“NCBB - Season 32
Week 4

There's a lot about this match which could have gone differently.

We were greeted by a sweltering heat wave upon arrival at the match. This would likely be problematic, as Howlson's game plan looked to be "Crush, Kill, Mamie", so we would likely be facing potential player shortages from both sides. Couldn't change the weather, so we had to move forward with the game.

Howlson got a quick step off of the line while the kick was in the air; the kick was deep, coming to rest just outside the endzone. Howlson used their first turn to throw as many blocks as they could, including over committing their star werewolf, Marc Brown, on a blitz which injured Doug Cuzco. Team captain Pete Lyman decided to repay the favor by punching Marc Brown directly in the face, injuring the werewolf badly enough his regeneration capability was compromised. Howlson moved the ball forward into a cage at the half yard line, and Miami set into play one of their exceptional leaping cage breaks. Or we would have, had Drakensberg not tripped over his own feet while attempting to dodge away from a zombie. Howlson pushed away our players surrounding the cage, necessitating a reevaluation of our next cage-break approach. Unfortunately we instead blocked off our intended landing site, costing us our blitz attempt. Howlson cleared the cage and inched forward with a screen play, as Miami dropped back in a loose net formation, but not far enough back, as Goliath was leveled, suffering a serious injury. Believing it was now or never Miami took their shot on Ghoul Chad Scott, dropping him and setting the ball loose, which bounced to rest in plain sight. Drakensberg was sent in to recover the ball or mark the Wight, but again went splat when attempting to dodge. Howlson knocked out a few players and surrounded the ball. Seeing that time was running out we moved a player within scoring range while blitzing the remaining werewolf covering the ball, hoping for a favorable bounce. The ball instead bounced into an additional tackle zone. We attempted to leap in and retrieve the ball, but we mistimed the landing. Howlson got the ball back but were too far from the goal line to do anything this half. With a chance still remaining, and with redemption on his mind, Drakensberg lept in and nailed Chad with a -2d blitz, badly hurting him in the process. Payton bumbled the pickup attempt for the unlikely pass, fittingly closing the first half of the match.

The second half begun with Miami receiving, playing 6-on-11, due to two unrecovered knockouts and three players suffering from heat exhaustion. Nothing was going to change this fact, so we took to the pitch to receive the kickoff, and make some Slann magic happen. The kickoff was thankfully deep, as Howlson blitzed us while the ball was still in the air. We recovered, but were quickly forced into a desperation play, as we we now fielding only five players. Payton lept over the line of scrimmage as Drakensberg rushed forward and threw a long pass into Payton's awaiting arms. As beautiful as the pass was it was not nearly far enough down field, as Howlson caught up to Payton and blitzed him down, followed by several turns of blocks and fouls as Miami attempted to get closer to the ball, or mark someone, or do anything to stop Howlson. When the dust settled, Howlson was holding the ball, in a cage, looking to stall out the remainder of the half before scoring. Out of sheer desperation we marked the lower corners of the cage before Payton lept in and POWed the ball carrier on a 1d blitz(take that, Blodge!) But the magic was not over. Ryan Namaqua managed to dodge away, pick up the ball while being covered, dodge out, and punt the ball back into the Howlson side of the pitch. Howlson double marked the ball, hoping to get someone back there to retrieve it, but Miami removed one of the zombies, and Drakensberg was able to recover the ball, and he could see the endzone in sight. But those same zombies got a hand on Drakensberg, and we all watched in horror as the block knocked him to the ground and unconscious, scattering the ball away. We made one last attempt at the ball for the possible score, but failed the dodge. With our chances to score dashed, and with Howlson having recovered the ball, our focus turned to preventing the loss. Ryan raced from the Howlson side of the pitch to the Miami backfield, marking the Wight looking to receive a pass. The werewolf holding the ball came forward, took aim, and while the throw was on target, the Wight failed the catch. Final whistle blew, a stalemate, zero all.



As mentioned, there was a lot which could have gone differently. Howlson could have saved their last foul for later in the match, or we could have purchased a different Dirty Trick card. But at the same time, those desperation -2d and 1d blocks could have failed. Our GFIs were on point this match. There was an equal amount of "Good" as there was "Bad." Scraping together a hard fought tie was likely the best possible take away from this match. Good game.”