Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/16/17
Seven face-off specialist from the Philly region have been selected to compete for Team Philly in the 2nd Annual I-95 Cup on Feb. 25 on Long Island.
The team includes Sean Christman (Malvern Prep, 2017, Boston University); Nate Hammond (Avon Grove, 2018, Navy); Anthony Giuliani (La Salle, 2017, Penn); Luke McCallion (Haverford High,2017, Vermont); Michael Ott (Central Bucks East, 2018,); James Reilly (Conestoga, 2018, Georgetown); and Mike Sisselberger (Southern Lehigh, 2018, Lehigh).
The I-95 Cup is not your ordinary face-off tournament. It’s the ultimate challenge to see which AREA of the country has the most talented face-off midfielders. The top 7 players from 8 different areas will meet at the Long Island Sports Hub in Syosset, NY, on February 25 for a 1-day tournament in an intense, never before seen style tournament.
Last year Team DC/Maryland/Virginia took the cup in a great battle against Team Philly. This year four more areas are joining the tournament. The top seven face-off specialists from Ohio, Atlanta, North Carolina, and Massachusetts will all be joining the tourney February 25th. Face Off Academy coaches from each region are coaching their squads.
The Philadelphia team was chosen by Philly Face-Off League co-founders John Bodnar and Mike Dolente. Both highly respected face-off coaches in the area, the Philly Face-Off League is where the most elite face-off midfielders in the Greater Philly area can practice and train together on a weekly basis.
Well how is this tournament going to work?
Each team will have to play each other once in order to determine playoff seedings. When a matchup between 2 areas has started, it’s a 7 round best of 7 face-offs. At the start of each round, there will be a coin toss. The losing team has to send out their first face-off guy. This gives the other team an opportunity to see who they are sending and the coach of that team will choose who will face him.
For example, New York is playing Philadelphia in the first round of the day. New York loses the coin toss and therefore has to send out their first face-off guy. Philadelphia sees who they are sending and sends out somebody. Let’s say the New York player wins his best of 7 with a score of 4-2. Because the NY player won, he is automatically awarded 3 extra points. Therefore the final score is 7-2. This score then gets reported to the scorekeeper, and Philly then has to send out their next player for the 2nd matchup. Whoever loses that next matchup will have to send out the next player, and vice-versa until all 7 players have faced each other. Whatever team has the most points at the end of the 7 face-off battles will win. This format continues until every team has played every team.
How do we crown a winner?
After all 8 teams have played each other, the total points that each team scored in every matchup will be counted and the 4 teams with the highest points (total faceoff wins) will make the playoffs.
In the playoffs, the #1 seed will play the #4 seed, and the #2 seed will play the #3. The winners will play in the championship and the losers will fight for 3rd place.
Again, this is NOT an individual tournament; only one team on February 13 will walk out winners! This is strictly bragging rights until next February!
The 2nd Annual I-95 Cup will take place at the LI Sports Hub from 9 AM-2 PM. The address is 165 Eileen Way, Syosset, NY, 11791.