“Final home match before the half-season trades, and Cascade are still reeling. Coach had to have a serious talk with the team to make them realise they are now on the verge of wasting all the good that Nicola actually managed to do for them. It may help... The opponent, however, is this season's big surprise, the Avalanche. The southerners comes with their full squad available, including star blitzer Juqua Parker, team captain Randall Cunningham and ex-Cascade guard player Raoul Ehrenfürst. The Crimson shirts also have all their players present. Fans have flocked to the match, with 16.000 in Crimson and green, and as much as 11.000 fans of the southerners.

Avalanche choose to receive, and Erwin kicks the game open. The Avalanche line is agreesive, and Kearse sends Ballard off badly hurt while Juqua Parker stuns Turbin. However, Team captain Cunningham slips the ball backwards when going for an easy quick pass to Herron, and the ball is loose in the Avalanche backfield. Cascade opens up access to the ball when Billy Winn blitzes Raoul out of the way, but while Inga's pass to receiver Dagfinnsdottir is on target, Dagfinnsdottir fumbles the Catch, and Inga almost saves it, but has to let go. Aggressive Avalanche players comes back for the ball, and Fletcher Cox blitzes Inga and KO's her, but as she falls on the ball, Rannveig recovers it. There is nothing the tam can do to help Rannveig though, as they have their hands full with the offensive line of Avalanche, who has KO'd Cody Latimer and stunned Dennis. Althoff manages to KO Parker, though, to great applause from the stands, and the applause increases in volume as the rookie does everything right, Dodges past Cunningham and runs in her first ever TD, and the first TD of the day. 1-0 Cascade and it is still early in the first half. Avalanche captain Cunningham must take the blame for this one, as it was his fumbled pass that set up the situation, and he that couldn't get a grip on Dagfinnsdottir to stop her, while their offensive line had the Cascade defense stunned and smashed up.

Cascade is only one player short, however, as Cody and Inga are back, and can almost field their best defence, but with Crazy Crawford taking Balard's Place in the LOS. Avalanche is short powerhouse Juqua Parker. Their offensive line isn't nearly as agressive as in their first attempt, and a couple of stuns is all they get as they slowly push the defenders back while Herron brings up the ball. Cascade tries to recover and stop the immediate progress of the Avalance offense, but Bunkley KO's Dennis to open a hole along the right flank which Herron uses as Goode, Ehrenfürst and Cunningham covers his progress. However, McMillan makes a mistake as he dodges away from Manfred to cover the flank closest to the goalline. This leaves Manfred unguarded, and he immediately runs around Cunningham to strip the ball away from Herron and KO him. Unfortunately for the crimson shirts, Raoul catches the bouncing ball. Inga, Dietmar, Inga, Cody and Erwin runs up to help Manfred. Agressive Avalanche players smashes through the defense, though, and when Turbin fails a Dodge to cover Raoul, nothing can stop him from equalising the game. 1-1, and there are even some Cascade fans who celebrates the first TD for the ex-Cascade player Ehrenfürst.

There is still time for a TJ special, and Hoffman and TJ takes the Field. Hoffman gets the ball to TJ, who tries to run past Kearse on the wide right flank. Kearse is on guard, though, and brings TJ crashing down. 1-1 at halftime, and Cascade starts the second half with Ballard missing from the lineup while for Avalanche, Parker is back.

Avalanche surprises Cascade, and blitzes at the start of the half. Parker stuns Billy Winn on the flank, and McMillan tries to reach the ball. The ball comes Down and Bounces away from McMillan, so it is easy for Hoffman to grab it and pass it on to Dagfinnsdottir, who immediately runs for the goalline. Coverage is poor, though, only Dennis is holding down Fletcher Cox, but most of the Avalanche team is off balance and deep into Cascade territory. Cox is capable, though, and Dodges away from Dennis to blitz Rannveig. She is brought down, and the ball Bounces out of line. Cascade fans throw it back to Thorwald on the LOS to maximise the carnage. Manfred and Turbin blocks away the Avalanche LOS, though, freeing Thorwald to run left behind an agreesive Dietmar and Anders Hoffman, and with Cody following behind. Avalanche is too far out of position to get to Thorwald, but the next best solution is to surround the Cascade Group of 4, and Irvin, Parker, Cunningham and Reynolds are all there. However, Rannveig, Billy Winn and Manfred rushes up to stabilise the situation, and Thorwald is now within scoring range. Cunningham pushes Rannveig away, however, and opens for a blitz from Fletcher Cox. For the second time of the game, Cox successfully brings down the ballcarrier. There is however no Avalanche player to pick up the loose ball, so Billy Winn and Thorwald Hessel can push Cox and Parker away while Anders grabs the ball. He chooses to hand it over to Latimer for the score. 2-1 Cascade, but half of the half still remains.

Attrition has whittled away at the Cascade lineup, as Dennis and Ballard are both missing from the defense. Rookie Wilfried Stangl is thus put in the LOS, and is killed for his troubles by Najee Goode, while Parker injures THrowlad Hessel. At first, it looked like a collar bone gone, but the apo finds that the real problem is a severe concussion. Cascade are down to 9 players now, as excellent aggressiveness from the Avalanche offensive line clears the way for Cunningham. Cascade immediately answers as Althoff sends off Bruce Irvin and Erwin attempts to foul Parker. Unfortunately, the ref calls it and Erwin is gone. Thus, Kearse takes out flank guard Latimer (stunned) and Avalanche shifts to the left flank where Herron has good coverage. Cascade tries, and Manfres KO's Ehrenfürst while Althoff badly hurts Matt Tobin, but they can't plug the hole and Herron moves into scoring range protected by Goode and Bunche. Manfred takes out Cunningham too (badly hurt), but Avalanche choose to stall. The set-up gives Turbin a tiny chance though, and he tries, but fails the second dodge and Herron scores the second TD as the clock ticks to a stop. 2-2, and a draw is a result both teams are only moderately satisfied with, but both can live with.

Avalanche proved to be every bit as good as we had feared. If not for the horrible mistake by Cunningham that allowed the defensive TD, they would likely have won the match. They were especially aggressive in the attack and with 4 casualties we felt that we had been in a real match. On the other hand, some of the aggresiveness we have missed in the last three games, and the whole hitting team was working today, not only Althoff, although all three casualties was scored by him. Are the team getting back on track? Too early to judge, but the signs today were promising. The team looks forward to the Grizzlies match.



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