Haddonfield seniors trying to uphold tradition

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Don't tell Adam Augugliaro this is a rebuilding season for Haddonfield football.

Don't tell Brian Collins the Bulldogs are a team in transition.

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Don't tell Mike DiNoia that his class is a bridge between one great era in the history of the program and another.

These guys are seniors. They have respect for Haddonfield's past and hope for Haddonfield's future, but they are more concerned with the here and now.

"We've embraced the challenge," said DiNoia, a two-way lineman and the only returning starter to take the field for the Bulldogs this season. "If people want to say this program is going to take a step back this season, we're determined to show them what we're all about."

Haddonfield is young, with eight sophomores in the regular rotation as well as a freshman kicker. Haddonfield also is inexperienced, with 11 new starters on defense and 10 on offense.

The Bulldogs have a strong-armed and talented quarterback in junior Mike McLaughlin - who was firing 40-yard spirals with accuracy during practice on Thursday - and a loaded freshman class.

So tomorrow could be a good day for the Bulldogs.

But seniors focus on today.

"This is their time," Haddonfield coach Frank DeLano said. "This is their time to carry the torch, to make their mark. They've seen what past classes have done. They want to represent the tradition."

Haddonfield went 32-4 from 2009 to 2011, made three straight South Jersey Group 2 title games, and in 2010 won the school's first sectional title since the creation of the playoff system in 1974. It arguably was the best era in the history of the program.

But most folks figured it ended when the Bulldogs graduated all those seniors after last season.

"I knew we were going to be better than people thought," said Collins, a tight end and linebacker. "I get motivated every time I step on the field, thinking people were saying that we weren't going to be a good team anymore."

Haddonfield is 3-1 entering Saturday's key Colonial Conference interdivision clash with 3-1 Woodbury. The Bulldogs have gotten good work from those sophomores, and McLaughlin is starting to come into his own, but the key has been the play and leadership of the seniors.

Augugliaro leads the team in rushing yards (302 on 50 carries) and touchdowns (four). Collins leads in tackles with 27. DiNoia has been the anchor of a rebuilt offensive line at center.

DeLano said his three captains also have stepped up as leaders.

"I learned so much watching the seniors last year," Augugliaro said. "I had grown up with those guys, and I watched the way they played every sport.

"They led by example, not by yelling. They led by how they played."

DiNoia said the three captains got together soon after the end of last season and vowed that this season would be a continuation of this golden era in Haddonfield football.

Things would change.

Things also would stay the same.

"I can remember getting together with Adam and Brian and saying, 'Just because we lost all those seniors, we can't say we're not going to have a good team,' " DiNoia said. "This is a new team, a different team. But this is our senior year. We don't want to take a backseat to anybody."

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Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com or @PhilAnastasia on Twitter. Read his blog, "Jersey Side Sports," at www.philly.com/jerseysidesports

Source : philly[dot]com

The Flash #0 Review

I’ll say this much: you won’t find a poorly drawn issue of The Flash. Francis Manapul never ceases to deliver impressive layouts to tell his and Brian Buccellato’s story. The page showing how Flash designed his costume looks incredible with the way the panels seem to spring from his costume-springing ring. It looks great, but the lack of a compelling narrative that matches the quality of the art continues to leave this series in the dust.

An origin story in every sense of the word, The Flash #0 details how Barry Allen got his powers and his motivation for becoming a hero. While the tender subject of Barry’s relationship to his parents and the life-changing impact of his mother’s murder attempts to form the heart of this story, the superhero aspect gets glazed over. The result winds up being a story that fails to connect on a deeper emotional level or infuse the reader with the same inspiration that Barry supposedly felt that made him put on the red and yellow duds.

The dialogue sounds generic, the character motivations are cookie cutter, and the mystery feels more confusing than compelling. The narrative structure features a lot of flashbacks put in at add points here and there, but they never amount to anything worth the effort it takes to read them in such a way. If you want a kick ass story told in fragmented flashbacks, then check out Matt Fraction and David Aja’s outstanding new Hawkeye series.

