Newport News had just come off a solid win against Frederick, and Frederick had had a win against Delmarva, so the News players were confident going into their second game of the day against the Delmarva Outlaws. We took the opportunity to start experimenting with changing player positions and trying our new heroes in a variety of roles. The experience was wonderful for the team, but it made the game a hell of a lot harder.

Right from the beginning, News tried to cut the defensive line as they had done last game, but found much stiffer opposition. Delmarva presented a steady defense with smart, conservative play that all but removed the opportunity for quick break-away runs by our star players. Without that option, it was left to steady drives back and forth down the field, and back and forth was what we saw. Delmarva drove the ball down within News’ 20 in the first few minutes, but our pack held against the wave and pushed them right back to the other side end of the field… and so on and so on. It definitely looked like Delmarva had the upper hand in this, though, with News having a tough time holding out against their steady attacks.

About a quarter of the way through the game, Delmarva’s persistence won out and they were able to make the final drive into the Try Zone after a scrum on the five resulted in several phases of News just barely holding the line. It seems, though, that the best way to get News to step up is to knock them down as it wasn’t two minutes before this exact scenario repeated itself on the other end of the field. Avatar took the ball in and JP made the conversion to even the score and end the half.

Despite halftime talks noting a failure of aggressiveness on defense, the second half appeared to be a carbon copy of the first half. Steady drives back and forth, Delmarva finally makes it in, News gets right to the Try Line to even it up a minute later… except this time News didn’t make it in right away. Due to a spectacular Try Line defense by Delmarva, the News were kicked back to the 50. This did not last long, though, as a quick rally had News shove the ball back down Delmarva’s throat and tie it up with Jay-Z taking it in and JP making the conversion. Note that this makes two games Jay-Z has played with us and two he has scored in. Getting to be a habit with this guy. It should come as little surprise that he was awarded Man of the Match.

Unfortunately, Delmarva had enough time left to get back within scoring distance and a penalty by News gave them the opportunity they needed to put three on the board and take the lead again. With only three minutes left, News was desperate to make it into the Try Zone and attacked with ferocity. A long series of phases worked the ball down the field with a solid run by one of our new players, Pads, blowing through three men before the two left hanging off of him brought him down. Unfortunately, being new he did not know the importance of keeping the ball in-bounds when there is zero time left on the clock, so he went out and the game ended. Well, that is what early season tournaments like this are for, learning the details like not coming from the side, releasing the ball (Pads almost got his face stomped before someone cried out, “He’s new!”), and the absolutely CRITICAL importance of actually touching the ball down in the Try Zone. Thankfully this last one didn’t come up…

For the third match of the day against Pittsburgh, go here.

For the fourth match of the day against the Molly Maguires, go here.