MRDA Consolation: #5 Puget Sound Solves #7 Dallas Deception, 291-75

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Oct 20 2012 9:58pm

BALLWIN, MO -- The second consolation bout of Saturday action at the MRDA championship tournament -- and the last of six Saturday games -- pitted #5 Puget Sound against #7 Dallas. Puget was coming off a loss to Magic City just four hours previous, while Dallas was coming off a morning beating at the hands of St. Louis. While Dallas came into the game looking fairly fired up and eager to prove themselves after getting shut down by St. Louis, they could not match Puget's talent, timing or teamwork and went down to their second 200+ point loss of the day, 291-75.

The game puts Puget Sound in Sunday's 5th place game against the upstart #8 seed, Mass Malestrom, who upset #6 seed Portland in a 12-point nailbiter to claim their spot.

After the opening few jams, Dallas held a 13-11 lead helped along a bit by a somewhat odd jammer penalty on Puget Sound's Stan Daside. But at about the 10 minute mark, big defense from Quadzilla on Dallas jammer Ninja Please allowed time for Puget Sound's jammer Ryrod to scoop 14-0 that put Puget Sound up for the first time, 25-11.

That didn't dampen Dallas' fire right away, though. A determined Dr. Feelgood willed his way to a Dallas 6-0 that pleased the underdog fans, but a few jams later, Ninja Please got a tough-break track cut major and Puget's Scott Slamilton got very timely offensive help on his way to 15-0. Speed Dealer added 4 more and it was 44-17 in Puget Sound's favor with about 13 minutes to play in the first half.

Smooth moves in a hard hitting pack from Dallas jammer Uncle Jesse McNasty with the jammer star kept him spinning like a top but always on his feet through a hard-fought 4-0 that moved it to 44-21. Unfortunately for Dallas, with Puget defender Bonus Jonas and jammer Speed Dealer effectively working together to keep Dallas jammer Ramthrax from escaping the pack, Puget picked up a demoralizing 20-0 while Ramthrax was gassed. Dallas called time at 9:33 with the score 64-21 favoring Puget.

Still Dallas continued to look like a team that wanted nothing more than to play on Sunday, hustling at every opportunity and springing back from falls remarkably quickly, while Puget generally looked a little less energetic -- perhaps due to the their slightly more recent and much more violent quarterfinal game. However, Dallas was unable to get their spirit from the track to the scoreboard as Puget was simply better at separating their blockers from each other and beating them in most one-on-one matchups.

When the half ended, Dallas had only scored 2 points in the last ten minutes of the half, and had to go to the locker rooms on the wrong side of a 115-23 score.

Though the Deception started the final half strong on a 10-4 win, it wasn't long until Puget reasserted control of the game. They broke their margin into triple digits before 5 minutes were gone in the half at 138-33, and a power jam on the third frame allowed Stan Daside to rack a big 15-0 jam against a Dallas pack that was momentarily reduced to just 4 on 1.

It was 153-33 there, and Puget kept the pain coming when Ninja Please was boxed in a lengthy frame that went 17-4 to Speed Dealer, and Ninja got boxed again -- on yet another tough-luck low block -- on the next one, a 25-0 bomb. With just under 20 minutes to play, Dallas was in an inescapable hole at 195-37 -- and Ninja got boxed twice more before Dallas finally got a chance to switch out their jammer. At the end of a brutal four jam sequence, Dallas had suffered a 61-4 blast and Puget was in total control, 214-37.

Though Dallas remained feisty playing out the string and did manage to double their score on the last jam of the game, they couldn't stay within 200 points of the PNW crew and ended their weekend on a 291-75 loss.