Two Games, Two Wins

The Albany Rebels started the season with a BOGO performance against Rochester winning first in hurling and then in football all under the majestic rainy skies of Upstate New York in springtime.

Hurling

Rebels: 3-14

Rochester: 2-4

The match started as a cagey low scoring affair with only a couple of points to the Rebels a third of the way through the first half. Then the author went to the bathroom and upon his return discovered both teams had done a fair bit of scoring.

The triumvirate of Stephen Mansell, Ian Maher, and Stuart McMahon controlled play for the Rebels almost from the start. Veterans Joe Bradley and Joe Bridgeman had strong shifts as well. Roc City played a valiant game with some tremendous saves by their goalie who clearly has no sense of self-preservation (good trait for a hurling goalie).

As the defending Junior D champions, the Albany hurlers will look to build on this result and continue getting new players like Geoff O’Connor (earned his first wound today!) up to speed as the Midwest Championships approach.

Football

Rebels:  5-9 (24 points)

Rochester: 1-5 (8 points)

The Rebels footballers controlled the game from start to finish. An aggressive approach led to early success winning both their own and their opponents kickouts. Bystanders noted the exceptional passing out of the back and the way the attack valued possession.

Today the attack was led by two components: 1) the ball carriers like Marc Massena, Mark Adam, Kevin Clifford, and Stuart McMahon who made quality runs to get open and receive passes in the back and in midfield and 2) the ball winners led by the big boys up top in Pierre Massena and Craig Larsen who won just about every ball that came their way.

Other highlights from the game included a hat-trick by the rookie from Texas and confirmed giant Chris Hunley who spiked the ball into the Roc City net twice and tapped in a third late in the game. Debutante Jason Chicione was thrown into the starting lineup late and did well to win the ball at midfield and maintain possession. Christopher Scotto Di Carlo (what a name!) ran through about half of Roc City’s players, twisting and turning just to get the ball out of our defensive zone. Outside half-back Henry Best ran a lot and got popped in the face for his trouble.

In the opinion of gameday Captain Marc Massena, “This was an excellent start to the season and a culmination of all the work we put in over the winter and spring. There wasn’t a single guy on the squad who didn’t have an excellent game. I’m really excited about what we could achieve this year.”

Said Kevin Clifford, “This was nice. In Bantry, we had to play in mud.”

Player-Coach Henry Best insisted on giving big shout-outs to the grounds crew including “Hurling Will, Brian Kanalley, Cillian Flavin, yours truly, Paddy Loughlin, Stuart McMahon, Dustin Moore, and probably some others I didn’t notice in the rain. Marking out the different lines we need is a pain but teamwork makes the dream work. And nobody is better than Dreamworks, not even Pixar.”

Scorers:

Chris Hunley: 3-0

Marc Massena: 1-3

Pierre Massena: 1-1

Mark Adam: 0-3

Stuart McMahon: 1-0

Kevin Clifford: 0-2 (first ever Rebels two-pointer!)

Joe Bradley: 0-1

Debutants:

Jason Chicione

Max Weissman

Kevin Clifford

Game Ball: Chris Hunley