, we didn't win much in pre-season last year and did well when it mattered. With these young guns like Adam [Brautlacht], Charlie (Charles Pomeranz, red) and the Terries (Terry Haskell and Donald Terry, red), we're ready for a long season."
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-20-2012, 03:42 PM
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#85 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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First Merchantmen win in 2037 pre-season
The Maassluis Merchantmen recorded their first win in the 2037 season's preperation games. The Merchantmen flew home from a visit to Alaska, after beating the Fairbanks Northstars 31-21. Darrin Keegan scored four touchdowns to guide the way. After two losing efforts earlier on, the Merchantmen changed their pace by going to their starting lineups. Quarterback Jay McGee was the biggest disappointment, throwing 3 interceptions as he went 21 of 37 for 211 yards and no scores. In contrast, the running game florished, with Darrin Keegan paving the way with 131 yards gained and Albert Shalon adding 64 yards on the ground. Keegan hauled four short runs in for an equal number of touchdowns. Russell Holliday was the main receiver of the day, catching 5 passes for 71 yards. Terry Haskell was held to 1 reception for 4 yards.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-20-2012, 04:15 PM
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#86 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Second win to end Maassluis 2037 pre-season
The Maassluis Merchantmen finished pre-season on a winning mood. The Merchantmen defended Oranje Haven, beating the Chicago Norsemen 21-10. Jay McGee didn't improve on his showing last week, throwing 3 more interceptions. Darrin Keegan carried the Merchantmen once again, whilst D.J. Cahill hauled in two touchdown catches for the points needed to win this game. Darrin Keegan was good old Keegan for the second straight game. Keegan ran 23 times for 121 yards, carrying the offense all day long. Jay McGee tried to keep the opponent guessing, but got picked off 3 times, resulting in a yawning facing around Oranje Haven. McGee completed just 16 of 37 passes for 226 yards and 3 scores. Tight end D.J. Cahill was his favorite target, catching 4 passes for 42 yards and 2 scores. Russell Holliday scored the other touchdown as he caught 3 balls for 70 yards. Terry Haskell looked bleak again, catching just 3 passes for 37 passes, ending his pre-season with just 4 catches for 41 yards. Kicker Charles Anthony and his holder Kerry Lewis looked not so sharp today. Anthony shanked a 40-yard field goal attempt, making him score just once in three attempts this pre-season. Youngster Al Beuvelot was perfect on his three kicks, heating up the talk about who should kick the field goals. But head coach Jeremy Monroe urged to not worry: "Anthony is coming off a 1-miss season, he was IHOF's most reliable kicker last season." But the talk of the town has been the quarterback situation. Jay McGee threw 6 interceptions in pre-season and had trouble gelling with his main receivers. In the meantime, Kerry Lewis looked pretty decent in the first two games, whilst last year's number two Harry Osborne spent the entire pre-season on the bench. Lewis quietly became a popular pick when asked who could start on opening weekend. Lewis himself held the pressure off: "Jay [McGee] had a great season, it would be silly to bench him." About the number two role, Lewis added: "Surely, being a football player, I'd love to see some action. But as it is, we've got two talented guys." Harry Osborne's role - or lack there of - in pre-season was a surprise to many, the projected starter for right about this season has not improved much so far. Head coach Monroe: "Osborne is an interesting player. A daredevil, with good feet. He's been hyped, I believe, after his activity two years ago." With him not seeing the field in pre-season, the Merchantmen seem to hint they are looking at Lewis as the main backup this season. Which is a scary thought, having a 30-year old backup whom has yet to throw a single pass in 8 years of service. On the bright side, the Merchantmen have been winning despite Jay McGee's mistakes this pre-season. He's got a fast foursome of receivers, whilst newly signed Mike Bernstein showed some promise, catching 11 passes for 125 yards and 1 score. Darrin Keegan looked like his old self. And if the defense does a half-decent job from time to time, the Merchantmen could be in for a fun season and able to overcome McGee's picks and the ongoing fumblitis.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-20-2012, 04:23 PM
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#87 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen put Carlton Hall on IR
Today the Maassluis Merchantmen announced that cornerback Carlton Hall will miss the 2037 season. After suffering from degenerative hip condition, Hall missed half of the 2036 season and was still out going into the 2037 pre-season. With Hall not ready in time for pre-season to get some football in his legs, the decission was made to put him on injured reserve. Hall had been the Merchantmen's third corner the past four seasons, backing up home-grown first round picks Herman Hatton and Tito Close. This move ended speculation on which player would be cut after pre-season by the Merchantmen, as this puts them down to 53 players on roster, excluding injured reserves. This appears to have saved Winfred Alcott's job, making the team as the fifth cornerback and potentially coming back into the picture for punt return duties. Alcott signed a new three-year deal in pre-season, already hinting that he was going to make the final roster. It also means the Merchantmen will carry four tight ends, four running backs and two kickers this season. Merchantmen management was unwilling to confirm these conclusions as of yet. There's no secrecy about their attempts to sign a sixth linebacker, which would come at the expense of another player.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-25-2012, 05:39 PM
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#88 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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2037 season preview
Tomorrow the 2037 IHOF season kicks off. A lot of eyes are on IHOF's game of the week, to be played in Oranje Haven, as the Maassluis Merchantmenwill host the Paris Musketeers, the reigning European Division Champions. Both teams reached the semi finals of the AOC last season and are highly motivated to get deeper this season. But to get there, the first step is to make the post season and it won't come easy. The European division will play head to head with the AOC Deep South and the NAC Mid-Atlantic divisions. The Deep South is currently lead by the Vicksburg Vipers, whom the Merchantmen beat last season in the wild card round, but also contains the improved Fort Wayne Fury, the stout Houston Mustangs and the young but very impressive San Antonio Tidal Force. San Antonio arguably have the most talented quarterback and wide receiver tandem combo. The Mid-Atlantic sent three teams into the playoffs last season (just like the European division), with the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums as division champions and the conference's top two historical teams Chesapeake Chitterlings and Frederick Red Menace as the wild cards. The fourth team are the Williamsburg Colonials, who look at their rookie quarterback Gino Greenburg and his young receivers for cool stuff down the road. For the Merchantmen, the 2037 campaign will kick off with a crucial home game. The Paris Musketeers as the defending division champions are the obvious rivals for the division title race. The Bordeaux Vineyards' star players are getting up there in age, and the Gothenburg Giants don't look ready to compete just yet. Last season the Musketeers won both head-to-head clashes with last minute scores. Especially their home win with 16 unanswered points in the last 20 minutes left mental wounds in the Merchantmen players' minds. The Paris Musketeers like all good teams in IHOF rely heavily on their