On a more personal note from some of the other things I've posted here for you so far, I figured I would wait for there to be some more "certainty" here about this, but we had planned a pre-Halloween cruise to a trio of Caribbean islands (St. Martin, the U.S.V.I., and, lastly, Puerto Rico) before all the hurricanes ripped through those islands, so things didn't seem as "certain" as they do now about the damage done down there, so it looks like that will get postponed to a later week, but, if not, I'll get back to you on that sooner rather than later to remind you, once again, about that... It looks, however, like this whole "saga" here just took a bizarre turn a few days ago - apparently, Celebrity Cruises (which we booked with, through a travel agency website) just sent out an update about some of its cruises:
This weekend (Saturday), I headed out to Long Island, N.Y., to catch Delaware @ Stony Brook, in a matchup between two (in recent years) top FCS teams, Delaware and Stony Brook, and the whole deal almost felt more like a high school game than a (lower-level) college matchup out on Long Island...
https://www.celebritycruises.c
...which means they haven't postponed the thing; they've merely changed it, to include places that have also been hit, albeit not worse than Puerto Rico, by the string of hurricanes these past few weeks!
...although, I will say, personally, if they swap out Puerto Rico with another "minimally" damaged location, then I might be (back) on board with the idea of keeping that cruise that week, but, otherwise, I'd rather wait, and then do something much closer to home either before or after that week (most likely college hockey, which will be back in action with its most recent season by then)!
...the cruise, between both the line (Celebrity) and travel agency (iCruise), hasn't been postponed, or even just changed from Puerto Rico to some other island, so (un)fortunately, now, it looks like the schedule I mentioned to you just above here, with those few links, will now stand: Port Liberty (Bayonne, N.J.) -> Antigua; Antigua -> St. Kitts/Nevis; St. Kitts/Nevis -> San Juan, Puerto Rico, the last full week of this month, so we might be out of town that week, but at least you'll know the reason why, even though you might notice me "pouting" a bit about that whole debacle sometime the previous week...
Also, before heading out to Delaware @ Stony Brook on Long Island (CFB) this past Saturday night (more on that just now), I noticed a few Disney Christmas celebration commercials on ESPN, during SportsCenter/various (other) college football telecasts, so this might just be "confirmation bias" on my part, since I was down in Orlando at the start of this year, but I figured I would ask you whether you've noticed that "encroachment" of various holidays/etc. in recent years to the extent some people have...?
Also, now that I've (finally) dealt with both systems, between the various parts of N.Y.C.'s MTA, I much prefer MTA's Metro-North (Grand Central) to the Long Island Railroad (Penn Station), although I guess I could hitch either the LIRR or subways to get to Barclays Center sometime in the future... Also, security on the way in was simply a few small folding tables with people standing alongside them, so somebody could've easily slipped something in, and nobody would've noticed with how "lax" security was!
It took about halfway through the first quarter for Stony Brook to open the scoring here, and, as would be the theme throughout the first half, it would be Stony Brook (mostly) passing the ball every which way, and its defense stuffing Delaware's passing game, although having less success against the run, which would prove to be pivotal later on - it seemed like every drive throughout the game went to third down at least once, and Stony Brook would miss a field goal after taking a 14-7 second quarter lead, along with a missed extra point later to keep things at 20-7 leading into the halftime break!
After the Stony Brook band performed a "music around the world" halftime show, though, Delaware suddenly dominated the second half, as the offense's run game just exploded, and Stony Brook suddenly couldn't seem to move the ball at all, although the defense started off all right, holding Delaware to a 50-yard (made) field goal, and Stony Brook's sudden offensive ineptitude led to a fumble return that just barely broke the goal line for a defensive TD for Delaware, giving Delaware even more "momentum" than it had after the field goal to make it 24-10 earlier in the third quarter...
Once Delaware took the lead early in the fourth quarter, though, at 24-20, it seemed as if things had suddenly reverted to the opening quarter, as Stony Brook's defense finally put a few stops together, only for the offense to keep faltering, at least until the last drive of the game, when the offense, suddenly (A) down, and (B) only operating with a single remaining timeout, "dumped" and "screened" its way from the 10-yard line to about the Delaware 20-yard line, although that was just about where Stony Brook would stall, and thus blow the potential game-winning drive, as the offense coaches basically did the reverse of what the Seattle Seahawks did at the end of SB 49: they stupidly called a run play first, then had a pass that not only floated over the end zone and incomplete, but also just absolutely leveled one of the team's receivers, who ran at (almost) full speed, right into the padding behind the end zone, and got KO'd as a result, leading to an injury timeout and (after the game) an ambulance being called, just as a pre-caution, although that seemed to give the Delaware "D" even more determination to stop Stony Brook once and for all, and another run play call, along with a fourth down pass play stopped short of both the first-down line, as well as the end zone, effectively ended the game immediately, with about 20 seconds remaining in the game, and allowing Delaware to just "clock out" from there and hang on for the 24-20 win!
The officiating crew, meanwhile, almost seemed to be in "opposite land" the entire night, making certain calls that probably should've just been left alone, and missing some other calls, particularly a few "procedural" penalties, such as a few grounding/offside calls, along with a few late/out-of-bounds hits by defensive players against opposing receivers, so if they were going to "blow" so many calls like that, they might as well not even have bothered appearing there that night...
The fans, however, were practically lifeless early on, though, regardless of whether the game was ongoing, or during changes of possession/official timeouts on the field, only coming to life in the second half, as Delaware slowly but surely closed the gap, and even the Delaware fans who made the trip started making more noise then, as their team suddenly "resurrected" itself then!
I mentioned at the top here about how the experience almost felt more like your typical "neighborhood Friday night out", though, and the stadium itself seems to reflect that, with the 200-level sections seemingly almost built on top of the 100-level sections, and only a single concession stand and rather cramped bathrooms comprising the rest of the stadium, despite the place only having opened back in 2002, and having been renovated back in 2012, although, on the plus side, that meant a (relatively) "low-frills" experience, with very little interference from the announcer(s)/band/scoreboard/o
Also, Princeton's (albeit black and orange, instead of blue and yellow) helmets, along with Michigan's famous "maize and blue" helmets (not just in football, either), basically inspired Delaware's blue and yellow "winged" helmets that the team has officially worn since 1951!
As for next weekend (13-15), since the cruise will now occupy the following weekend (20-22), I'll most likely be returning to the "rinks" once again, specifically Western Ontario U. (from the other "London") @ Yale (New Haven, CT) Friday night, or either UConn traveling to Bridgeport to face Sacred Heart, or Western Ontario making the trip from New Haven to Princeton Saturday night! (interestingly enough, turns out Yale also made admission to its exhibition game that Friday night free!)
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