“Shiner Bock Final

The weather was rainy for the entire match, but neither team was affected during regulation. The humans opened on defense and foolishly but predictably got bogged down by the deathroller. Fortunately, there was no lasting harm done from its blocks. Still, a relatively easy TD for the dwarves in H1, followed by a first-block pow on the OTS attempt, quickly shutting that down, left the humans looking at a long road to a victory.

There was an extra gift from the H1 RIP mentioned in the dwarves' match report, and that is that they were forced to field Barik for the final turn of the half, essentially removing him before he got started. The second half started at 10-10, IIRC, with one human still in the KO box--Steelhead, whose one first half block killed the longbeard and to whom we'll return later.

The second half turned into a messy battle with the dwarves bouncing the ball out on a 1d against the human's fragile thrower on a nice push/blitz. A catcher was able to recover for the humans, and eventually position the humans for the equalizer. Along the way, the humans established a further numbers advantage, leading in players 10-8.

Despite a clock rollback, the dwarves finished regulation with little to do.

The humans received in OT, and Steelhead, newly returned from the KO box, promptly killed a blitzer. On T3, having just received two casualties, the humans went for the win on a pass play that resulted in a drop of the slippery ball. They failed to pickup on the next two attempts, and Mary Margaret, the powerful dwarf runner, picked up with support all around her.

Steelhead stepped up to the task and wrestled Mary Margaret down, freeing the ball once again. The dwarves responded with a blocking failure, and Sandy came through for the humans, picking up the wet ball and stepping behind a light screen. A single sprint gave Sandy the winning TD as the OT clock was winding down.

Steelhead was clearly the man of the match, with two kills and springing the ball free for the win. A well-deserved MVP.

Thanks for the match, Cavetroll. You had most everything go wrong from a player count perspective, but stayed in it and fought until the end and gave yourself a chance. I look forward to the next match, as always.”