The Mary’s Land Terrible Terrapins were able to secure their third victory this season in a 2-1 contest against the UC Binturongs that was not as close as the final score indicated. The entire game, played in the Terrapins’ home stadium “The Swamp”, was played in a torrential downpour that often made the act of picking up or passing the ball a challenge. While the elves seemed more than up to the task, it was the skinks of the Terrapins that were able to most consistently move the ball all game.

The game started out with the Terrapins down two key players, Harmony One-Love the Krox and Raymond Hagerston who is an up and coming freshman Saurus, both recovering from concussions and adhering to the team’s TBI protocol. They were replaced by two walk on skinks, Howard Fasthammer and Richard Clumsybrook as well as a walk on Saurus who evidently was pulled from the stands prior to the game and forced into play. While these three players had not practiced with the team and therefore were unfamiliar with the play calls by the Terrapins’ coach, their inclusion in the game turned out to be crucial.

The opening kickoff was to the elves, Coach Lancelot hoping that the elements might slow down the elves picking up the ball as well as give a chance for the rains to move on. The Binturongs, however, had no trouble picking up the ball and moving down the side of the field. The Terrapins countered with screening Sauruses but only the skinks had the speed to truly get in-front of the offensive drive. That’s when Howard Fasthammer, misinterpreting his coaches commands, moved directly towards the sideline and in the way of the Elven pass lanes. While this is typically a dangerous position for any player, it turned out to be just the right spot as Howard made a miraculous jump to deflect and then catch the pass, despite being covered by two elven players and fighting the pouring rain. This interception stalled the Binturongs’ drive and ultimately the Skink Jackson Airy was able to corral the ball and run it in for a score at the end of the half.


Howard Fasthammer is as surprised as the elves around him that he intercepted the ball

The second half started with Jaiden Rising Sun demonstrating his improved blocking skills, putting an elf into the injury bin with the Chameleon Skink David Damascus picking up the ball despite the driving rain and moving it down the field. The Binturongs did their best to try and stop the Terrapins, however the mounting injuries proved to be too much and David walked in for an easy second score. The elves got a measure of redemption at the end of the game, with the crowd throwing the ball in a favorable position after pummeling a surfed elf and ended executing a series of long runs to bring the score to 2-1 at the end of the game.

After the game coach Lancelot was seen in better spirits. “It feels like this team is finally clicking together. That interception by Howard was amazing, no doubt, but we live and die by those big blockers up front. So proud of Jaiden, he’s been working very hard on his blocking technique and it’s great to see it coming together on the pitch. This a great win, but we have a lot still left to do this season in order to achieve the goals we set out at the beginning of camp. This team is still hungry for more.” With a full complement of Sauruses and the Krox Harmony One-Love back for the next game, we’ll see if the team’s hunger translates into more wins.