skill players. Quarterback Roosevelt 'Rosey' Hansen is entering his second season in Paris and hopes to build on his 4,258 yard, 35 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Good old wide receiver Tito Aguillard enters his 12th IHOF season as a Paris Musketeer and looks fast and agile as he always has been. Dana Battle will once again be his tandem buddy, coming off his first 1,000-yard season. Their running game could be tricky, as in pre-season, Rennie Garrison looked slower than he used to be. The Paris defense is about average for league standards, severly hurt by the absence of Tom Bush due to Repetetitive Concussion Syndrom. The Merchantmen lost some speed in the pass rush with Dwight Dibble retired, but other than that should be similar than the team that won 10 regular season games and stunned the Vipers in the playoffs. Against Paris, it will be crucial to put a lot of pressure on the weak offensive line and scare Hansen. Cornerback Herman Hatton will have the task to try to shutdown Aguillard, which the Merchantmen somewhat did last season with just 8 receptions for 108 yards combined. Combined with, supposedly a superior special teams unit, the Merchantmen have a good chance to draw first blood in the crucial first home game.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-25-2012 at 05:44 PM. |
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11-25-2012, 07:13 PM
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#89 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes: Opening Week Depth Chart
No real surprises for opening weekend, as can seen below. The most important notes for the lineup compared to last season: * At QB Lewis moves up and Osborne down in the backups department * At RB2 Terry comes in fresh as the new change of pace back, Patterson and Brew move down * At TE Cahill and Bernstein will split time, Hall will be the TE3, Arpaci the pure LS * At C Samuels takes over from Croft as the starter * At LG Rhodes takes over from Hurnblad as the starter, but with their endurance it won't change much * At DE Matheson jumps in fresh on the right, Warren moves to the left, Dibble retired * At DT Campbell and Tyson are the neutral situation starters, England will play all over the DL * At WLB Boo will start, Kaiser will be the rushing backup, VanDenBosch is on IR * At NB3 Hall is on IR, B.Rice is the new NB * At KR Money jumps in as the #2 option * At PR Alcott returns for the time being, with Brautlacht the backup again
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 11-25-2012 at 07:20 PM. |
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11-25-2012, 08:00 PM
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#90 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes: Opening Week Starters and Key Backups
See below for the scouted bars of our starters, key/rotation backups and special teamers.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-26-2012, 06:19 PM
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#91 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen shutout Musketeers in 2037 opener
The Maassluis Merchantmen started the 2037 season on a strong note. In the home game season opener, the Merchantmen defeated the Paris Musketeers 21-0. The tenth shutout win in team history, the first ever in a divisional game. Jay McGee threw three touchdown passes leading the way for the Merchantmen. Darrin Keegan left the game injured and is ruled out a couple of weeks. Touted as a possible shootout, with the fire power on both offenses, the Paris at Maassluis game was hyped to IHOF Game of the Week. Instead, the Musketeers found themselves unable to move the ball, especially in the Merchantmen half of the field. In turn, the Merchantmen played good, but not great, leading to a one sided, low scoring affair. The Musketeers had first possession, but a 9 play drive wasn't enough to reach field goal ranch. After both teams were went three and out, the Merchantmen got the first productive drive of the game going. Anchored by 15 and 22 yard catches of Adam Brautlacht, the Merchantmen moved into Paris territory. A 16-yard pass to Terry Haskell marched them into the red zone and Adam Brautlacht hauled in the first points of the day with a 12-yard catch. In the second quarter Paris looked ready to punch back, however a Rosey Hansen pass was intercepted by Thurman Hopper at the Maassluis 41. The joy for the home fans was shortlived, as two plays later Jay McGee was intercepted on a long pass to Terry Haskell by Paris safety Nolan Henry in their redzone. The Musketeers continued their smalls plays trend and were forced to punt after a 12 play drive. Three plays later, the Merchantmen were back into Paris turf after a tremendous catch and run from tight end Mike Bernstein for a 40 yard gain on 3rd and 5. Another big 3rd down catch from Bernstein put the Merchantmen at the 10-yard line and the other tight end D.J. Cahill grabbed McGee's second touchdown pass of the day. Two penalties hurt the Musketeers on their last drive of the half, whilst the Merchantmen decided not to risk their 14-0 lead in the last bunch of plays. The second half started with a 30-yard kickoff return by rookie Jack Money to put the Merchantmen nearby midfield right away. Darrin Keegan made a big run on 3rd and 7 to move into Paris turf, whilst another pass from Jay McGee to Adam Brautlacht put the Merchantmen in field goal range. On 3rd and 5 McGee found Terry Haskell wide open in the red zone, improving the lead to 21-0. Both teams got the ball back on punt various time after that, but neither got much closer than punting it away. The most important play was a 2-yard gain for Darrin Keegan, where he seemed to pull his calf muscle which forced him out for the remainder of the game. In the fourth quarter, the Merchantmen were pinned deep, but moved upfield a bit and punted it back to Paris. Starting at their onw 32-yard line, Paris finally found some life as Rosey Hansen connected with Tito Aguillard on a 19-yard pass play. On 3rd and 8 Hansen found tight end Leo Kennedy for a 12-yard gain and on 3rd and 10 Rennie Garrison gained 5 yards to give the Musketeers a 47-yard field goal attempt. William Blades rushed it a bit and the kick fell short. Paris got the ball back after three short Merchantmen runs and Hansen looked like he finally got his engines going: 11 yards to Fred Ahmed, 12 to Tito Aguillard, a 12 yard run and 8 yards to Dana Battle on 4th and 6 got them going. Momentum was over when he got sacked for an 8-yard loss and on 4th and 8 Tito Closed batted down a Hansen pass in the Merchantmen red zone. A crucial 3rd and 1 conversion by Albert Shalon cost the Musketeers their time outs. Donald Terry fumbled in Paris territory to spark some light for Paris, but after going 4 and out, the Merchantmen were able to run down the clock. Jay McGee completed just 17 of 32 passes, but they did go for 252 yards and 3 scores with 1 interception. Terry Haskell was his top receiver with 4 catches for 88 yards and score, Adam Brautlacht was close behind with 4 catches as well for 62 yards and a score. New tight end Mike Bernstein had 3 catches for 61 yards. Star wide receiver Russell Holliday was shutout by the Paris secondary for 0 catches. Darrin Keegan gained 54 yards on 14 carries with 0 catches and left the game hurt. The calf muscle injury turned out to be bad enough to rule him out for the upcoming road game at the Frederick Red Menace, but the Merchantmen expect him to be back in action after the bye week, possibly even in their home game before the bye against San Antonio Tidal Force. The Merchantmen defense got a standing ovation from the home town fans, recording their first shutout in nearly 7 years. The previous shutout in Oranje Haven was in week 13 of the 2030 season against the Orlando Knights with a 24-0 score. The front seven recorded 2 sacks, 2 blocked passes and 6 hurried passes, whilst the secondary noted 1 interception and 6 defended passes on 40 pass plays. Defensive tackle Ralph Campbell praised the team: "Impressive showing today. Paris looked nothing like the team that beat us twice last season. More so, beating a good team like them is a boost for our confidence."
