Nereid-fins Establish Dominant 2 Game Tie Streak With 1-1 Draw Against the Dark Harbour Harriers

The Mayemi Nereid-fins fought to a 1-1 tie with the Dark Harbour Harriers to give the team a ‘glorious’ two-game tie streak. Catcher Falyn Woodyl scored the Nereid-fins touchdown on a hand-off from blitzer Rahor Mossheart, who led all players with 12 yards rushing. The Harriers got the equalizer from dark-elf blitzer Mireh, who also had one completion on the day.


Woodyl scores the second TD of his career to put Mayemi up 1-0

“Yeah, apparently the guys are proud of this tie-streak thing,” said Coach Mickon McDenial during the postgame press conference. “As a human, I kind of get more excited about winning, but to each his own, I guess.”

A win did look to be in the cards early for Mayemi, as they established defensive control and forced a key turnover in the first half. After receiving the opening kick, the Harriers advanced to midfield, with Mireh safe among a cage of blockers. However, their runner, Zaknefein, and witch elf, Sabrina Morningstar, got into some trouble along the southern sideline. Mayemi catcher Fayln Woodyl, delivered a roundhouse kick to Zaknefein's jaw sending his teeth flying into the crowd and knocking him unconscious.

With the runner down, Woodyl then grabbed Morningstar by the arm, and Akhorne the Squirrel, whom the Nereid-fins had hired for the match, vaulted himself onto her face. As the little rodent scratched at her eyes and bit into her nose, Morningstar staggered backwards into the crowd, where Mayemi fans quickly stomped on her throat, knocking her out of the rest of the game.


Akhorne the Squirrell leaps toward Morningstar’s face, moments before knocking the witch elf out of the game

“I love the way that rabid little fella plays,” said Coach McDenial. “I actually started looking into the whole rabies thing to see if it might help the rest of the team, but the team owner won’t go for it. Apparently, it’s ‘fatal for elves.’ But I mean, who wants to live forever, right?”

With his blocking breaking down after the loss of two key players, Mireh broke from the pocket to try to find daylight. Mayemi line-elf Durym Smythyl chased him down near the center of the field, and took out his legs with a diving blitz at the dark elf’s knees. Line-elf Aryn Brewyr was able to scoop up the fumble and race deep into Harrier territory, but dark elf blitzer Lotho dragged Brewyr down from behind by his hair, ending the threat and sending the game to halftime tied 0-0.

“We would have liked to get the TD there, but a hold is pretty good,” said Smythyl. “After all, holding a dark elf team from scoring is about as difficult as keeping their evil and twisted kind from murdering and torturing the innocent. So we felt pretty good at half-time … about the 0-0 score that is, not about the innocent people we saw them murdering and torturing on their sideline during the break, of course.”

The Harriers opened the second half with a surprising and effective onside kick, as Lotho raced down field and snatched the ball out of the air before any Nereid-fins could get near it. Racing up the southern sideline, he was threatening to score, when the sound of snarling and skittering of little paws came from behind him. Akhorne leaped onto the back of the blitzer’s shoulder, and sunk his teeth into his neck, sending Lotho into the crowd.


Lotho deftly catches the onside kick

Though the fans declined to stomp Lotho into the ground, their throw in went right to Mayemi blitzer Rahor Mossheart who grabbed the ball off the pitch and ran into Harrier territory. With the fate of the game in the balance, the blocking grew increasingly violent, as the elves bashed each other with orc-like intensity.

Mossheart moved into striking distance untouoched, but Mayemi’s numbers had been whittled down to 5, while the Harriers still had 7 on the field. When Mireh caught Mossheart from behind, Mossheart handed the ball to Woodyl, who had no choice but to sprint across the goal line, putting Mayemi up 1-0 but giving the Harriers plenty of time to mount a game-tying drive.

“You never want to give dark elves that much time to score,” said Coach McDenial. “But you also don’t want to give them the chance to throttle you before you cross the goal line. So it was kind of a pick your poison situation. And yeah, they also had soaked their shoulder spikes in literal poison before the game, so there was that too.”

A short kick made that game-tying drive all the more possible, as Mireh caught the ball near midfield, and dark elf lineman Idilit Peregrin got behind the Mayemi defense on a deep post pattern. Mireh then hit Peregrin with a perfect pass as Mayemi defenders raced to catch him before he reached the end zone.

Mayemi blitzer Jalyn Killyps made a dazzling play to spin away from one blocker and drive his shoulder into Peregrin’s back. The dark-elf lineman went down hard, clearly suffering some sort of internal injury as blood gushed from his mouth, and the ball bounced to the pitch just a few yards from the endzone. However, when Killyps tried to scoop up the ball to end the threat, he slipped on Peregrin’s blood, and Mireh was able to snatch the ball off the pitch, and score to end the game in a 1-1 tie.


Mireh scores the tying TD

“That’s two in a row!” said Mossheart, pumping his fist in the air after the game, apparently not disappointed to see victory snatched away in the closing seconds. “We’ve got a glorious tie-streak going here.”

Asked whether he’d ever heard the saying that a tie is like kissing your sister, Mossheart glared at the gathered scribes as a slow tear ran down his cheek. “My sister, Glimryl Mossheart, princess of the Flyndrian high elven kingdom, was captured by a clan of orcs 12 years ago,” he said somberly. “So, yes, would that I could but see her again and kiss her lovely cheek, I would be filled with this same kind of joy.”


Mossheart weeps in the locker room after the game, as the scribes force him to recall his missing sister, Princess Glimryl Mossheart