Monk's Mountebanks defeat The Green Thwack'rs 2-1 in the Training League Final!
The Orcs received the ball, and a Pitch Invasion saw half the players on the field go down stunned (mostly on the Skaven side.) The Orcs attempted to leverage this into a loose cage with Guard spread out among the prone Skaven, but the long distance their Thrower had to run gave the Skaven just enough time to get back up and sneak a few Gutter Runners in front of the Orc advance, ultimately stealing the ball and moving up the right side. A poorly timed double skull gave the Mountebanks the window they needed to squeak ahead and chuck the ball to a waiting lineman who ran in the game's first TD, 1-0.
With only a few turns left in the half, the Orcs went into hurryup to try and equalize before kicking to the Skaven in the second half. However, the thrower fumbled the ball on an attempted long pass, letting aggressive Skaven Gutter Runners push him away, snatch up the ball, and score a second time to bring the halftime score to 2-0.
The Skaven received to start the second half, and with their trademark naked aggression attempted a quick TD to put the nail in the coffin, bringing a cage up to the LoS and pushing some blitzers downfield to create gaps to sneak through. However, with their inducements the Orcs had bought a Wizard, who gleefully lobbed a fireball at the cage and took down the ballcarrier and the cage corners. Orc fists flew, but it seemed for nought when a Gutter Runner got free deep down the side of the field holding the ball, the endzone tantalizingly close. The Orc Thrower who fumbled in the first half saved the day however, making a dodge to knock down and stun the Skaven ballcarrier and then making a GFI to mark the ball, a prudent move when the subsequent Skaven attempt to lift the ball failed to get it free of the heroic thrower. The aforementioned flying Orc fists had done good work, notably forcing a (successful) Apothecary use on the Rat Ogre, and the Orcs managed to get the ball and move down the pitch to score with 3 turns left in the match, 2-1.
Clearly, if you read the first line you know nobody scored again. The Skaven ignored the more popular definition of insanity and attempted to force the ball downfield once more, getting quite close to the endzone, but a rangy Black Orc smashed down the Gutter Runner near the sideline, and the resulting throw in put the ball squarely in the center of Orc territory. Unfortunately, there was not enough time remaining for the Orcs to capitalize, and the game ended on the first dodge of a rather improbable play.
A good final for the successful Skaven. My current leaning for next season is Vampires in TT and Halflings in main, I think. Hopefully I'll get a chance at triple post madness when I play THE_SLAYA later this evening for a shot at the main league title!