__________________
* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-30-2012, 10:41 AM
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#92 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen lose at Red Menace, week 2 2037
The Merchantmen are back on earth. After their impressive shutout of the Musketeers, their raod game at the Frederick Red Menace ended in a dreadful defeat. Frederick quarterback Ralph Michaels threw 3 touchdown passes in the 21-10 victory. Wide receiver Terry Haskell was the Merchantmen top performer with a 153 yards, 1 score performance. The first quarter was a defensive battle. The Red Menace failed to get into field goal range on their first possession, whilst the Merchantmen only lost yardage on their first drive. The Red Menace replied with a long drive, keeping the ball for nearly 9 minutes on a 16-play drive with three third down conversions, yet their longest play was a 13-yard gain, their touchdown scoring play was a Ralph Michaels pass to Gilbert Grabulis into the endzone. The first quarter ended as Jay McGee got sacked on 3rd and 8. In the second quarter the Red Menace were stopped at midfield. The Merchantmen had to start at their own 22-yard line, but it looked like Jay McGee and his receivers found their rhytm. Terry Haskell had a third down catch and Adam Brautlacht made a 14-yard reception to move into Frederick territory. Then Haskell made a 25-yard catch inside the red zone, saw tight end J.T. Hall move the chains with a 10-yard catch and Haskell himself tied the score 7-7 with a 4-yard catch. The Menace were forced to punt and give the ball back just before the two-minute warning. Jay McGee found Russell Holliday for a 17-yard gain to move into Frederick turf, and then found tight end Mike Bernstein for a 13-yard gain to get into field goal range. Clock mismanagement then hurt the Merchantmen, as they failed to use all three time outs and were forced to kick a 28-yard Charles Anthony field goal for the 10-7 half time lead. The thrid quarter started with a 12 yard run for Merchantmen rookie David Terry, but was soon followed by Jay McGee's first interception of the game. The Red Menace were three-and-outed but did manage to pin the Merchantmen deep at their 5-yard line. McGee immediately found Terry Haskell for a 39-yard catch and run, only to get intercepted for the second time, just two plays later. This time the Red Menace did get things going with their short gains game plan. Ralph Michaels recorded his second touchdown pass, finding Lance Coles in the end zone for the 14-10 lead. For the remainder of the third quarter both offenses struggled against the stout defenses in the game, with the Red Menace able to win the position battle and end the qwuarter with a 17-yard run from Luther Auyeung to get into field goal range. After the short break, Ralph Michaels connected with Lance Coles three times, the third catch being a 10-yarder for a touchdown: 21-10 Red Menace. The defense took over again and neither offense really got things going until the two minute warning arrived, with the Merchantmen back at their own 14-yard line. Terry Haskell made a 16-yard catch to move forward and followed up with a big 53-yard catch to move into the red zone. Despite going out of bounds, the Merchantmen wasted a time out and were left without any after Jay McGee got sacked. After a tripping penalty the Merchantmen were 32 yards away from the end zone and McGee failed to find any of his receivers turning the ball over with 16 ticks left. The Red Menace went into victory formation and secured their first win of the season, handing the Merchantmen their first loss. The Merchantmen offensivee line struggled, as the ground game gained just 70 yards and McGee got sacked 4 times. Jay McGee threw for 237 yards and a score, but was also intercepted twice. Terry Haskell was his top receiver with 7 catches for 153 yards and that single score. Rookie Donald Terry ran for 37 yards, replacement starter running back Alfred Brew was held to 13 yards. Linebacker Fred McCorkle left the game with a seperated shoulder, adding to the missery. All three European division rivals managed to win in week two, pushing the Merchantmen back to second place, behind the 2-0 Bordeaux Vineyards, with the Paris Musketeers and Gothenburg Giants both at 1-1 just as Masssluis, with the Merchantmen in front on divisional record.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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11-30-2012, 11:32 AM
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#93 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Second shutout as Merchantmen beat Greenjackets
Week three of the IHOF 2037 season saw the Maassluis Merchantmen pull their second win. In their own Oranje Haven they beat the Augusta Green Jackets 26-0, posting a secdon straight shutout win in Oranje Haven. Jay McGee threw two touchdown passes, whilst Charles Anthony scored on 4 of 5 field goal attempts. Defensive lineman Brendan England earned player of the game honors with a 3.5-sack showing to lead the league in quarterback sacks. Despite a 22-yard pass from Jay McGee to Russell Holliday, the first quarter saw the Merchantmen punt on their first possession. Johnnie Warren sacked Augusta quarterback Cornelius Porter on their first offensive play setting up for the three and out. Luckily, punter Edwin Rice pinned the Greenjackets at their own 8-yard line, and the Merchantmen forced a second three and out to get the ball back at midfield. Alfred Brew ran for 11 yards and Jay McGee found Russell Holliday for a 15-yard gain to reach the red zone. A couple of short runs later, Charles Anthony kicked a 33-yard field goal for the 3-0 lead. After the kickoff the Greenjackets found themselves deep inside their own red zone again. Cornelius Porter failed to connect with his targets time after time and eventually Augusta was forced to punt again. Wide receiver Adam Brautlacht made a nice 20-yard catch and run to have the Merchantmen start the second quarter at midfield. A holding penalty and a dropped pass from Casey Brown slowed down the drive and Edward Rice had to punt again. Cornelius Porter found tight end Morris Mathis on a screen pass, whick Mathis ended up running forward for a 45 yard gain. The Merchantmen defense woke up quickly after, as Brendan England sacked Porter on second down and Tito Close made the interception in the end zone on third down. Jay McGee marched his team upfield with a key passes to J.T. Hall (12-yard catch), whilst Donald Terry made the big play, running 30 yards into field