“Antipodal Regional Shield 9/07 - round 2
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The Gothem Geckos faced Bar Room Symphonia in the second match of the tournament, and it looked like yet another exciting battle. Cyrus had some real gems in his camp with two blodgers, an agile lineman specialized in taking down dodgers and the big guy killer Borodin who with his mighty blows and dauntless attitude had the ability to harass the Geckos. On the other hand a squad of 13 very lightly armored norsemen were likely to end up hurt when facing so many sauruses. The Geckos got lucky and won the kickoff, but they also faced a potential shortage of skinks since Teploq had to cancel his appearance due to his niggling injury.

The Geckos looked fired up though and got a good start. Gormazda looked like a star when he smashed the ankle of Holst on the very first block of the match and then followed up by disposing of the feared Borodin immediately after. His efforts built momentum for the team and they could form a cage of sauruses around the hard stopped Quetloq. Huanhuan was so excited that he spent a long time simply shrieking in delight. (Missed bonehead 2 turns in a row).

The cage grinded to a halt on the middle of the pitch when the norsemen finally recovered from the early shock and cut off the path. At the same time the Geckos suffered a blow when Goqtoc got banned after landing a foul on the downed minotaur and to make matters worse their coach got so upset by the calling that he pushed the ref to the ground. That unsportsmanlike behavior resulted in him following Goqtoc off the pitch.

The norsemen put a lot of focus on trying to get rid of the remaining skinks. Chiquet was knocked out early, but the rest managed to survive the assaults.

Suddenly the tone of a signal horn cut through the general noise of the crowd and the Gecko cage reacted to the command with big expertise, reforming and pushing forward, close enough for the skink to be able to launch a sprint for the end zone line. Huanhuan had now also stopped his shrieks and charged the kicker Bach, smashing his knee with a heavy blow and crippling the norsemen further.

The norsemen had the focus on getting the skinks out and for a second left the cage unguarded. They ganged upon the fallen Ecitza, but the agile little skink managed to avoid the stomps of the opponents. Now Quetlow saw his chance and rushed in a touchdown.

The norsemen had the chance for a quick tie before the half was out, but instead the focus turned to the two beastmen. The snorting Wagner charged Huanhuan and landed a ferocious tackle, injuring the kroxigor to the point where he could no longer play in the game. While hobbling off the fury of the giant lizard was obvious to anyone.

The ref ended the first half before the norsemen could launch their offensive and the Geckos went into the break with a lead in both TD's and casualties.

After the break it was the Bar Room Symphonia's turn to recieve and the Geckos put up a three man saurus crew on the LOS and held the rest further back to prevent an early rush. The ball was launched and landed close to the agile Strauss. But just when he looked to make a move towards it a torn off spectator seat krashed down on him, knocking him out. It seemed that Huanhuan wasn't ready to give up yet and had hurled the heavy chair onto the pitch. The crowd of course roared in delight!

The norsemen thrower Handel instead snatched the ball up and got their offensive started. At the same time the LOS struggle had been won by the norse, who pushed the sauruses over. When they noticed that Gormazda was amongst the downed lizards they swarmed around him and tried to foul him out, but the saurus took the kicks and blows like a true warrior.

The ball was now in the hands of the virtually unstoppable Khachaturian. Although wearing no armor at all the swift footed catcher (blodger, side step) was slippery like an eel and the Geckos had to devote many players to trying to box him in.

While they tried to tie him down the norsemen yet again went after the skinks. The raging Sibelius charged Ecitza and pushed him off the pitch, but followed suit when the skink Chiquet snuck up and pushed him too. Both surfers survived the ordeal, but wouldn't be allowed on the pitch until the next kickoff.

Both teams still justled for positions, but the numerical advantage of the Geckos gave them the edge in the bashing game. Gorhuan hurled Handel off the pitch and Chiquet knocked out Prokofiev by kicking him when he was prone. The seemingly unskilled little skink who started the match by being knocked out was becoming a key player in the match, and more things were in store for him as the match progressed.

While the norse ball runner broke free and rushed for the end zone line the Geckos made short work of his companions. Gorhuan surfed another opponent and Lichicc bashed the tackler Vivaldi so hard that he had to stop the match. Suddenly the Symphonias were only left with their ball carrier and the minotaur, but the unstoppable Khachaturian showed his amazing talent when he managed to dodge his way out of the surrounding heap of opponents and rush in an equalizer.

A brief pause allowed many of the norsemen to recover from knockouts, but the Geckos still had a fair chance of running in a winning TD before the match was over. A bad kick awarded Quetloq the oppurtunity to rush with the ball from the LOS, which made things even better. Sadly the offensive rush was cut short by a stupid mistake. With their coach banned from the match the sauruses didn't have proper guidance and made a lousy strategical choice. Instead of blitzing the remaining tackler Gorhuan rushed a blodging berserker. He took him down and forced Cyrus to send in his apothecary, but opened up a great blitz oppurtunity for the tackler Strauss. He didn't miss the chance and rushed up to Quetloq and landed a clean blow on his jaw, shattering it and also snatching the ball from the skinks hands (scattered into his hands). The Gecko apothecary rushed in to save their best scorer, but despite his knowledge of healing he could do nothing.

Gorhuan, who realized that his mistake had lead to this unfortunate outcome, did his best to remedy the situation. The frenzied saurus rushed Strauss from behind and hit him like a high speed train in the back. The norseman's spine snapped in several places and he was left dying from his massive internal injuries. But in his death he managed to halt the Gecko's advance and brought the match to overtime.

After a brief pause the ref flipped a coin and to the dismay of the Geckos the norsemen won. With their thrower and two blodgers back on the pitch they could become an unstoppable force despite only having 9 players left. They solved the problem like true professionals. Pure inspiration lead them to a spontaneous blitz directly when the ball was kicked. The norsemen was stunned for a second by the charging opponents and that was enough to lose the initiative. The Geckos beat the norsemen to the ball and even though Chiquet failed to catch it they were at least surrounding it. At the same time Conqua-uax disposed of a major threat when he blitzed Khachaturian and knocked him out. (clean 1d block on the blodger).

The norsemen were almost in panic and the few remaining players got isolated and under attack. A good blitz lead to Handel snatching the ball up, but in the same maneuver their last blodger Beethoven was pushed off the pitch. Handel was soon caught up by the sauruses and bashed to the ground, losing his grip on the ball. And who, but not little Chiquet, was there to snatch it up and run in the winning sudden death touchdown.

A great ending to a fantastic match and the Geckos have now bagged their second 2 - 1 victory in overtime!

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Thanks a bunch for the match, Cyrus. I really enjoyed this one. Very exciting! I thought I would lose when you won the kickoff, but I got very lucky with the blitz.”