“Matchday in Praag, but even here out in the Badlands, there is more Crimson than dark green and Brown on the stands. Cascade has a solid following these day :) The team is without star quarterback Anders Hoffman (back injury) and Our only experienced lineman Raoul (guard), while the Grizzlies are missing one of their squad.

We do start with the ball, though, but Our rokie quarterback starts awful, by failing to caatch the high kick, and then missing the first pick-up. This gives the Grizzlies time to recover from the initial cascade onslaught, and they KO's Raoul and Jeremias, forcing Nicola to backpedal almost to our own goal line while the rest of the team tries to Clear a path on our right side. Grizzlies push through in the middle and sends forth star Blitzer Jace Amaro and catcher Donnie Abraham to threaten Nicola. Nicola realises she can't stay at the goal line and is forced to run to midfield and hand the ball back to Inga who tries to take it up the right flank. She's protected by Martin and Ballard, as well as Friedrich and the remaining lineman Erhardt Schwarzenberger. The protection is insufficient, though, and the Grizzlies can put us under pressure. With Griffin, Namath and Datko in front of the ball, Easley seriously injures Nicola to bring the player advantage of the Foxes up to three, and Jace Amaro can put pressure from behind. Desperate measures are needed, but Inga stays cool even with Amaro only half a step behind. Erhardt pushes Griffin away, allowing Martin to Dodge away from Austin Jenkins and blitz Datko to the side and then run for the goal line. Inga outruns and dodges away from Amaro and, boom, there goes the TD-pass to a wide open Martin and 1-0 Cascade. A beautiful play and pulled off under heavy pressure! The bad news is, there is plenty time left in the half for the Grizzlies to score, and with Nicola out with a broken arm and Rainer KO'd, we only have 12 players to choose from.

Erwin kicks an excellent kick to the left side and close to the goal line. Grizzlies are hard pressed to go forward, but sends Dontae Johnson in a scoring position. He should be easy prey for Martin, but Martin stumbles when going for it (1, and then 1 on the RR), and then KO's himself in the fall. The Grizzlies decline to use Dontae right awqay, and instead advances on their left side to spend more time and avoid a mad rush by TJ to end the half. Cascade packs well along the line of advance, but the Grizzlies send Donate to the end zone and Jace Amaro finds a way through, and can send off the second TD pass of the day to a waiting Dontae, and the score is 1-1 at halftime.

Coach is grumbling. Rainer is back, but Martin is KO'd instead, so we still have only 12 players. Grizzlies are unhurt, and coach orders our goblin physical trainer to hand out the iron gloves. "You need to stop this drive, and I want you to do it by punching the living daylights out of those owergrown Teddy Bears!" he states to exstatic applause.

Another excellent kick from Erwin, but the Grizzlies again trusts Amaro to pick up the ball. Not a lot to do for the GRizzlies quarterbacks, as long as Amaro is on the Field... The Grizzlies are not in a hurry, and slowly advances on their right flank. Cascade is resisting, but not strongly. Instead, they try to mop up the middle, and Inga sends Datko off badly hurt, while poor catcher Breeland is smashed up so brutally by Jeremias that not even the apothecary can do anything else than shake his head slowly and get the dead man carried off the field. Grizzlies continues their slow advance, and almost get around the Cascade left flank, but Hattendorf and Grompfel, the kicker just manages to close the way to the goal line. In this situation, Lee Roy Salmon fails his Block (double skull and wastes a RR) and Cascade has a chance to turn the game around. They KO's Easley and rookie catcher Tillman Hassel almost rips off Robert Griffin's arm, but they can't quite get to ballcarrier Amaro, and when Hattendorf leaves his safety positon and runs towards the midfield to help Ballard KO back-up quarterback Namath, he leaves Grizzlies with a small hope. Resolutely, dauntless Dontae Johnson blitzes Althoff and opens the way for Amaro. Austin Jenkins protects Amaro from a direct blitz, and when Hassel fails his GFI to get infront of Amaro, the road is clear, and Amaro scores the TD and Grizzlies are in the lead.

With half the half left, the Coach orders his team to gamble. "That was very good defense", he anounces while looking angrily at Hattendorf, "So now we will put TJ out there and make a quick score, and then defend ourselves even better to win this game!" The crowd goes bananas as TJ enters the Field and Riots, giving us some extra time. Grizzlies defend in a loose formation, so with Ballard pushing Herman away and Turbin stunning Dontae Johnson, the road is clear for TJ. THe kick was outside of bounds, so Inga already has the ball in her capable hands. All she need to do is to run forward, make the quick pass to TJ, who runs in the equaliser. 2-2 and half the half still left.

Another riot moves the clock forward again, and suddenly the Grizzlies do not have too much time on their hands (paws?) after all. Instead of blocking, they send everyone forward and into scoring position, and as Cascade tries to Block some of them, Amaro passes to an open Dontae Johnson who can score easily before Cascade can react. Coach tears out the last remaining tuft of hair and curses his totally bad defensive strategy. Can TJ save the Cascade once more?

It would have to be another one-turner. Grizzlies position themselves too close to the goal line, which helps us a bit. Althoff pushes Herman away and the road is opened for TJ. However, this time, the kick was better, forcing catcher Hassel to pick up the ball and hand it over to Inga, who once again runs forward and puts the quick pass into the capable hands of TJ. There is no opening, so TJ hunkers together and blitzes Dontae Johnson away. He barely stays on his feet, but is out of position and staggered, so he cannot prevent TJ from another score just as the ref blows in his whistle. 3-3 between Grizzlies and Cascade.

Both teams were fighting well, and the Draw was fair enough, but Cascade needs a win. On the positive side, star quarterback Anders Hoffman will be back for the next match against the Wolfskins. Not that he was missed today, for back-up quarterback Inga Dedekind played excellently, With four completions (3 TD passes) and a casualty, she was the big player of the match for the Cascade. Fans celebreates in their own way by giving MVPs to Hattendorf (whose mistake let the hard-pressed Grizzlies through at the start of the second half) and to Salmon (who almost cost the Grizzlies their second TD by failing a Block).



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