goal range. Tight end D.J. Cahill made the reception inside the red zone. McGee then ran into the Greenjackets defensive line twice, bringing Charles Anthony back for a 19-yard field goal and the 6-0 score. The Greenjackets responded with a long drive with many short gains that eventually resulted in a 52-yard missed field goal. The Maassluis Merchantmen returned the favor shortly before the end of the half with a missed 54-yarder. The second half started in the same fashion for the Augusta Greenjackets as the first half did. On their first play, Cornelius Porter was sacked by Brendan England and they had to punt it after a three and out. Both defenses played strongly for about ten minutes, but the Greenjackets kept getting pinned deep, whilst the Merchantmen time after time got it back at the middle of the field. The Merchantmen broke the trend with 5 minutes remaining in the quarter as McGee found D.J. Cahill for a 21-yard gain right into the red zone. Intentional Face Mask moved the chains further and McGee found Russell Holliday on third down in the endzone for the 13-0 lead. Another strong showing from the Merchantmen special teams unit and defense gave the Merchantmen the ball back inside Augusta turf. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Jay McGee found Terry Haskell short for the first down, however, Haskell made some good moves and outran the Greenjackets defenders for a 47-yard receiving touchdown. With the 20-0 lead, the Merchantmen felt confident that their second win was in the making. The field position battle continued its trend and Maassluis got the ball back in Augusta territory. A 32-yard catch by Terry Haskell got them into field goal range and Charles Anthony converted a 23-yard kick to make it 23-0. A fruitless Augustus drive followed and the Merchantmen replied by pinning the Greenjackets at their own 2-yard line. Cornelius Porter looked rushed and his second pass attempt went into the hands of Merchantmen safety Thurman Hopper at the 14-yard line. Charles Anthony scred a 25-yard field goal to extend the lead to 26-0. From there on the Greenjackets gave up, whilst the Merchantmen didn't try anymore. Final score: Maassluis 26, Augusta 0. Another shutout win for the Merchantmen marks a tremendous start of the season, at least in home games. It's the first time in team history that Maassluis pulls two shutouts in the same season. Brendan England received player of the week honors with his 3.5 sacks for the day, improving his season to date figure to 5.5 sacks. The Merchantmen pass rush broke 13 of 49 pass plays, whilst the secondary posted 6 defended passes and 2 interceptions. Supported by the special teams unit, the Merchantmen have done a good job so far pinning opponents deep in their own territory and keeping them there as well. On offense, Jay McGee somwhat recovered from his so-so game in week two. McGee completed just 18 of 34 passes, but they went for 260 yards and 2 scores. His favorite target Terry Haskell made 4 catches for 88 yards and a score, D.J. Cahill made the most catches, grabbing 5 times for 69 yards. Rookie running back Donald Terry gained 81 yards rushing. Elsewhere around the league, the Paris Musketeers dropped to 1-2, falling 27-24 in overtime to the undefeated Boston Rhinos. The Bordeaux Vineyards recorded their first loss against the Rochester Lake Monsters, whom recorded their first win of the season with the 28-16 score. The Gothenburg Giants improved to 2-1 with a 23-16 win over the Orlando Talons. Bordeaux leads the division on division and common games record, with Maassluis in second and Gothenburg in third. The Merchantmen did lose another starting linebacker to injury, as C.J. Boo suffered a broken arm, putting him out until mid November. He joins Fred McCorkle, still out with a seperated shoulder, and injured reserve Butch VanDenBosch. Blitzbacker Trent Kaiser has been promoted into a starting role, whilst the Merchantmen signed free agent Stan Spry to keep a healthy number of linebackers on roster. The Merchantmen will likely sign another linebacker in the coming days. To make room for Spry, the Merchantmen released second-year kicker Al Beuvelot and anticipate the release of tight end J.T. Hall to make more room. The Merchantmen will play their next game at home against the winless San Antonio Tidal Force. San Antonio will bring along second-year quarterback Dwayne Hastings and fellow top two picks Byron Humphrey and Norm Pineo as his wide receivers. To date they've looked green this season, bu they're bound to break out sooner or later. It seems unlikely they Oranje Haven shutout of visitors will continue for much longer.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-02-2012, 10:27 AM
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#94 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Notes: pre-game week 3 of 2037
Crazy times are here. We're not built around defense, but guess what: we're the #1 defense in the league right now, giving up 255 yard and 7 points per game. Granted, sample size and all, the shutout combo is pretty awesome. The most interesting figure to date is the 8.4 yards per catch allowed. We're not just defending the pass (177 yards per game), but we're forcing teams to not throw deep. We're tied first in sacks (3.3 per game), but figures like passes defended are average. The offense is far from clicking, in my opinion. Losing Keegan for 2 1/2 games didn't help, given that we try to use a run first, pass later game plan. Our receivers are doing their job, having a 14.7 yards per catch average, but the yards per attempt isn't much better than average (7.5 per attempt). Our offensive line has done a below standard job of proecting our quarterback Jay McGee, the pass rush percentage of 26.9 is 4th from the bottom. Again, sample size and all. I've looked in the history books and we're not the first team to pull two shutouts in thw same season. We are the first to reach it by week 3, giving us 13 games to be the first team to pull the first three in one season. Five other teams have managed to shutout opponents in back to back games, two of them were in back to back weeks (North Plainfield in 2010 and Knoxville in 2015), two other franchises pulled back-to-back shutouts in consecutive weeks including a road game. We're having woes on defense going into week 3 though. We're without our star linebacker Fred McCorkle, prompting us to play Wesley Devine at SLB. Trent Kaiser, our blitzbacker will move to MLB, as C.J. Boo is also missing against San Antonio. I'm still considering who to put at WLB, it's either zone