“OCCS Stomp - Playoffs Round 2:

Facing off against some incredibly stalwart orcs in the semifinals seemed to be the doom of the halflings. The handicaps were smelling salts (was not useful), morley's revenge (affected 3 players, but no more than 1 missed any drive and orcs always had 11 to field), and duh where am I (on thrower with tackle - certainly helpful as with no RRs, tackler made very few blitzs). Two of our halflings niggled out and so we started the game with 12 players only and that was quickly reduced as we suffered an SI and RIP early and had our apoth fail. However, after receiving the opening kick, we drove down the field, our trees did very well at tying up and inflicting some harm on the orcs. We scored after 4 turns and then it was to defense. In what may have been the key of the game, our depleted forces managed to hang on just long enough. MacArthur blitzed and stunned the orc blitzer that was in range of scoring and a fragile screen was just enough to force too many rolls (handoff, dodge, gfis) that the orcs failed to convert and half ended 1-0.

The second half is where things came apart for the orcs. To start the half, an absolutely beautiful kick landed in the corner of the endzone - out of reach of the orc thrower - who did not want to gfi with no RR. Deeproot responded by tossing General Charles de Gaulle...who also AG 4 made the 2 dodges and picked up the ball in the endzone for the 2-0 lead! Now things were looking great for the halflings...but they were not done. On the next kickoff, the orc thrower fumbbled the pickup and Charles de Gaulle again was tossed through the air, grabbed the ball and was off...a desperate blitz by the orcs failed and he scored his second TD! At 3-0, the hobbits simply looked to preserve their few remaining players and the orcs scored on T16. Overall, an excellent game. Although 4 SI/RIPs suffered means only 9 players (4 of them niggled) for the finals...however, this game raised our record to 8/2/7 on the season!

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