“The third season has started, and we are up against a newcomer in the league, the Predators. Last season was not good for us, and we lost several players and finished low in the standings after a late loss against the Avengers. This season we hope to improve, and must admit that the teams are more evenly matching ours. Should be possible to beat most of these teams on a good day, even though the Gold Lords and the Pirates seem hard to beat for my team. We have two good skinks, the new team captain Black Booster and a fairly good Krox. The rest of the team are just promising so far... :) We won our first game of the season on a no-show, and so hasn't played a serious game so far this season. This game will be a good start. The game plan is as always when playing those with the funny hats. Use my strength to hit the dwarves, and go for getting the hobbo's out of the game with my star Blitzer Yellow Fraternizer (who is an excpert at tackling). Particularly their #10 Narakk Silverhands, who is very good with the ball. Also, I will need to avoid their hired goblin chainsaw...

Some things never change, such as having to start kicking and that the other team has the fans advantage... With stolid Expressions, my LOS is set up, keeping two pairs of sauruses and the 4 skinks in the backfield. Luckily, the funny hats signal their moves very clearly so we manage to reset our defense, and Marsh Mole makes an almost perfect kick, getting the ball deep into Predators Territory.

Predators start wWith some nifty line work, and manges to stun the Blue Bomber. Silverhand rushes left to secure the ball, but it seems as if they plan to go right. We go for the ball, and sends Lightning and Fraternizer to advance on our right side, supported by Warrior and Swimmer. Burntears, one of their bulls, stand up against us, though. He is helped out by Nobbla and his chainsaw, which stuns Fraternizer. The five dwarves concentrates on our three sauruses in the centre, and Ironfist succeeds in sending Protector off badly hurt. This is not looking good, but when Silverhand fails in picking up the ball we see a chance. Warrior runs like crazy up the corridor, ready to capitalise on any more errors.

The Predators continue to prioritise line work, and this time Smokeyblaster sends the team captain Black Booster Down. It looks like his neck may have been broken! Some really dice moments there, until we can haul him off the field and our apo can have a look at him. A bit of ice and he'll be fine again, he says, and we can breathe a it easier. Loosing two sauruses in the first quarter of the first half would have been tough. Especially since Nobbla is still on the field. In the meantime however, Redtongue has stunned Warrior and Burntears has knocked Swimmer out of the game, and Silverhand has finally been able to pick up the ball and advance. 8 against 11 already. This is not looking good!

We do not loose faith, however, and Lightning pushes Blackaxe away, so that Fraternizer can blitz that pesky chainsaw... We also manages to somewhat contain the dwarves. Maybe we have a chance at stopping them? Redtongue is a bit hotheaded and storms into a blitz on Lightning, only to trip up when going for it and end up stunned on the field. They had a chance there to forcing our right side wide open, but now the initiative is suddenly on our side! Hollow Claws marks Burntears, who is the only Predator standing on their half, except for the ballcarrier. And then, Fraternizer is free to blitz Silverhand, who almost manages to dodge away, but Fraternizer knows these kind of tricks and trips him With his tail. Silverhand is down, and the ball pops loose! Our skinks goes to work, and Mole and Diver secures the area while Warrior picks the ball up and runs With it. No predator is even Close, so Warrior has a free run to the goalline. Nobbla tries a desperate Dodge between Fraternizer and Diver, but fails as Fraternizer's tail sends him Down a second time this half, and this time Blackwart is stunned. We choose to hold on to the ball and sends Warrior to safety, while punching some more Predators. Some sqabbling develops between the two teams, but with little result either way until we judge that the Predators cannot score, and runs in our first TD! 1-0 to the Scavengers as we manage to capitalise on the error caused by the stsumbling bull.

There is still some time left on the clock, and we get into position. Short one saurus we put the Three backfielders in line instead of as pairs, and adds our reserve skink. With Blackwart banned, the Predators adds their reserve hobbo and is 11. They don't have time to do much, though, and the half ebbs out with nothing more noteworthy happening. We are very satisfied with the first half, where we managed to turn a 8 vs 11 deficit into a defensive TD. Now we will receive, and hopefully be able to deliver some damage to the Predators for a change.

History repeats itself as the Predators are quick to change their defensive formation just before the kick, a move that confuses good ol' Claws, who had hoped to take a bite out of Blackaxe. It's a kick that lands in the middle of our backfield. We push their LOS back, and sends the rookie Hobbo Slowfoot off KO'd. 11 vs 10 now! The strength of our attack is on our right side, where Fraternizer pushes Burntears over and marks Down Woodmaker. Warrior gets into a scoring position and the rest of the skinks protects Diver with the ball. Again, the Predators concentrates on their line work, , but makes a tactical error in letting Woodmaker Block Fraternizer, instead of blitzing him and let Woodmaker mark down Warrior. Thus, we can make a simple hand-off from Diver to Warrior, and TD number two is a fact. No need for pushing and shoving, and we are ahead two to nothing, but almost a whole half left to play.

This time, Mole tries a short kick to set us up for a blitz, and succeeds partly, but the kick went a bit high, so Silverhand was ready for it. He dropped the firts attempt, but picked it neatly up and ran like crazy for our right side, where Redtongue had cleared Booster away to make a free passage. Their line pushes our back, but no lasting damage is taken, and the dwarves are now committed. Booster, Bomber and Lightning arrives neatly to Block the Predators advance, supported by all the skinks except Wiggler, who serves as safety on the left flank together With Fraternizer. Predators tries instead to punch through the centre, where they manage to drop Booster and Claws, but comes no further as the skinks are holding them. Booster and Bomber now pushes from the right side, and Claws and Idler from the left, while the skinks hold the front, and suddenly the whole Predators team is boxed in, and Booster and Swimmer is a handspan away from Silverhand. Desperate moves pushes our line to our right as Silverhand dodges out of Boosters grip and scrambles to get out snd free on the other flank, but we methodically pushes the dwarves backwards and manges to again get close to him. Darkheart and Burntears manage to push fraternizer away, and cleras the path for Silverhand, but he fails to see Wiggler in his blindzone, and just as he is free, he is tripped from behind by Wiggler and stunned. Again, the ball is loose!

Fraternizer pushed Darkherat onto the ball, that pops up and into the waiting hands of Wiggler. Mole and Swimmer immediately arrives to help Wiggler out by pushing Ironfist away, freeing Wiggler up with a free run towards the endzone. The sauruses do their work well, and Idler kills rookie hobbo Woodmaker, while Claws stuns Redtongue. In more furious lineaction, Ironfist retaliates and kills brave Diver (deemed last match's MVP), and Bomber smashes Graybeard's knee. Nobody cares anymore about Wiggler, who can just walk over Third TD over the goal line. A last effort by the Predators With only Seconds left on the clock goes nowhere and ends with Smokeyblaster landing on his face after having tried to Block Fraternizer.

3-0 against the Predators was a lucky result, although the Predators seemed overly concerned with hurting our players instead of scoring. Guess that's the playing style of the chaos wastes... We managed to get enough money to buy a replacement for poor Diver, and chooses to also replace Marsh Mole. He's been a faithful player, but with his permanent ankle injury, he is no longer fast enough. All our players are available for the next match. We are on top of the Conference with two wins, and the world looks cozy... :)

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