“In the matchup of NWC leaders everyone knew it was going to come down to how well Nehekhara could remove Midnight from the pitch. The Midnight game plan was going to be simple though, expecting a wizard and a start player or two, they just wanted to be able to win at least one half 1-0, that would probably be enough to accomplish a draw, which would be enough to keep them 3 points ahead of New York with a head to head matchup pending. Nehekhara, was similarly followed by Butte, but just 2 points, and also still has a head to head remaining.

So while a win for either team would have been tremendous, both teams were looking at this game as though a draw would still be a positive result.

As kick off drew near Nehekhara showed they had come to the stadium with a couple bags of gold, a man in a pointy hat, and a skeleton with a chainsaw. Even with the immediate protest lodged by the Midnight fans, the refs looked the other way as White Rock won the toss. Nehekhara must also have seeded the stadium with several of their more rowdy fans, as a pitch invasion spilled onto the field, knocking down only 3 players, but they were the best 3 players White Rock had! Jenif, AG6 ball handler, down, Aaroon, MA8AG5 super blitzer, down, and Joeseph, St4 Mighty Blow lineman, also down.

Still, White Rock was able to get in a series of blocks on the 3 skeletons manning the LoS, and sent Denario back to pick up the loose ball. Down in active players White Rock chose to not send any players into scoring range, rather just setting up wide screens across the center of the pitch and waiting for Nehekhara to commit their slower players to the action.

Blocks were thrown to little avail, Nehekara was having little trouble getting Midnight to the ground, but they were not getting them off the pitch. So, White Rock started sending a few players deep, some with support, some alone, keeping Jenif about middle of their side of the pitch, and Denario marking a rookie TG who was close to the LoS. Nehekhara countered by blitzing down Midnight who were in scoring range, marking them, and sending their dirty player around to foul. The refs weren't paying much attention, but it took several tries before a foul finally connected solidly with Loli Popper, the Blodge/Guard line elf. White Rock sent out the apothecary and he determined that she wasn't actually dead, she was just 'resting'.

Still, KOs, BHs, things were starting to turn the Khemris way, but White Rock had managed to get enough players into scoring range that Nehekhara couldn't adequately cover all of them. So with Pat'ti wide open, Nehekhara called on their wizard to zap Jenif, standing alone on her side of the pitch. Granted, Nehekhara had no one remotely close to getting to the ball, but with the Midnight down to just 7 players, the thought was that stopping the score on that turn would allow them to properly regroup and likely force a much more difficult scoring opportunity the next turn.

Jenif was on her toes though, she had been expecting to get zapped, and dodged out of the way, came forward, and easily completed the pass letting Pat'ti walk in on turn 6. This still left Nehekhara 3 turns to equalize, and they wasted no time bringing on Hack, who in 3 turns took out 2 Midnight.

However, the Midnight defense was equal to the task, landing a couple timely KOs to severely limit the Khemri scoring attempt, and when the Khemri realized this they simply went to throwing blocks and trying to get more Midnight off the pitch.

The 2nd half started with the ref deciding he'd had enough of chainsaws, so he took the bribe and sent Hack off anyway. This left the game with 10 Nehekhara facing 8 Midnight. The Midnight set up 5 players far back, and hoped to simply stall out the Nehekhara drive long enough so that there would be no chance of the Khemri scoring twice. A draw was still expected, but there was some hope of having enough bodies around to attempt a one or two turn score.

Nehekhara collected the ball and begin their drive. They took out another Midnight along the way, but by turn 3 they were stalled around mid field. White Rock was keeping a couple line elfs in the back of the drive, marking lone skeletons and trying to force Nehekhara to weaken their cage. Eventually Nehekhara did exactly this, though it was due to a failed foul on a midnight who was next to the ball. Loli was able to dodge into 2 TZs and allow a 2d blitz on the ball. The dice came skull/push rerolled to push/skull, so Nehekhara still was in good shape.

However, instead of making a tighter cage, Nehekhara decided to throw more blocks at the Midnight who had committed to the attempt on the last turn. This left Aaroon with a chance at a relatively easy leap for a 1d on the ball. Aaroon found the POW that had eluded the Midnight on the last 4 dice, and the ball landed in a position which was reachable by Jenif. She dodged in, picked it up, dodged out and passed it ahead to Mel'lee who had broken contact and started down field. Liz was sent along as a light screen, but Nehekhara was able to find a 2d with their tackle blitz-ra and KOed Mel'lee, but the ball bounced further down field anyway.

White Rock, even down players, still had the mobility, and Aaroon was able to blitz his way to the ball, pick it up, and move ahead again. However, even that was shortlived as the strip balling blitzra was able to land a push on Aaroon, popping the ball out. Nehekhara had no chance to recover, and on the next turn Jenif decided to blitz herself, freeing Aaroon for the pick up and score.

That left Nehekhara with one last turn to throw blocks and attempt a pass. Which they did, but it still had to be disappointing to lose the game 2-0. Opening the door a bit for Butte to catch them. Meanwhile White Rock opened up a 4 point lead on New York with 3 games left to play.”