Playoffs: Cooter's 11, Muskies 0

I wouldn't bother feeling too bad about last night's playoff drubbing. Cooter's does that to everyone. They've been on-and-off Monday champs for at least four years. Their other scores this season: 4-0, 10-1, 7-0, 1-6 (an actual loss, to the Rink Rats), 7-1 and 5-1. And most of their opponents finished in the Top 7. I'm not sure why they find it interesting to play in such a mismatched league; they're probably Yankee fans too.

Granted, I was hoping that we would not give them their best performance of the season. My plans to stack up on defense didn't really work out. Cooter broke through our D-line all the time, and by then it was all over. Luck always went their way, while our [Paul's] best shots bounced off the posts. When you're good, you create your own luck. In the second half they only scored two or three times. Did we improve, or did they get bored?

I like CSC, the league we're in. I like the playing environment, the quirky rules, the smaller rinks and the soft boards. But despite 100 teams in seven divisions, they've combined the high "A" level with the low "B" level, creating an incredibly broad range of team quality.

We finished the regular season 13th out of 20, which a team of mostly rookies and sophomores should be proud of. But looking at all the blowout scores throughout the league, it seems like CSC should separate the A and B teams. Brian suggested we find a new league next year, but if that's not viable, maybe we should just try a different night, one with fewer Cooterite dynasties.

Random stats

- Good sign: Our record of 2-4-1 is identical to the Muskies' first kickball season.

- Dave remained the scoring leader with 4 goals, despite playing only twice. Brian, Scott, Jaki and I are tied for second with 3 each. Dave had 2.0 goals per game played; Brian was a distant second with 0.6.

- Not a stat, but getting the tar kicked out of us four times has made us better. If we had faced Cooter's a few weeks ago, it may have been worse than 11-0.

This isn't over. We leared tonight that a bonus game is in our future if we ask for it. Details to come.