“Matchday again, and beautiful weather today. And it is such an exciting match, since the winner will probably win the conference, while the loser probably will need to beat the Goldlords for a place in the play-offs. The team is in great condition with all players ready to go. And, for once, we WON THE COIN TOSS! First league game so far where that has happened!

The toads put three inexperienced liners up at the LOS, and form up with their catchers around the Krox, and with the blitzers flanking. We need to look out for leaps, and otherwise get at those pesky catchers. The toads have some very good ones, particularly Ytherx, who is stronger than normal. We do belive we have the advantage though, if we can keep those catchers out of it.

Someone upstairs apparently decided the lighting was bad, cause they decided to turn on the light, and we have to face extreme sunlight which hampers a passing game. Not a big problem for either of the teams, though, since we both rely more on running than throwing. We push forward, and aim to penetrate the right side, where Jungle Warrior moves into scoring position on the right flank. The toads go for broke, and let Rak Kraken attack the ballcarrier, the rookie player Water Winner. Rak overextends himself though, and trips just as he is about to hit Winner. Winner slips to the left, as the toads have opened a bit on that side, and we are able to put all our sauruses between Winner and the toads. The toads try to shore up their defenses, and Rak is back on his legs and aiming again for the ballcarrier... and once more he trips over his own feet... Too eager today! This means Winner can go for the TD on the left flank, and Protector scores the first cas of the day when he sends Tyzk Poisonfish off with a heavy hit. The Toads struggles to respond to this, but try to position themselves, and sends the only one able to hit Winner on the hunt. And on his third try, Rak finally hits Winner and he has to let go of the ball. Dazsp however, cannot manage to dodge away from Jungle Warrior, and thus fails to pick up the loose ball.

Protector pushes Rak away from the ball, and Water winner recovers it, but decides to wait some more before scoring, as we are only halfway in the half. He hides behind a screen of skinks, but with all these jumping toads, his position is easily too weak if pressured. However, Ytherx is eager to go, but fail to dodge away from Jungle Warrior (Warrior's second cruicial tripping of an opposing player today), and we retain the initiative. All the Scavengers hit every toad they can hit, and Rak is KO'd by Protector, but then the manager decides enough is enough, and signals for the Winner to score the TD. The fans are somewhat restrained intheir celebration, though. Was it too early in the half? Is it wise to give the Toads a chance to score?

Niza and Rak is back in action for the Toads, after vigorous flapping of limbs (among other things) by the rent-a-babes, but they are still short one player due to Tyzk's injury. They concentrate all their Power on the right side of the Field, so we kick to the left. The Toads switches to the other side, and Ytherx secures the ball, but this change of plans means, of course, that Tzunami, their Krox, becomes confused. We try to shore up our defenses, and rush too many skinks down on that side, only to be blindsided when Ytherx jumps over the head of Protector and back onto the rigt side, well protected by his teammates. Darn. An elementary ploy, and we fell for it...

Nothing much we can do, so we try to move team captain Fraternizer into a position to tackle the Toad, but he trips and fall on his tail, and the Toads are free to score an easy TD. The best we can do is to desperately dodge Winner and Warrior to cover the Toad. Since none of them are good at tackling, and the Toad can easily leap away anyway, we do not have much hope. Frustratingly hitting every toad in sight leads to nothing, but then suddenly Warrior gets in a foot after all, and Ytherx' dodging fails, and he lands stunned on the ground just yards away from that tantalizing goalline. Before he can clamber back on his feet, the whistle blows for halftime. Saved by a near-miracle...

The situation looks good at half-time. All our guys are alert and fresh, and the Toads are down one goal and one player. Granted, they are receiving, but the Scavengers have been excellent on defense this season, allowing no TDs against in the first two matches.

Starting second half, the Toads are taking it slowly. They pick up a lousy kick to their right, and advance slowly with Niza in a scoring position and Rak and Ytherx in support. The advance is easily blunted, as Booster stuns Niza and other sauri are in blocking positions. And then it happens... Hollow Claws tries to headbutt Toads rookie player Roky Plankton, but Roky sneakily ducks, and even though he cannot escape the Vicious headbutt altogether, Claws hit with his jaw and not his head. Result...both players are carried off the field, Roky is just KO'd, but Claws is out for the match. A Brocken neck, the apothecary claims gloomily, but it later proved to be only a broken jaw. Anyway, Claws is out for the next game as well. Not a big problem if we win, since we will then likely be Conference winners anyway, but if we loose... and meet the Goldlords or the Pirates, we will surely miss him.

