UMBC’s newly minted Blood Bowl team completed their first match last night, ending in a 2-2 draw against BGSU. Skinks Marcus Banks and JC Harris scored their first career touchdowns as the team matched their opponents block for block.

The game started poorly for the Bay Reptiles, as could be expected from a cobbled together group of students with no proper blood bowl experience and little practice time. As the ball kicked off, the chaos dwarves were quick on their blocks, and multiple Saurii found themselves off the pitch before they knew what happened. Scott Mruczkowski’s block left Saurus Max Curran with their bell rung, and they had to be escorted off the pitch. They would not be able to return to the game until late in the second half. The block to Jourdan Grant by Doug Smith was far more serious, as the saurus suffered a fractured arm, and will miss time going forward.

The Bay Reptiles finding themselves on the backfoot, and with no experience to fall back on found themselves quickly out of position, and bull centaur P.J. Pope was able to quickly run through their lines for the score, his first of 2 on the day.

But there was plenty of time in the half for the Reptiles to either make bigger fools of themselves, or prove their mettle. Once more they found themselves ill-prepared compared to their opponents for the kick off, as a quick blitz allowed the chaos dwarves to surround the ball while the lizards found themselves flat footed. They would not fall into chaos themselves this time, however, as saurus K.J. Maura landed a solid hit on a hobgoblin, knocking him out of the game, and several lizards swarmed to the ball.

Though Marcus Banks was unable to get a solid grip on the ball amidst the bodies on their first try, they were able to bounce it out to a more favorable position. Saurus Jairus Lyles recorded UMBC’s first casualty of the season taking out the chaos dwarves’ feared stabba. Marcus made another grab at the ball and slinked their way through the chaos dwarves lines. The Saurii were able to provide effective protection for the skink, and they were able to score a touchdown just before the end of the half; though not without another injury taking Kroxigor Dan Akin out of the match.

Starting the second half, the Bay Reptiles found themselves outnumbered 11 to 8. But as they were kicked off to, they would not let themselves be caught unprepared again, and JC Harris secured the ball as the rest of the team moved up to protect their path forward. The ref issued a warning that he was watching the reptiles closely, and that any foul would result in immediate ejection. This puzzled the Reptiles coach as he under no circumstances wanted any fouling at this point anyway.

The chaos dwarves swarmed to the forward advance of the lizards’ line, and Harris performed a reverse to catch them out of position. Saurus Joe Sherburne took down 2 chaos dwarves with effective blocking, getting UMBC its second casualty of the game and evening up the numbers a bit. But with Pope taking a skink out, the Reptiles settled for taking the quick score as opposed to attempting a stall.

On the ensuing kickoff, Pope once more grabbed the ball, and the chaos dwarves advanced forward, though Maura was able to take out a hobgoblin, giving UMBC its third casualty. Outnumbered and outcoached, it was all the lizards could do to get a couple of skinks in the way of Pope. But an effective blitz from the other Bull Centaur took out both skinks, knocking one into the crowd. The crowd was not kind to the displaced skink, and their knee was shattered. It is considered unlikely that they will be able to play in the next game. Pope, now free, moved forward and scored his second touchdown of the game.

One final kickoff would mark the endgame of the match. Seemingly outraged at the ref’s early warning from before, the fans swarmed him, and both teams knew it would be difficult for him to be able to spot any fouls now. Not that there were any to be made. With only one skink left on the field, it was all UMBC could do to try to protect the ball as the chaos dwarves crashed towards them looking for the win. The crowd booed as the skink ran backwards trying to protect itself. But it was not even effective at that, as the bull centaurs strode through the lines of the saurii and hit the ball free. But Pope was not able to go for the hat trick, as he fumbled the pickup diving for the end zone as time expired. The game would end in a draw.

Pope would be elected his team’s MVP for a stellar 2 touchdown, 1 casualty performance, despite his fumble at the end. Maura would be selected as UMBC’s for their casualty and all around excellent blocking.

“A draw is frankly better than we could have hoped for,” said athletic director Drrek in the post game interview. “We knew we were the underdogs going into this, and I’m proud of how the team performed.”

UMBC will receive a bye for the next round of play, presumably scheduled early by the NCBB to give the new team some time to review the tape of its first action. Then they will look forward to facing the Skaven university of U.C. Sacred Lentil looking for their first win.