A game that wasn't played has become one of the more interesting of the 2018 DODEA-Europe Division II football season.
The canceled game between Aviano and International School of Brussels will stay cancelled, DODEA-Europe athletic director Kathlene Clemmons announced this week, with postseason ramifications to be determined.
The scheduled Sept. 8 season-opening game “has been declared a cancelled game,” Clemmons said, as opposed to a forfeit or postponement.
The original cancellation stemmed from a late-summer flurry of realignment and rescheduling. Baumholder’s inability to produce enough players to field a Division II squad knocked the program down to the Division III level, forcing a final-hour restructuring of both divisions’ schedules. ISB’s long trip to Aviano was among the changes; ISB wasn’t able to secure transportation for the journey and didn’t make the trip to Italy.
But DODEA-Europe opted not to hand ISB a forfeit loss.
“The circumstances were beyond the control of both teams for the scheduled game, as well as a possible make-up date,” Clemmons said.
The lost game could have a major impact on the Division II postseason race.
Aviano and ISB will now play just five games apiece, while all other teams will play six. The top two finishers in the seven-team league are set to play for the European championship game Nov. 2, the only Division II playoff game on the slate this year.
While 0-2 ISB seems unlikely to make a run at one of those two title-game berths, Aviano’s prospects are much brighter. The Saints are 2-0 entering this weekend’s home game against Rota, a battle of the last two undefeated teams in Division II.
DODEA-Europe plans to soon sort out how to account for the missing game.
“After the games this weekend, we will decide how this affects the playoff picture,” Clemmons said.
ISB is scheduled to make a similar trip to the one it missed on Saturday, visiting Aviano's northern Italian neighbor Vicenza.
Twitter: @broomestripes