defender Cole Dooley or recently signed blitzbacker Stan Spry. In the secondary we need Herman Hatton to come up big, he hasn't made a good play this season. On the other side, Tito Close has been lights out so far, but he seems tired, is recovering from a broken finger and misses his nickelback Britt Rice for support. We're down to Winfred Alcott as the third corner; we'll need the safeties to come up big again. Thurman Hopper and dimeback Quinn Gonzalez have been doing well so far, so there's a plus. We'll likely activate Bernie Gordon to give him a chance to play his second career game. The good news for Monday's game is that Keegan will be back in action, giving me a chance to put Donald Terry back into the change of pace role and deactivate Alfred Brew. J.T. Patterson will also be active against San Antonio, but will be limited to special teams activity, primarily as the second kick return option. Rookie Jack Money has done pretty well as the primary kick returner so far. We'll also promote him to WR5 ahead of Casey Brown, who should play exclusively on special teams from here on. Jay McGee targeted Brown 6 times this season, resulting in 1 7-yard catch, 1 dropped pass and 4 more incomplete passes. They simply don't gell. Rookie defensive end Eugene Johnstone has spent the first three games inactive. He's clearly better than scouted, but we're so deep at the line, he's just lost in the numbers. Sooner or later one of the other seven guys gets hurt and he'll be in action. Third round pick Harold Matheson has been pretty good so far, in both shutout wins he broke 3 pass plays. Lastly, I'll elaborate a bit on our recent cuts. We released kicker Al Beuvelot before the week 3 game. We drafted Bevelot in the 2036 draft in the late 5th round as a potential replacement for Charles Anthony (in his 12th IHOF season already!) as an excellent kickoff prospect. Beuvelot spent two training camps in Maassluis, but didn't wow us with improvement. It's not like he stinks, I think he's a top10 kickoff kicker in the league, but we've got a top3 guy in Anthony already and we simply lacked the roster room for a second kicker after the linebacker injuries hit. We had him active a couple of games late in the 2036 season and give him a chance in two games in both pre-season with us. He scored 5 field goals and 5 points after touchdown, but did miss 30 and 36-yard kicks in his rookie campaign. If injury woes hit at kicker, we'll try to re-hire him. Two days ago I decided that J.T. Hall was our casualty for yet another linebacker addition. We're still talking with a couple of free agents, but Hall has to go to make a roster spot available. Hall was in his third season with us, joining us in 2035 as a free agent as a run blocking tight end and special teamer. In his time with us, he missed just one game with a knee injury. Last season he scored 3 touchdowns. He was our third tight end this season, with four signed, but since Rusty Arpaci is also our expert long snapper, Hall was the more obvious release.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-02-2012, 11:22 AM
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#95 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Jay McGee hitting 100 games for Merchantmen
With a start tomorrow, Jay McGee will record his 100th game played for the Maassluis Merchantmen. McGee is in his eighth season with the Merchantmen and was the regular starter in five previous seasons. To date he played in 95 regular season games and 4 playoff games. McGee will become 92nd player to reach 100 games for the Maassluis Merchantmen. Of the current roster of the Merchantmen, McGee will be the 13th player to reach the century mark. Long snapper Rusty Arpaci, center Shawn Hudspeth, left tackles Edwin Crangle and Kerry Zumdahl, kicker Charles Anthony, fullbacks Aaron Carter and Albert Shalon, quarterback/holder Kerry Lewis, guard Nate Hurnblad, safety Perry Walker, tight end D.J. Cahill and defensive end Johnnie Warren preceeded McGee. Warren reached the century in week one of this season, against the Paris Musketeers. McGee didn't start in 4 of the previous 99 games, which means he can also reach 100 starts for the Merchantmen later on this season. D.J. Cahill and Johnnie Warren will record their 100th starts for the Merchantmen against San Antonio, if they are in the starting line up. They will be the 27th and 28th player to record 100 starts for the Merchantmen. McGee is likely to be the 29th to achieve that.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-03-2012, 04:51 PM
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#96 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen beat San Antonio golden boys
The Maassluis Merchantmen remained undefeated in Oranje Haven for the season. With a 52-24 score, the San Antonio Tidal Force was beaten with a late game route. Jay McGee passed for four touchdown passes in his 100th game for the Merchantmen. The Merchantmen handed the Tidal Force's golden boys top two picks from the last three drafts their fourth straight loss of the season. Maassluis also took the division lead, taking advantage of Bordeaux' bye week. The 2037 week four home game started strong for the Merchantmen. They got the ball at their own 48-yard line after a three and out and turned the short field situation into a 7-0 lead on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Jay McGee to Terry Haskell. In return, second-year quarterback Dwayne Hastings found Bobby Horn for a 30-yard gain to set up a 29-yard Tracy Galloway field goal. Russell Holliday quickly responded with a 42-yard catch and run to reach San Antonio territory, whilst Terry Haskell made the 14-yard catch into the red zone. Darrin Keegan's 13-yard run set up a 2-yard touchdown pass from Jay McGee to fullback Albert Shalon and the 14-3 lead. San Antonio was quickly stopped on their next drive and the Merchantmen finished the first quarter with Jay McGee's 34-yard bomb to Adam Brautlacht. McGee started the second quarter with passes to the tight ends, finishing ithe drive with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Mike Bernstein. As the Merchantmen crowd was still cheering the 21-3 lead, San Antonio's Deion Bronson ran a short kickoff back for 85 yards and a touchdown. Darrin Keegan showed his comeback after injury with 15, 13 and 8-yard gains to set up a 31-yard field goal from Charles Anthony: 24-10. San Antonio looked underwhelmed and replied with a 12-play drive, anchored by a 30-yard catch for rookie top pick Norm Pineo, to reduce the deficit as Korey Lazier pounded it in from 2 yards