Hurricanes leave Fratmen ‘shipwrecked’

Windsor drops second straight 

by Rob Benneian

The AKO Fratmen looked like a cruise missile locked and loaded on their target establishing an early 3-0 record. Lately, they’ve looked more like an ocean liner.

The Titanic, to be more specific.

“It was a shipwreck,” said Deandre Jones of Windsor’s 47-8 loss to the Hamilton Hurricanes at Ivor Wynne Stadium on Saturday.

Jones is one of the team’s captains and was an All-Conference defensive back for the Fratmen in 2011. For the second week in a row, Windsor’s vaunted defence gave up points and yards by the barrel.

“It snowballs, it continued from last game (against London, a 37-11 loss),” Jones said.

Head coach Mike LaChance, who has been bemoaning his offence’s lack of consistency all season, said a couple of plays could have changed the course of the game.

“Drop a pass early, it could be 7-0,” LaChance said. “Wide open play, one of our better receivers (Shayne Rice) dropped the ball and it looked like the wheels fell off after that.”

Rice was in clear behind the Hurricanes secondary and had a pass from quarterback Christian Hackney land square in his palms only to see it drop to the turf. It was the second week in a row Rice dropped a sure touchdown pass. LaChance said he is worried about the long-term effects a couple of plays can have.

“It’s tough to pull yourself out even for the next week,” LaChance said. “Now you got guys looking at each other, you got Christian (Hackney) who’s confidence is shaken, you got receivers who’s confidence is shaken, you got an offensive staff who’s trying to pick themselves out of it.”

To make a bad situation worse, when Windsor receivers weren’t dropping Hackney’s passes they were deflecting them into the eye of a hurricane.

“Did you see a ball get tipped that didn’t get picked? Did you see a ball that hit the turf that we got? You didn’t,” LaChance said.

The Fratmen turned the ball over a staggering nine times, including six interceptions and three fumbles lost.

“One to two turnovers messes with a team in a game,” Jones said. “Nine is pretty hard to keep a game focused.”

Groundhog Day, again

LaChance might have to stop by a courthouse and have his name legally changed to Phil Connors.

He said he felt like he was an actor in Groundhog Day, the American film that features weatherman Connors, played by Bill Murray, reliving the same day over and over.

Except instead of using his free time to engage in acts of hedonism, LaChance is just left pulling his hair out pondering what to do with his team.

“There’s no magic elixir,” LaChance said. “I can’t bring one player out, like I told the guys, and it’s gonna fix everything.”

The Fratmen played the entire game without starting running back Robb Matton who left last week’s tilt with London early with a hamstring pull. Wide receiver Derrick Hurst missed the second half with a nagging ankle injury. All-Canadian defensive back Richard Veenstra, back after missing the last two with a hamstring injury, was unable to complete the game. LaChance refused to use injuries as an excuse for his teams problems.

“I bet you Hamilton’s got some injuries that they’re working through too,” LaChance said. “Hurst is hurt, but we’ve got 10 receivers. If you can’t play over a wide receiver being hurt then you’re not a very good team. We’re down to our fourth, fifth and sixth running backs, that doesn’t help. We didn’t come out here to run the ball today, but again, you can’t use it as an excuse. If we lost by 7 today and we didn’t get a running game going, we’d probably look to it but we got our (expletives) kicked. It didn’t matter if we had Jesus Christ in the backfield, we weren’t winning.”

The Fratmen hope to have Matton, divine powers or not, back for their upcoming contest with the Burlington Braves. The game will be played at Windsor Stadium at 7 pm on Saturday, September 16.