“After a substantial delay due to some scheduling difficulties with the mysteriously missing Groaning Cemetary Blackguards, the Suckers finally got to play their Rd 1 match vs. Amazon newcomers Women of Emerald.

In what proved to be a very tight, tense match, the Suckers narrowly squeeked out a victory. The first half saw the Vampire team receiving and caging around the ball. The vampire drive pushed up the left sideline and despite multiple Emerald casualties the drive stalled around mid-field. Despite this though, the Suckers found a way to score on their T8.

The setup for the final turn of the first half was pretty standard...most of the team back with a handfull of 'expendables' forward (not that there's such a thing on this team!). The Suckers just needed to withstand the last turn before the 2nd half. But no, the ref had other ideas and held back the clock a turn, giving the Emerald ladies two turns to work their magic.

Although the Suckers marked or screened all the potential scorers, the Amazons managed to drive the ball to the goalline! Would they score? NO!!! Swan had all but started celebrating when she tripped over a loose shoelace and head-dived into the turf!

Needless to say, Coach Ironcollar wasn't pleased with his teams first half performance. Yes, they beat up the 'Zon team, but they're GIRLS for chrissake! Coach expected a whole lot more from the team in the 2nd half despite kicking off down 9 players to 10.

Unfortunately, the Zons had other ideas and quickly knocked two more Suckers out of action. Down by three players the Suckers revised their strategy to pure defense. Coach Ironcollar was questioned about his teams 2nd half play:

"The lads played hard, no question. Despite being outnumbered and with Count Asmodai ko'd early, it would've been easy for the team to give up.

But the Suckers are defending Superior Bowl Champions, and they showed why tonight! Despite the odds, the team played as a unit, and played some seriously tenacious defense. No wonder Token was voted MVP, his timely hitting really evened things up for us, and our dps also had a nice performance.

It was really close there at the end, but the Suckers really pulled through and gave those Amazons tough choices. In the end, those Women couldn't break through and we pulled out a close victory. Just what I expect from the Champs! We look forward to seeing these ladies again, and next time we'll have a few more tacklers, of that you can be sure!"”