Milwaukee Still Winning

Sunday Jun 28, 2009 in Sevens Club Competitions

Milwaukee is starting to put some space between it and its competitors,adding another 1st place finish to its Midwest Seven Series standing.

Milwaukee won the Lakefront 7s with a 28-7 victory over the Chicago Griffins in the final.

Milwaukee got off to a sluggish start, according to Max Zukowski, tying its opening round pool play against the Griffins, but found enough fluidity to down the Young Bloodz and Chicago 7 to win its pool.

"This is the most competitive tournament we've played in thus far,"
Zukowski said of 84-team tournament. "The Griffins had greatly approved from last weekend. Same with the Young Bloodz."

Milwaukee hit its stride during the semifinal, blanking the visiting
Winnipeg Wasps 45-0 (approx score), though the final wasn't as easy aroad. Down 7-0 in the first half, hooker Kevin Smythe got the hometowncrowd on its feet with an 80-meter run en route to a try to tie it up.

"It's hard to build on our semifinal performance, but Kevin really
stepped it up in the final," Zukowski continued. Milwaukee took thatmomentum into the second half, stepped up its defense and forcedturnovers that set up three unanswered tries, and Smythe's secondfive-pointer of the championship.

"I'd like to think there's always room for improvement," Zukowski said,"but these past two weeks have brought us to a level we'd hoped to be atby this time."

Milwaukee has competed in four Sevens Series tournaments, with threefirst-place finishes and one third place. The team hasn't decidedwhether to compete at Grand Rapids, given its series-leading pointcushion.

"It'll be interesting to see how this decision evolves," Zukowski said."If we don't compete for seed, we'll take it easy until the MidwestChampionship."

Milwaukee Roster:
Jesse Blom (c)
Ryan Duklas
Hemad Fadaifar
Darin Heinrich
Mike Knudsen
Ryan Little
Alex McCray
Marc Petersen
Jeremy Petfalski
Kevin Smyth
Max Zukowski

Jay Boden - Player/Coach
Coach - John Hickey