out. The show was far from over though, Jack Money had a nice 44-yard kick off return into San Antonio turf, Terry Haskell made a 27-yard catch and run into the red zone and Darrin Keegan ran it for 9 yards and the 31-17 lead. San Antonio drove downfield, went out of bounds to stop the clock but had to settle for a 46-yard field goal attempt, that was missed by Tracy Galloway to end the half 31-17 in Merchantmen advantage. Following the exciting high scoring first half, the third quarter seemed dull, as neither team managed to score. The fourth quarter started with a 4th down go for it situation for San Antonio that failed misserably, yet Albert Shalon shortly after fumbled and San Antonio's Trent Neilson ran it upfield towards the Merchantmen 36-yard line. Dwayne Hastings completed 17 and 15-yard passes to Norm Pineo, the second one for the touchdown and trailing by 7 points again. Things got even better for them as Jay McGee saw one of his passes intercepted at around midfield and ran back to the Merchantmen 30-yard line. After an ill timed holding penalty, the Tidal Force was 40 yards away and when the Merchantmen secondary came up big with defended passes from Herman Hatton and Perry Walker, they had to punt. Jay McGee and his targets responded in fashion, with four back-to-back first down catches foloowed up by an 18-yard touchdown catch by Terry Haskell. 38-24 Merchantmen. The final five minutes of the game things went from bad to worse for San Antonio. Herman Hatton intercepted a Dwayne Hastings pass and returned it for 21 yards and a score. A failed fourth down try near their own red zone later, the Merchantmen made the Tidal Force spend their time outs and Darrin Keegan pounded it in from the 1-yard line for the 52-24 lead. San Antonio raised the white flag, punted after a three and out and Jay McGee kneeled it for the game end. After two shutout wins earlier on, it was the Merchantmen offense's turn to show up. Jay McGee went 24 for 34 with 344 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 pass picked off. Terry Haskell had 9 catches for 125 yards and 2 scores, making him McGee's favorite target for the day. Darrin Keegan also scored 2 touchdowns as he ran 24 times for 142 yards. Overall, the Merchantmen offense gained 508 total yards. Cornerback Herman Hatton earned defensive player of the week honors, returning his interception for the score and defended 2 passes. Hatton was a bright light for the defense, as overall the Merchantmen allowed a season-high 343 total yards. The pass rush was virtually non-existent, recording 7 broken plays without any sacks. The Merchantmen go into their bye week with a 3-1 record, leading the European division. They're closely follwed by the 3-1 Gothenburg Giants, fter a convincing 27-3 win at the Houston Mustangs, and the 2-1 Bordeaux Vineyards, whom had their bye week. The Paris Musketeers improved to 2-2 with a 30-27 win in their first home game of the season, beating the Fort Wayne Fury. Overall, the European division looks even stronger than last year. Gothenburg and Maassluis lead the league with the best defenses in yards allowed and points allowed respectively. Paris has the second most productive offense in yards gained and Bordeaux keeps on winning despite a league worst -2 turnover margin per game. No new injuries arose right before the bye for the Merchantmen and linebacker Fred McCorkle is expected to return in week 6 against the Vicksburg Vipers. All three European rivalls will be in action in week 5. Gothenburg gets a chance to take the lead with a road game at Fort Wayne (2-2), Bordeaux will visit Vicksburg (2-1) and Paris will visit winless San Antonio.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-03-2012 at 04:52 PM. |
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12-06-2012, 01:22 PM
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#97 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen warmup for Vipers rematch
Enjoying their bye week, the Maassluis Merchantmen are preparing for the crucial week 6 clash with the Vicksburg Vipers. It marks a rematch of last season's playoff game in the wild card round, in which the Merchantmen surprised with a 13-10 win with a defensive domination. Leading up to the rematch, the Merchantmen rank tops in the league in points allowed and second in total yards allowed. In 2036, the Vipers beat the Merchantmen in the regular season, scoring 41 first half points towards a 41-10 win in Vicksburg. Ricky Summers sparkled all night long, hauling in 9 catches for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns. In the rematch in the post-season, the Merchantmen focussed their game plan on Summers, keeping him to 2 catches on 10 targets for 20 yards, without any yards after catch. In tomorrow's game, they hope to do more of the same with Herman Hatton as the designated shutdown corner. The Vipers are pretty much injury free, sporting a couple of minor bruises and only their backup tight end Jared Mascarenas doubtful. In return, the Merchantmen appleaud the return of Fred McCorkle, one of their defensive stars. On offense they're as healthy as they can be (*knock on wood*). It sets up for a potentially spctacular IHOF game of the week between the top two AOC challengers behind Tucker and Boston. The Vipers lead the Deep South with a 3-1 record, 1 game ahead of the Fort Wayne Fury and 1 game in hand. The Merchantmen trail the Gothenburg Giants, but hope to stay in pace and hop past them in week 7.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-07-2012, 07:06 PM
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#98 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Vipers withstanding Merchantmen take European lead
