Onslaught wins over Tremor in O/T

Submitted by:  David Morse

This match pitted two power house teams against one another in an early season match with high stakes for each.  Both teams came into this match with records of 1 win and no losses.  Based on early season practices Tremor was named as a big time title contender by many in the league.

Tremor has great depth of talent; with veterans like Jeff French who has more paintball experience than any other player in the league.  As well as a core of players (Mat Cannon, Joel Psioni and Jordan Jansco) that have played competitively together in other leagues.  Add in Bearet Edgarton who is currently on a very good Division 2 x-ball team that has won two events for the 2008 season and you have the makings of a very good team.  Paul Dunk is the teams’ lone rookie but has a strong desire to play and has played well with some aggressive moves in early practices and against GW Wings.

On the other side of this match was Carbondale Onslaught.  With the collapse of both Marion Onslaught at the end of 2007 and Evil Intent just after the 2007 title match, both teams merged to form Carbondale Onslaught with the only remaining 2007 players from both previous teams being last years captains Wade Moore and Travis Brandon.  Both of Onslaughts new recruits Kenny Hatton and John Clark were unable to play this match, Clark may be out the rest of the year due to an ankle injury, and Hatton has new employment with a schedule conflicting with most of the SIPA dates.  So this meant Onslaught would once again call on reserve player Brock Jolliff to fill in as their third.  To the casual reader that might sound like a bad thing.  However, Brock is a player who as recent as August 2007 was still listed on the roster of St Louis Avalanche a pro level x-ball team.  With two former captains who guided their teams to a championship series tie in last year’s league and Brock, Onslaught was at the top of many minds as title contenders as well.

Tremor won the coin toss and chose to be offense first so Onslaught chose to defend the North end of the field.  Tremor opened up hard and scored on their first possession in only 28 seconds.  This set a new league record previously held by the Hitmen beating their time by 10 seconds.  On Onslaughts first possession Tremor once again took the offensive and pounded Slaught quickly to make a successful stop.  This definitely had Onslaught rattled as they couldn’t believe they were being handled so easily.  However, captain Moore forced his team to regain their composure and were able to hold Tremor on it’s next offensive set.  The first quarter ended with Tremor up 1 to 0.

The second quarter started just like the first with Tremor scoring on their first offensive drive.  However, Onslaught was beginning to show their talent and began to last longer each game and eliminate some of Tremors’ players while on both offense and defense.  Just before the half Onslaught called time out to insure a short final offensive possession before the half would end.  Onslaught came out aggressive and scored on their final drive in a tough game where both teams lost several players.  At the Half Tremor led 2 – 1.

Onslaught would be on offense at the beginning of the third quarter.  The first game of this quarter looked much like the last game of the second with a hard fought game ending with Onslaught scoring a hang to tie up the match 2 -2.  With time getting short in the quarter Tremor elected to let time run down rather than try a short clock offensive push leaving their only offensive possession of the quarter without a hang.

With the score tied heading in the fourth quarter both teams could feel the pressure mounting as it looked like this was going to be a close one.  Tremor had the flag to start off the fourth and took an early game advantage by eliminating an Onslaught player but Slaught’s two remaining players played their bunkers tight and guns blazing not giving Tremor and inch of target to hit or a lane to move up for a press.  The same was true for Tremor as their defense stepped it up to hold both of Slaught’s offensive possessions scoreless.  With no one scoring in the fourth we were heading to over time.

Overtime pitted Jeff French against Brock Jolliff in a one on one match to determine the winner.  Jeff made an aggressive move toward a forward bunker, but Brock methodically moved up out of Jeff’s line of sight.  It appeared Jeff did not know Brock was on the move and looked over at the refs who were moving up to stay ahead of the action to get some insight on Brock’s position.  This moment of distraction is all Jolliff needed as he goggled Jeff to win the overtime point ending the match with Onslaught winning 3 – 2.

With a record of 2 and 0 with two of their toughest matches out of the way Onslaught looks like the heavyweight of the league this year.  Tremor however, showed some real explosiveness on both offense and defense at times.  They will need to control their emotions and focus as they face unbeaten Urban Assault next week.

Won: 3 - 2 with O/T                                         Lost: 2 - 3 with O/T

Offensive Possessions - 8                                 Offensive Possessions - 7
Scores - 2                                                        Scores - 2
Defensive Chances - 7                                      Defensive Chances - 8
Defensive Stops - 5                                          Defensive Stops - 6

Flag Scores:                                                     Flag Scores:

Brock Jolliff - 1 in O/T                                     Mat Cannon - 2

Wade Moore - 2

Urban Assault wins over the Halos

Submitted by:  Wade Moore

The skies opened up and poured before the game between Anna Urban Assault and Walnut Grove Baptist Church GODS WARRIORS. The game was delayed for 1 hour while waiting to see if it would pass on through and lucky for us it did. Now the only problem would be getting the game in before darkness took over.
 
 Gods Warriors come into the match at 0 -1 with a hard fought loss to their sister team. Urban Assault comes in 1 - 0 after a thrilling overtime win against the defending league champion Harrisburg Hitmen. Urban Assault came out and stopped the Warriors offense and then took the game over with 5 straight points on offense and 5 straight stops on defense. But through those points the Warriors started getting more and more eliminations. And then the Warriors broke through with a great played offensive possession that ended with in the endzone. This is a great accomplishment since the Church teams rosters are filled with all rookies. Urban Assault played a great game as well as they led the entire game but also played this match with perfect sportsmanship. The final score was Anna Urban Assault running their record to 2-0 with a 6-1 win. Gods Warriors fell to 0-2 but can hold their heads up high as they scored several eliminations in this match. Congrats to both teams on a well played match.

Urban Assault (2 - 0)                        GW Halos (0 - 2)

Won: 6 - 1                                                       Lost: 1 - 6

Offensive Possessions - 6                                 Offensive Possessions - 6
Scores - 6                                                        Scores - 1
Defensive Chances - 6                                     Defensive Chances - 6
Defensive Stops - 5                                          Defensive Stops - 0

Flag Scores:                                                     Flag Scores:

Jason Acklin - 2                                               Garrick Ward - 1

Wes Bayne - 1

JD McMahan - 2

Baron Archey - 1