“Snow is falling in Wolfenburg, as it has done for the last three days. But all rumours of postponing the match has been made false, as the teams are finally getting out onto the field. Both teams are missing one fairly important player, as Star Blitzer Olivier Vernon of the Wolfskins is still nursing some broken ribs, while Star lino Dennis Gräbner of the Cascade has a broken arm. The fans are there as well, evenly divided between Cascade and Wolfskins, 13.000 of each. What they can see of the match in this blizzard, is severly limited, though, as sight is down to less than 30 yards and snow is piling up on the field.

Cascade win the coin toss and starts with the ball as Inga takes the field with Rannveig as the receiver. The ball is short, and lands almost on the midline, and at the Cascade right flank. Cascade starts aggressively, and the first three blocks of the match stuns the Wolfskins LOS and sends Wolfskins big man Trout off badly hurt. Wolfskins opens their left flank to invite a quick score and tries to put pressure on Cascade. Cascade moves compactly and slowly up the flank, while Althoff KO's Art Monk to get rid of the fouling threat. Crawford succeeds in fouling Mosley to a stun, but is, as usual, sent off by the ref. No way the ref could have seen anything from where he stood, but Crawford of course had to run to him, bragging about it...

Dean Taylor tries to take Althoff out, but he gets help from Manfred and Thorwald, and sends Sean off badly hurt. 10 cascade versus 8 Wolfskins, now as the clock ticks toward halfplayed first half. A failed block by Billy Winn (quadruple skulls) leaves Rannveig in the open, and Don Shula runs in to make the blitz. Boom! Rannveig is KO'd and the ball is loose. Although no Wolfskin is around to pick it up, they do their best to at least cover the ball. Althoff blitzes Blackmon away, though, and Inga can recover the ball to a somewhat safer place. Another foul by Johnson KO's Turbin, and the numbers are equalised between the teams, and the Wolfskins have blocked serious scoring opportunities as thet time is running out. Inga retreats towards the midline, but pressure from the Wolfskins becomes even heavier as Manfred is KO'd by Greene and Mosley blites Inga and knocks the ball loose, but lhe can't find the ball in all the snow. Thus, Billy and Thorwald comes to help and pushes Mosley away, allowing Inga to once again recover the ball. Mosley, Massie, Greene and Blackmon pursues Inga, and Blackmon almost catches her, before he runs into a brick wall named Billy Winn, and is stunned. In their eagerness, Wolfskins has left Cascade's remaining blitzer Vick Ballard uncovered in scoring position. Inga sees it, makes the short pass (3+ in the snow) and Ballard need only catch the ball and make a GFI to get the TD. 1-0 Cascade, and snow continues to fall...

Wolfskins do not have one-turner capability, and settles for a completion by Blackmon to Jenkins and a failed foul attempt on Turbin who was flattened by Portis at the LOS. 1-0 Cascade at halftime, but Wolfskins start with the ball. Wolfskins are down to 13, and missing Troutman and Taylor, while Cascade has Crawford banned and can field 14. The match looks very much like a draw at halftime unless Wolfskins is willing to take chances...

In defense, Cascade fields Hoffman and Mitchell, and Anders reacts quickly to rearrange the defense. The point is to allow Wolfskins a chance to score quickly through their left flank, so Cascade can get the ball back. Wolfskins prepares for that by pushing Blackmon, POrtis, Green and Massie forward, but star quarterback Kirk Cousins can't hold on to the ball in the freezing weather, and fumbles his pass to Jenkins. The ball is loose halfway between midline and Wolfskins goalline, and insufficiently covered. Cascade do not hesitate, but acts directly. Ballard and Latimer covers the ball, while the LOS gang stuns Mosley and Althoff stuns Monk. Mitchell can't pick up the ball, though, but Latimer catches the bounce. Wolfskins is under pressure, as only Jenkins, Johnson and Cousins are ina position to react. Cousins tries to blitz Latimer to make up for his error, but can't get him down. Manfred can thus easily blitz Johnson out of the way and allow Latimer a free run to the TD. There is nothing Wolfskins can do to stop him, but frustrated Wolfskins players KO's Turbin. 2-0 Cascade, and Cousins' fumble has probably cost the Wolfskins the game.

Wolfskins attacks directly, and Jenkins brings the ball quickly forward with solid coverage. Cascade shows no interest in stopping him, and it's an easy TD for Jenkins. In the meantime, Mosley has managed to send Ballard off with a pinched nerve. He won't be playing against the Scimitars in the next match.

2-1 and Cascade with the ball, with sufficient time to score again. Everything looks great, and then catastrophe strikes as a cocky TJ fails on his last GFI and stuns himself on the Wolfskins goalline. The solid coverage does not help as the crowd grabs the ball and tosses it back to.. Ladarius Green! A miracle opportunity for the Wolfskins! Green runs with it, covered by Shula and Blackmon while Art Monk on his fourth fouling attempt finally send Althoff off badly hurt... and is rewarded by being banned by the ref! Most of the Cascade players are wrongly placed to deal with Green, but they do their best and Hughes and Thorwald pushes players away to set up a blitz from behind on Green by Manfred. Manfred succeeds, and Green can't hold onto the ball, which bounces past Billy Winn and Mosley before landing. Anders is there right away, picks up the ball from under the nose of Mosley, dodges away with it and tries to pass it to Latimer... who fumbles the catch, and the ball is loose again! Only one Wolfskins player, Portis, has a good shot at the ball, but he is tripped when trying to dodge Latimer on his way to the ball, and falls over. Cascade moves Latimer into a scoring position, and Anders picks up the ball and makes the pass... and Latimer fumbles again! Only this time it falls down well protected between Latimer and the sideline. Wolfskins cannot get at the ball, and Anders trusts himself this time, dodges away from Portis, grabs the ball and gets the final TD as the clock winds down. TJ's amateurish fail got no concsequences thanks to the well-placed sack of Greene by Manfred.

A tough and hardfought game in horrendous weather conditions, and the big difference was that Manfred managed to cancel out TJ's big error, while Cousins fumble became a game looser. With another two points, in this match and three wins in a row, Cascade are again a serious contender for the divisional title or at least a wildcard spot.


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