“Jonas shielded his eyes against the glare of the sun reflecting off of the desert sands, as he thought to himself, "The is what we get for playing a match in a God forsaken desert." He knew that the conditions were going to affect he and the rest of the Damned more than the lizards, not expecting much in the way of a passing game from them. He also thought about the losing streak they were in the middle of, and of how much he hated playing against lizards. His last thought, as he turned around to head to the visiting team's locker room to deliver his customary pre-game speech was, "This match, at any cost."

_______________________________________

We lined up on the pitch, our recent acquisition, ogre Maurice "Moose" Jennings, seeing action down on the line of scrimmage, in his first ever match with the team. Must to everyone's dismay, six saurus's and a kroxigor stood opposite us. But, with four skinks deep in the backfield, we decided to kick a short kick into their open middle, hoping to get a hand on the ball before anyone else could. As the kick went up, rocks came flying in from both sides of the pitch, stunning one of our linemen, and the other taking a veteran skink out for the remainder of the match. The ball came down short, and was caught, right on the LOS, by their kroxigor monster, before we could even reflect on our good fortune with the thrown rock. The lizards knocked down some defenders and marked some others, as teh kroxigor took a step back and handed the ball off to one of the advancing skinks. We blitzed in, putting pressure on the skink ball carrier, forcing him to roll out along one of the sideline. The roll left the skink without any protection, and after a slick knockdown/push by "Moose", Briggs leveled a crippling chop block on the skink, smashing its knee. The apoth was called in, and instead of mending the situation, made it worse by breaking the poor skink's ankle. More importantly, the ball was now in Brigg's capable hands. The ball was quickly handed off to Simon, who rushed up to midfield, putting some distance as well as players in between himself and the lizards. It was as Simon made his way towards the endzone that calamity occurred, in the form of failed dodges, a knocked out blitzer, and "Moose" being taken out of the game, as the dinos set up a wall in front of us. The only choice was to cut back down towards midfield, protecting the ball. The dinos came in, caging the Damned in, as we were forced to step back to avoid the brawl erupting in front of the goal line. But, stepping back allowed for a better picture of everything that was happening, giving some perspective as to what to do next. The dinos had advance, blocking off what the believed to be the most probably route we would still take in an attempt to score. What they didn't see is the slim chance of us making a break for the opposite side. So, as the last seconds ticked away, the Damned began their play. Yesac blitzed through a saurus, and dashed into the endzone, just in time to catch the pass from Simon who had followed the path he had just blazed. This ended the first half, 1-0, the Damned.

Playing 9-on-9, the ball came down in the middle of our side of the pitch, and we just started hitting as many lizards as we could. The lizards answered back with blocks of their own, drawing them into the center of the field. The ball was handed to Simon, who rolled out along the sideline, along with some protection, taking advantage of the distracting brawl, and he was within scoring distance when a superstar blitz from one of the skinks took him off of his feet. The ball bounced out of bounds, and was thrown back in to midfield, but still very much in scoring distance for the Damned. A skink dodged in to collect the ball, snatching away our chance to secure the match, but he bobbled the pick-up, and ball bounced away, but still in range. Jonas saw the opportunity, and called out the play. Simon regained his feet and dashed into the endzone, while Briggs dodged away to push back the skinks covering the ball, as he stepped forward, collected the ball, and completed the pass to Simon.

The lizards made a attempt to score on their next possession, but they were once again blitzed down. The rest of the match was pretty much a series of blocks as the frustrations of both teams boiled over into an all out fight. When the final whistle blew, and the sand had settled, the Damned walked off victorious, and with renewed vigor. A solid victory against a powerful team was just what we needed.
__________________________________________

Jonas found himself smiling as the sun set among the dunes, painting the desert beautiful shades of purple, orange, and gold. They were able to snap the skid they were in, and came off with a big win. As the team packed up their belonging to make the journey back home, Jonas didn't worry or wonder what the next challenge would be, knowing that whatever it may be, the Damned would be able to face it.


My respect to coach wrightd, who stuck out this match. Well played.”