After a rough treatment by the Khemries DR were the under rats against Elf Huggers. Alas the orcs had also felt the wrath of mummies and had lost the violent black orc Nero and had to miss their star thrower H. T. Bush. But that was compared to DR who had to miss both Rat Ogre Muhammad and a line rat, plus suffering the death of both a storm vermin Mars and one of their few skilled line rats Tyr.
As opposed to Huggers who had the biggest treasury in the league, DR could only afford one line rat replacement. Huggers found a new BOB and also some extra practice before the final.
So to even the odds DR had hired a wizard, an extra apotech and a babe.
And then DR kicked to the quick snapping orcs in decent BB weather but not in front of a record breaking crowd.
The ball ends up close to the LoS and with his newly improved ball carrying skills Arrg runs to obtain it. A half cage is built, but this is not even close to keeping Holy Spirit out. Dauntless as he is he wrestles the blitzer to the ground, but the ball ends up in two TZ. Jesus can still reach it, but after some poor dodging he decides not to go for it. Arrg blitzes his way to the ball and in the process he KOs God. When also Madonna is KOed by Galilei Jr. it looks bleak for DR.
And the rest of the half they simply tries to defend their team and possibility to take on the orcs in the second half. With the wizard in mind, the orc cage moves slowly forward, and only few orcs stay behind to tackle the remaining two runners and Zeus.
In the second last turn Nullergøj had finally reached a position from where he could blitz Zeus, but a push back is the result. And then when he has to go for the frenzy move he falls over to every ones surprise. This results in the SI on Grumf who were left standing up against Zeus. But then the orcs score by Arrg for 0-1.
Well helped by the babe all three KOed rats comes back for the one turn left, and with the fast runners ready a one turn is not unlikely. So to avoid this the two Stand Firm blitzers Nullergøj and Jean D'Orc are lined up with the side stepping gobo Gno in between.
Although a pitch invasion almost does nothing to either teams setup, DR's thrower is stunned and thus the last hope of a one turner is gone. Instead the LoS is taken care of thoroughly. Both the blitzers are KOed, one of course by Zeus, and then thrower Infidel Castro is blitzed down and fouled KO. Only the latter awakes and for second half DR actually is the only to have a player in the reserves. But it is 11 vs. 11 on pitch.
Another quick snap this time by DR opens the 2nd half. Jesus obtains the ball, and in two steps from there moves it close to the orcs end zone. It seems like the four runners could stall for a turn more, but then blitzer Bongomann dodges twice and pushes it to hit on Jesus. But somehow Jesus manages to stay upright, and a simple blitz later he scores for 1-1. But the orcs stopped the rats from stalling. And this time three KOed orcs return.
DR still has 11 players, but no reserves as the orcs obtained their first casualty, a BH, during the drive when Brage A were pushed into the crowd by Tue Borc.
And this continued in the orcs own drive. The first three blocks (one a blitz) resulted in two casualties and a KO. Nullergøj of course made one, a SI on Thor B and then Hr. Bent d. II KOed Loke. Finally the troll Krøllebølle BH Balder B.
Down the other end of their pitch Infidel Castro managed to get the ball, but soon all four runners and a line rat were between three players back there and those on the LoS.
Infidel Castro ran all he could to get on the other side, and almost tripped on the way, but a semi cage was built and all runners were marked by tacklers and most of them had to dodge out past other orcs to get anywhere.
At this point DR's coach decided that the wizard would come in handy. If the ball ended on the ground Jesus should be able to reach it, and if not then he or Holy Spirit should be able to strip it!
But nay the lightning bolt completely missed the ball carrying target Infidel Castro. In desperation Holy Spirit tried to blitz, but after just making his leap, he did not dare go all the way. But already next turn he got another chance and with the help of Zeus he actually got to be stronger than Infidel Castro. But it had taken a lot of steam to get this strong, and he only managed to push the thrower and failed to strip the ball from him.
At this time DR could almost only hope for overtime, as the two runners down pitch God and Madonna were both stunned and thus out of reach of the EZ. The other two who could score, would need their combined strength to try to get the ball or stop the orcs. And very soon all they could do was try to stop Infidel Castro.
A last turn valiant attempt made it difficult for the orcs. All four runners made it down to the mêlée. Most importantly side stepping God had his diving tackle on the thrower, and both tackle blitzers as well as the grabbing Arrg were marked by other players.
In the end the latter seemed the best hope not to dodge on 5+ for the thrower. But the dodging blitzer Arrg had to dodgetoo, and… his dodge skill saved the day and so did he as he pushed the side stepper away. From there running a little faster than usual to get over the EZ in time was no trouble for Infidel Castro as he scored the winning TD for 1-2 just before the whistle sounded!
After leading his team to such a great victory he will probably be elected as the team leader before next season. What a triumph, and instead of going 4th, 3rd, 2nd Elf Huggers finally skipped a step on the way to the top of the ladder. Since they lost to Divine Rats getting "only" fourth two seasons ago, they have now won three in a row over the rats!
The rats only consolation is that Nullergøj only made one cas, and only a MNG. So DR still have a full team ready for another go in season XX.