The Maassluis Merchantmen remain undefeated in Oranje Haven this season. The visiting Vicksburg Vipers were beating 27-24 on a last minute fieldgoal. Despite a dominating performance, the Merchantmen came back from behind to win the game. The Merchantmen withstood Vipers wide receiver Ricky Summers, who had 9 catches for 170 yards and 2 scores for the Vipers. Charles Anthony received much praise, scoring a 55-yard field goal in the first half and the game winner in the last minute of the game. In the first quarter the Merchantmen dominated the game, consistently getting into the Vipers territory, forced to punt and pinning them deep in their own territory. Neither side really managed to get anything going, until Jay McGee got strip sacked late in the quarter and lost it at midfield. Ryan Norris found the Merchantmen defense off guard and Ricky Summers promoted a short pass to a 40-yard gain into the red zone. Bob Jonhston ran it in two plays later from 3 yards out for the 7-0 lead to end the quarter. The field position battle remained as it was, with the Merchantmen dominating. After both sides punted on short drives, Maassluis started an 11-play drive, gaining ground in small steps. Fullback Albert Shalon had a couple of key first down converting runs to reach the red zone, whilst Terry Haskell grabbed an 11-yard pass from Jay McGee to set up Darrin Keegan's touchdown run to tie the score 7-7. After a series of defensive stands, the Merchantmen got the rock back with 4 minutes left to play. On a time consuming drive, anchored by a 22-yard catch and run by Terry Haskell, the Merchantmen decided to attempt a 55-yard field goal. Charles Anthony completed it for the 10-7 lead with 1:11 left on the clock. The Vipers attempted to get downfield, but it took too much time to reach Maassluis territory. After the break, the Vipers got their engines running. Ryan Norris connected with running back Jeremy Connell and Ricky Summers for 12 yard gains into the Merchantmen half and followed up with a 22-yard pass to fullback Marvin Wilburn to reach the red zone. The Merchantmen red zone defense prevailed and the Vipers settled for a 34-yard field goal, converted by Billy Russell for the 10-10 score. The Merchantmen looked underwhelmed and replied with a strong drive on their own. Strong runs from Darrin Keegan were alternated between productive passing plays. Russell Holliday made the 15-yard catch to set up a 2-yard touchdown reception by Adam Brautlacht: 17-10 Merchantmen. After a trhee and out the Merchantmen got the ball back and marched down field. On the next to last play of the quarter, Jay McGee got intercepted around the Vipers 34 yard-line by J.C. Abrams and it was ran back towards the 42-yard line. On the last play before the fourth quarter, Ricky Norris found Ricky Summers for a 26-yard gain into the red zone. On the second play of the fourth quarter, again Ricky Summers was Norris' open target, this time inside the end zone: touchdown Vipers, game tied at 17-17. The Merchantmen looked stunned and were held inches short on the next drive, forced to punt. Despite being pinned at their own 7-yard line, the Vipers replied strong. Ryan Norris found Andy Kovarik near midfield for the long bomb 40-yard gain. Cory Berry then ran with the ball four plays in a row to reach field goal range. Next, Ryan Norris found Ricky Summers for what looked like just a short gain at the 24-yard line, but Summers escaped his defenders and and promoted it to a 29-yard catch for the touchdown for a 24-17 Vipers lead. The Merchantmen didn't hesistate, on the second play after that touchdown, Jay McGee found Russell Holliday for a long bomb 48-yard reception into the red zone. Darrin Keegan moved the chains and eleventh choice target Casey Brown caught the 2-yard touchdown pass in a crowded endzone to tie it again: 24-24. The Vipers once again started inside their own redzone, were quickly forced to punt and the Merchantmen got the ball back from their own 42-yard line. Jay McGee spread the ball around to move upfield and to reach the Vipers territory right before the two-minute warning. Darrin Keegan ran the ball from 3rd and 5, but was held just short at the Vipers 25-yard line. With 44 seconds left, the Merchantmen sent Charles Anthony out there to kick the 42-yard field goal. Anthony succeeded, making it 27-24 for the home team. The Vipers had little time left, but Ryan Norris managed to find a doubler covered Ricky Summers past midfield and Summers managed to get all the way to the 37-yard line. A time out got called to attempt a 54-yard field goal, but Billy Russell missed wide to the right to end the game. Final score: Maassluis 27, Vicksburg 24. Right after the missed kick, an outburst of joy arose in Oranje Haven. The Merchantmen dominated the first half, but failed to put points on the board and set themselves up for a painful loss. Instead, the team bounced back, got a big play themselves and eventually won the late game clock management battle to record their fourth home game win of the season. Rookie head coach Jeremy Monroe was relieved after the win: "A hard fought, but much earned win. We needed this to gain the confidence for the upcoming road game series." The Merchantmen next will play three on the road, with two games at Deep South locations visiting the Fort Wayne Fury and the Houston Mustangs, splitting that stretch with the return game of the series versus the Paris Musketeers. Jay McGee struggled at times against Vicksburg. With an interception and a lost fumble, McGee blamed himself for the close game: "Tough breaks, but we bounced back and the guys made the plays to win this one." McGee completed 25 of 39 for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns. Russell Holliday was McGee's top receiver with 6 catches for 107 yards. Terry Haskell made 6 catches for 72 yards. Darrin Keegan ran 23 times for 117 yards and one score. Elsewhere in Europe, the Bordeaux Vineyards came back from 10 points down to beat the Fort Wayne Fury 27-17 to improve to 3-2. Roosevelt Hansen thre 5 touchdown passes for the Paris Musketeers in a 45-23 victory at the Gothenburg Giants to put both teams at 4-2. The Merchantmen now lead the division at 4-1, with Paris in second place, Gothenburg third and Bordeaux fourth. An all around strong division, which could find all teams tied at 4-2 next week, as Bordeaux visits the winless San Antonio Tidal Force and Maassluis make the aforementioned visit to the 2-4 Fort Wayne Fury.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-07-2012 at 07:08 PM. |
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12-16-2012, 03:42 PM
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#99 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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Merchantmen fumble to OT loss at Ft Wayne