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, but only if you are prepared to hear more about Darth Maul, Green Lantern, and Doop than you would ever care to know.

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Transformers 4 Will Revolve Around New Robots

Hasbro president and CEO Brian Goldner spoke about Transformers 4 at this week's UBS Best Of Americas 2012 Conference.

Bleeding Cool points out this article at TFW2005 that recounts the highlights of Goldner's presentation. The Hasbro honcho revealed a placeholder logo for Transformers 4 (seen below), which is slated for release June 29, 2014.

The real news from the conference is that Transformers 4 will revolve around a new cast of robot characters. And why's that? Because the toys for Transformers 3 didn't sell as well as Hasbro had hoped, with the company chalking it up to the fact that most of the same robot characters had appeared in all three Transformers movies. Freshen up the roster, create new toys, and hopefully sell more toys than last time.

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Daredevil: End of Days #1 Advance Review

Daredevil: End of Days is a welcome return to the days when Brian Michael Bendis wrote the adventure of Ol’ Hornhead not as a colorful superhero romp but as a dark and gritty procedural. End of Days is essentially Brian Bendis and co-writer David Mack’s last testament for Daredevil, his villains, his supporting cast, and Hell’s Kitchen. You won’t find the same swashbuckling take on the character currently being showered with awards – at IGN and elsewhere – but instead a down and dirty interpretation that puts a fitting bow on the work Bendis did on the character over the course of roughly six years, from 2001 through 2006.

If you’ve read and enjoyed Bendis’ take on Daredevil, then End of Days should be right down your alley. If you’ve never dabbled in Bendis’ Daredevil, firstly what is wrong with you? And secondly, know that you won’t be putting this issue down with a big old smile on your face.

Shying away from discussing spoilers is a tough thing to do when talking about End of Days #1. But let's just say that a major event happens in the book's opening pages that sets a somber tone for things to come. Bendis and Mack then return to writing Ben Urich, who acts as the book's emotional through-line. Unsurprisingly, the writing duo manage to find a creative way for Urich to carry the story while also catching up new readers with the history he and Matt Murdock share together through a clever use of exposition featuring some beautifully painted artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz.

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Bendis and Mack set up a great multi-layered mystery with this first issue.

Furthermore, Bendis and Mack set up a great multi-layered mystery with this first issue. I’ll leave you to find out what I mean by reading the book yourself, but know that you’ll get to the issue’s final page and be intrigued enough to keep going with issue #2.

Joining the aforementioned Sienkiewicz on art duties is penciller Klaus Janson, who any Daredevil fan worth his salt knows he and Frank Miller together defined the modern interpretation of the Man Without Fear back in the 1980s. Janson’s style here in End of Days is very visceral and raw. His pencils are smothered in ink, giving the whole issue a very dark and gritty feel that perfectly complements Bendis and Mack’s script.  Furthermore, Janson’s panel layouts are inspiring, as they often break the mold of standard blocking to instead go for something outside the box that’s a little more creative and surreal.

As of big-time fan of Bendis’ past work on Daredevil, reading End of Days is like meeting up at the bar with an old friend you haven’t seen in years to share a drink and catch up. Bendis has always had a great handle on Daredevil and his world, and it seems he hasn’t lost his Midas touch in the six years he’s been away from the character.

With that said, though, Daredevil: End of Days is a much darker take on the character than we’ve been accustomed to over the last year and half. That isn’t a bad thing, mind you; it’s just that it takes a bit of an adjustment period to settle into a story that won’t have you smiling ear to ear but instead feeling pretty darn depressed by its conclusion.

Ah, classic Daredevil.

Erik is a writer for IGN's Comics channel and co-host of the IGN Assemble! podcast. You can follow Erik on Twitter, or find him here at IGN. He now has an uncontrollable urge to re-read all of Bendis' Daredevil stuff.

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