The Toads try breaking to the left, but this time we are better prepared, and shifts two saurii (Idler and Fraternizer) and all our skinks to block the advance. Lightning manages to send another toad KO'd off the Field, and we are now 10 vs 8. Toads break back to the right as Samsam the ballcarrier jumps our saurii line, and gets support by Daszp and Niza. Unfazed, the Scavengers covers Samsam With Warrior and then Booster blitzes the ball away from Samsam, and into the waiting hands of Warrior. Winner supports Warrior, and divetackler Swimmer covers Niza, forcing him to jump if he wants to get away. On the scrimmage line, Tzunami is down stunned, and Oxo is down as well. And then the Toads og into overdrive,... Daszp covers Warrior, and Rak jumps Fraternizer and almost falls on his face trying to Dodge away from him, but barely manages. Coming at full speed, he blitzes Warrior over, who barely manages to drop the ball behind him. Niza and Samsam both jumps away from their coverage, and Samsam secures the ball. Locally, there are now 5 toads around the ball, and only 3 scavengers, and the game is still only in the middle of the half.

We need reinforcements, and Lightning and Idler rushes over. Idler blitzes the ballcarrier, and Swimmer, Warrior and Winner encircles the ball. Sneaky Toads dump Water Winner back onto the ball, however, and it bounces off to a spot where Daszp can easily recover it and run in the TD. The rafters go wild and the Toads, down two players now as Roky is not recovering from his meeting with Claws jaws, decides to try a blitz. Set up for a left side advance, we have only rookie skinks Breaker and Wiggler in the backfield, and they cannot hinder that Niza gets the ball, while Ytherx and Samsam gives him coverage and the other Toads hold Down the saurii as best they can. Desperate now, the saurii tries to knock their coverage over, but none of them can get free and as Fraternizer goes down in a fight with Rak, Niza has a free scoring chance. He jumps over the feeble coverage by Breaker, and scores the TD. With only a third of the half left, we are suddenly down 2-1 and a panic attack on the Scavengers bench threatens to shut down the team. Team captain Fraternizer politely points out to the befuddled coaches that we are still two players ahead, though, and a quick score could allow us to at least equalize the game.

Thus invigorated, we set up for advance on our right, and the ball is kicked close to our LOS, as the Toads hopes for another blitz. No such play this time, though and Warrior has the ball with Winner in support and Wiggler and Swimmer in scoring positions. Bomber headbutts Oxo and sends him off, even though he goes down himself for a while in the process. Toads chances on blitzing the ballcarrier instead of the scorers, and Niza covers the saurii while Rak tries the jumping blitz. Warrior keeps his cool, however, and clings to the ball as he sidesteps forward. Booster attacks Rak from behind, but Rak turns elegantly around and wrestsles Booster down. Unfortunately for the Toads, Rak cannot keep Warrior down at the same time, so while team captain Fraternizer demolishes Niza, and sends him limping off the Field, all Warrior needs to do is to turn on the turbo and run in the score... 2-2 in TDs and practically no time left. Everything points to a draw...

However, the skink squad have decided they WANT to win this game. Just before kick-off, Winner, Wiggler and Breaker sneaks in front of the saurii line, and then, boom, they are off for another blitz. The surprised Toads have set up in strength on their left side, but Warrior delivers a precise kick towards the Toads right, and close to their LOS. The skinks are away on Warrior's command, and before the ball has landed, the five skinks are all surrounding the planned landing site, together with Lightning, Idler and Fraternizer, while Bomber, Protector and Booster holds down the LOS. Only Samsam and Ytherx in the Toads backfield are free to act, and all five skinks are in scoring positions...

Desperately, Taeclix blitzes Wiggler and KO's him, and Tzunami also covers the ball, while the others do their utmost best to scramble away from the LOS to cover the field. Scavengers will not be denied, however, and starts by blitzing Taeclix away from the ball. Lightning then suceeds in pushing Tzunami away as well, and the ball is free. Swimmer and Fraternizer helps Winner to allow him to push Samsam away, and then the road is Clear for Warrior, who can pick up the ball and run for the winning TD as the ref blows his whistle. No surprise that Jungle Warrior is also considered the Scavengers MVP in this game, scoring two TDs from difficult positions.

Scavengers are practically Conference winners now, and the Squad looks good, except for Claws who will miss the next game.


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