The Maassluis Merchantmen dropped to 4-2 after a 16-13 loss at the Fort Wayne Fury. Four Merchantmen turnovers kept the the Fury in the game and eventually handed them the field position to kick a game winning field goal in overtime. In a running game dominated matchup, the Merchantmen leaned on their special teams unit and running back Darrin Keegan to make the plays. Jay McGee struggled, completing 14 of 25 for 166 yards, with no scores and 2 turnovers. Punt returner Winfred Alcott had two fumbles, one for the turnover. Keegan made the game deciding fumble in overtime. Elsewhere, the Bordeaux Vineyards won 38-14 at the San Antonio Tidal Force. Both the Gothenburg Giants and Paris Musketeers enjoyed a bye week. With these results all four sit at 4-2 after 7 weeks of action in the 2037 season. Paris beats Maassluis on Last Second Field Goal In a crucial European division clash, the Maassluis Merchantmen lost 20-17 at the Paris Musketeers. Kicker William Blades kicked the game winning 43-yard field goal as time expired. In a turnovers laden showing, the Merchantmen choked a 3-point lead into a deficit. Jay McGee was picked off twice, whilst Darrin Keegan lost his second fumble of the season. The game was dominated by the Merchantmen special teams unit, creating good field position all day long, but the lack of takeaways to nullify the giveaways did the Merchantmen in at the end of the day. Elsewhere in Europe, the Gothenburg Giants were upset 34-20 by the San Antonio Tidal Force, whom recorded their first win of the season. The Bordeaux Vineyards beat the Houston Mustangs 30-9, intercepting Houston quarterback Emarlos Blaylock 4 times. After week 8, Bordeaux lead the European division at 5-2, with Paris also at 5-2, but in second on division record. Maassluis dropped to third at 4-3, holding also 4-3 Gothenburg off on division record. Merchantmen record first road win at Houston The Maassluis Merchantmen are back in the winning mood. A 13-7 win at the Houston Mustangs gives them their first road victory of the season. The Merchantmen held the Mustangs until midway into the fourth quarter, but needed Fred McCorkle's interception of Emarlos Blaylock in the Merchantmen red zone to secure the win. The Merchantmen struggled on special teams, but held the Mustangs to 208 total yards to improve to 5-3. The Paris Musketeers recorded a miracle comeback win at the Vicksburg Vipers. They came back from 38-24 down as Rosey Hansen tossed his fourth and fifth touchdown passes of the game in the final three minutes to tie it and William Blades kicked an 18-yarder in overtime for the 41-38 win. The Gothenburg Giants won 10-3 in a defense dominated game at the Bordeaux Vineyards, seeing Jack Yoo run in the sole touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter. With these scores, the mid-point standings in Europe are: 1. Paris 6-2 2. Bordeaux 5-3 3. Maassluis 5-3 4. Gothenburg 5-3 Bordeaux leads Maassluis on common games, Gothenburg is last on division record.
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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12-16-2012, 04:28 PM
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#100 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
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GM Mid-season notes
What a Jeckyll and Hide season. We're destroying opponents at home (4-0 with a 31-12 average score), but on the road we're struggling to control the ball and went 1-3, averaging a 13-16 score). It's easy to write it off to turnovers and claim we're supposed to be 7-1 here, but turnovers are part of football, heck, they downright determines games every now or then. We've lost two big ones as we lost the turnover margin by 3 and 4, despite that I felt we were the better team, although just slightly at Paris. Our quarterback Jay McGee is averaging 19 for 32 with 254 yards per game, with 14 touchdowns against 9 interceptions and 1 lost fumble. With those numbers, he's on pace to post his first 4,000-yard season, but also to greatly 'improve' his single season interceptions figure with us from 12 to 18. His yards per attempt figure is better than ever, improving from last season's 7.7 to 7.8, not counting his 8.5 average in 5 games in 2034 as a backup to Rusty Harrison. McGee's targets are doing so-so. Terry Haskell has been his #1 target, making 40 catches for 687 yards and 5 scores, which are good numbers. Russell Holliday is the #2 targets and seems to draw a lot of double coverage, making 26 catches for 383 yards, 1 touchdown and a disappointing 8 dropped passes. Tight ends D.J. Cahill and Mike Bernstein are making up for Holliday's struggles, combining for 42 catches for 538 yards and 3 touchdowns. Darrin Keegan missed a couple of games but is still in pace to be a 1,000-yard back this season. He ran 20 times per game for 580 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 2 fumbles. Fullback Albert Shalon has been the good old third down conversion machine (61%), but his average is only 1 per game. Donald Terry has been a decent RB2 with 230 yards and 4.4 per carry. Our special teams unit has been tremendous this season. Good coverage and quality returnmen have made us dominate all but two games so far this season. Rookie Jack Money is quickly becoming one of my favorite players, already being our #1 kick returner at the season start and now taking over as the #1 punt returner after Adam Brautlacht got hurt and Winfred Alcott went to his odl fumbling habits. Money averages 32.1 yards per kickoff, without scores. His punt return average is subject to sample size, but so far 16.8 on 5 returns looks promising. The defense ranks #1 in points allowed (14 per game), #3 in yards allowed (290 per game), but also last in turnovers (6 in 8 games). Our secondary is doing a good job, with nobody really standing our or looking bad. Our pass rush is good, but not great. Defensive tackle Brenden England appears to do it all alone, ranking him third in the league with 8.5 sacks so far. Harold Matheson has racked up 4.5 to date, ranking him first amongst rookies. The run defense ranks #7 overall with 111 yards per game, but that's subject to that teams prefer to pass against us, also based on that we're usually in the lead. The lack of turnovers really surprises me, but at the same time makes it that much more impressive that we're still showing top-notch defensive numbers out there. The second half of the season won't be easy. We'll kick off with home games against Bordeaux and Gothenburg, then follow up with a home game against Brooklyn, whom are 4-4 and defending divsion champs in the strong Mid-Atlantic,scoring the most points in their conference. Then we'll get road games at Syracuse (3-6, but always tough), Chesapeake (5-3 Mid-Atlantic leaders) and Gothenburg. The last two games are at home against Williamsburg (4-4 and much improved with rookie QB Gino Greenburg) and on the road at Bordeaux. None of those games will be easy wins. It'll be crucial to win at least 3 of the European division games to stick around in the playoffs race, preferably as division champions...
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail |
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