Saturday's contest was the final regular season game and was the most competitive to date. A classic, back and forth struggle, played in the rain with several key turnovers. Final score was 34-28.
Again, and I still find this so hard to believe, but there was no chain crew until moments before the game started. At half time we had to get another chain crew. The 25 second clock was not working either. High School Freshman games are more organized that this. I worked seven venues this season and this lack of administration has been symptomatic of well over 30% of the fields.
I was run into several times by linebackers during this game. A huge bruise on my right shoulder can attest to just how hard one of these collisions was. At least I was not knocked down.
I threw a flag for holding. I actually think this was my first holding flag this season. The center was clearly holding, twisting the defenders shoulders.. but I held my flag until the ball carrier sprinted by them. The center finish off the foul by taking down the defender. I'd love to see this one film because what may have happened is the defender actually fell on the center rather than the center pulling him down. At least on film it will look like a take down.
I also threw a flag for an illegal forward pass on a blocked Try. The defense picked up the ball and began a return. When the ball carrier was stopped he lateraled, then the next guy lateraled, and the third guys lateraled - just forward this time. The Field Judge also threw a flag that hit the ground about the same time as mine. It always looks good when there are two flags on a penalty.
The only other weird thing was a roughing the center during a Try. The Visitors would line a guy right over the Center. Never a good sign. At the snap, the defender would shoot the gap, but not contact the Center. The offensive Guard would block down and drive the defender into Center. After the play, the Center was pissed off and said "He cannot line-up in front of me!" I tried to explain that the defender can line-up wherever he wants, he just can't make contact for one second. Of course the Center wasn't listening since all he knew was he was being contacted. The second time this happened he had the coach talk to me. I gave him the same answer. But the third time, the defender did drive through the Center. Of course, I heard "he's been doing that all game." Ah, no he didn't, but whatever.
As a crew we did have a blunder. We got it right, but it looked really bad. On a punt return the receivers fouled during the loose ball. For those unfamilar with penalty enforcements, a foul under these conditions will be enforced at the end of the kick... not the end of the run back. This is called the Post Scrimmage Kick spot or PSK spot. Very few non-officials understand this. Well, the Field Judge did not put a bean bag on the ground to indicate this spot. There was a long 40 yard run back on this play and the holding occurred 20 yards in behind the end of the run back. Since we did not have a bean bag we kinda had to guess where the kick ended. The problem was this just took way to long and we did not look like we knew what we were doing.
Overall, I think my performance was good during this game and the best for the season. After the game one of the seasoned officials said, "Good job Duane. You couldn't tell this is your first season."
Let's hope the association feels the same and I am offered a staff position. Stay tuned.
