“FA Cup Round 2: Beards Outgunned in Round 2 Faceoff with Beachtown Bananabois

Round 2 of the FA Cup the Beards were set to face another highly developed program, this time the Beachtown Bananabois. Beachtown fields a quartet of talented players in their Treeman, Weston Ajax, do-it-all killer/scorer Blitzer, Paxton Perith, a stalwart pocket passing thrower, Hayden Pronos, and a catcher with the speed and skills to outrun nearly any defense in Liliana Talberon. Down Arngrimm Addar, the Beard staff spent some time at the start of the match considering how to even the odds. Initial negotiations were in place to hire Morg ‘n Thorg and just as the deal was nearly set, NWBL officials reminded Box Elder of Morg’s permanent banning, and the Beards were forced to look elsewhere. Instead the Beards elected to higher Horoakan Reibold, a rookie slayer in the place of Arngrimm, and to take the remainder of their cash and hire Might Zugg. Box Elder fans may recall the last time Zugg was hired, he had a crucial error resulting in a loss against Otter Chaos Round 1 of the Season.

Beachtown received to start the match, and Coach Buck made the questionable call to put Mighty Zugg on the LOS to fight it out with Weston Ajax. Fans and commentators looked on in bewilderment as Weston immediately dragged Zugg to the ground where a host of Bananabois swarmed him. He would not return to the field the remainder of the match. Though multiple sources report his injuries may not have been bad enough to warrant his prolonged time off field. The Beards pushed on, and their stalwart defense played patiently until an opportunity presented itself. The Beards were able to find a crease and drop Hayden Pronos, with the ball bouncing into the stands. Fans sent it towards the Beard half with Buck Bellwaen sprinting into the open field to recover it. Beachtown recovered quickly, but it still looked like the Beards may be able to convert the turnover into points. Paxton Perith doused those hopes as he sprinted with remarkable speed from the other end of the field. He dropped a defender, dodged away from one, then back into the fray to grab the contested ball, and dodge away again. Free from the scrum he sprinted downfield to a defended Aiden Celinn. Celinn managed to wrench the ball from Paxton as a Beard defender grasped at his limbs, still Celinn continued, wriggling away from the defender, then sprinting the extra distance to finish the drive turn 8 with a score. Also of note this drive Paxton Perith critically injured Belli Bonlinn forcing Buck Bellwaen into the starting role as runner.

The Beards second half they took the field Zug-less. The drive was still effective. They gradually moved the ball forward as they have all season, and found themselves in a strong position. A crucial moment when two of the Beard convoy went down and weren’t able to get up immediately forced Buck Bellwaen to break free with no support. Only feet from the score he was dropped by the Beachtown defense - time expiring as he laid on his belly staring at the ball resting in the endzone.

Coach Buck Comments:

Well…there it is. A good season to be sure. Pretty wild to see how close we played them without Zugg the entire game. There’s a lot to be proud of here. I believe our defense was top notch. After that Zugg mistake - and it was a mistake - I shouldn’t have had him on the line. I hadn’t really processed that Zugg was our guy, I still thought Morg was coming with us, and then when I saw Zugg there I didn’t think he was going to have the speed to be blitzing, so might as well put him on the line. I thought our new Slayer could take the Blitzing duties, and yep, that was a dumb move. But after Zugg went down I really think we played solid D. What they did to get that score though it shows what the silver and gold divisions are about. You get players that can do stuff like that. Our offensive drive was alright, but really we were so deflated at that point, I’m glad the guys kept fighting. Especially Buck Bellwaen. He’s been 2nd string all season, and to step into that role and make it so close to scoring, he did a great job. So now we look into next season I suppose. There is some consideration to if we’re interested in doing the Silver and Gold division style of play. How do we feel about building a team around Belli, Buck, Arngrimm, maybe Aliyah, and letting the rest of the guys go. I don’t know. Seems like a different kind of game: Stars and Rooks. We’ve got some things to think about. Beachtown is a solid unit - well played.
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