“Decided to try my hand against the Ranked Amateurs, I liked the look of them and thought they'd be a challenge for my boys and boy were they. Sure it was a 3-1 result with the RA scoring at the end of the 2nd half but it was a dog fight. Gulf really showed why having a trained kicker is critical to team success pinning kicks deep in the corner. Well except for his 2nd kick when he got all cocky and shanked it out of bounds. The boys are gonna make him pay for that in the locker room. We ended up hiring this Star Player, Soaren but he ended up just costing us money and giving me lip about how great a player he is.

We kicked off but were able to take advantage when their normally sure handed player pushed the ball into the crowd and they threw it back. Bravo was able to sprint down and put himself in position to scoop it up and score after their players failed to protect it by going for a little too much.

Our second score game when their dirty little cheater Ulric badly hurt Echo on a foul. The ref caught him and they started yelling at each other, I saw their Coach try to slip some money in the refs pocket but either the ref didn't see it or the idiot didn't give him enough so luckily Ulric got sent off. This is where being too far back on at the start was not the best idea. Plus Kilo was supposed to go downfield but he just did some pirouettes on our side. The boys overpursued and RA managed to complete a pass and get the ball on the sidelines on our half. A failed dodge gave us a shot to put some pressure on the ballcarrier. Hotel went the wrong way so instead of taking a less risky path, I called for Kilo to make a run at the ballcarrier (yeah, yeah, if he followed the play he wouldn't have been in position, you thinkk I have heard ALL about that?????). After some nifty dodging he took an even up block and managed to knock down the ballcarrier. The ball came to rest right on the sideline. RA tried to recover but a failed dodge gave us a shot. I called for the ole Hook And Ladder play and Kilo picked it, passed to Bravo who ran down and handed it off to Alpha. Alpha was about to run in for the score but held up at the goal line because there was still too much time on the clock in the half. Turns out this was a bad decision on my part as RA took out Kilo in revenge but luckily it was only a minor sprain and Doc didn't even have to break out his potions, so Kilo is out for the rest of the game but will be fine for the next match. At this point I called to punch the ball in.

Another great kick by Gulf pinned them deep and they couldn't attempt a score.

2nd half, I knew we had to score to build a lead and hang on as my boys were looking a bit beat up and the other team as just itching to take more of them out. Their kicker, apparently inspired by Gulf pinned us deep. My set up was risky only leaving 1 deep but we were down a man already. Sent three receivers deep and Charlie managed to get the ball and advance it, waiting for someone to come open. We got our break right before the 3rd quarter ended when they sent men to pressure Charlie but weren't able to reach him. Charlie lofted a pass to one of the rookies, Hotel, but had a little trouble with the launch but luckily Hotel caught it. Not risking it, Hotel went in for the score. We kicked off and Gulf sent it deep again, my boys tried but we were getting pounded as more players were carried off. They stalled as long as they could but RA was able to push the ball into the endzone right before time expired. I would have loved a shut out, but a 3-1 win over Ranked Amateurs? Heck yeah, I'll take that every day.


Lessons learned:

- The new kickoff formation seems to work well but the 2nd line is 1 step too far back as it left them too far out to take the best advantage of turnovers.
- Pile-On is bad news, need to get my boys some training in how to stiff arm these guys and keep them from dropping an elbow on them when they get knocked down.
- Kilo needs to actually pay attention to the match instead of showing off all his cool 'moves'
- Need to take more advantage of our agility and not mark up all the time. Boys did a great job holding them up but the physical game just ain't us. ”