In this short season, the second week of league play ought to tell us a lot about the teams. Who will soar to 2-0 on the season? Who will learn from and avenge their first week loss? And who will sink further behind the curve to 0-2? For these organizations largely still fresh off the draft board, developing team strategy and chemistry early will be crucial to have a shot at the championship early next year.
After lopsided games the previous week, the Psyclones hoped to continue their momentum with a big win while the Legends needed to find a way to change things up. A pair of goals by Kungg and Game- got the game of to a quick tied start, but the Psyclones created a 22-11 gap by halftime. The Legends did a good job maintaining a high percentage of the possession time, but just couldn’t convert with the same efficiency as the Psyclones who outscored them 22-9 in the 4th quarter. Game- led the Psyclones to a convincing 52-18 win with a monstrous 29 points on his stat line.
Looking to make the most of the middle match on hump day, Paronym zipped out of the gate for the first score to kick off an early Kansas City rally in their match against Denver. After six more on the board, Kansas City showed they meant business with a solid 8-0 lead carrying them to a wide 29-13 halftime break. The Raptors had a strong showing in the second half, outscoring Kansas City by five, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 16-point halftime deficit. KFC- capped off the game with a headbutt goal just for funsies, securing Kansas City as another 2-0 team.
The last game of Wednesday night was kicked off with a pair of deuces by Zzenith and a stop-the-bleeding score by Whoosh_ going the other way. The Burners couldn’t quite keep the back and forth up and slowed to a 7-17 score by the end of the first quarter. That script continued into the second quarter with the Burners held to a paltry 4 points. They almost seemed to find their spark in the second half, but it was too little too late and the Destroyers quelled any fire the Burners had from week one in a 57-28 dousing.
Saturday started with a good back and forth bout between the Montreal Freeze and Chicago Wizards. The freeze squeaked out a 2 point lead after the first quarter, but were able to widen the gap to 8 by halftime. On a mission to ruin their chill, the Wizards closed the gap to 26-32 after three quarters. ChocoLIT put the team on their back in the final stretch and totaled 22 points to propel the freeze to a 48-34 win and land both teams an even record on the season.
After both losing by around 20 points the week prior, the good news for the 0-1 Lasersharks and Hustle was that someone had to be taking home a win in this one. Short after Ryann- opened up the game with a 2 for the Hustle, JayWalker landed an incredible longshot slap off the bottom of the arena. Not taking kindly to falling behind, JayWalker hit another longshot to tie it up 8-8 and carry the team to a tight 15-16 score at half. The story of the second half, however, was an excellent attack and defend rotation by the Hustle. CJason hoovered up 10 saves while all three of his teammates scored at least 15 points at the other end to propel them to a 50-30 victory over the Lasersharks.
After seeing a 56-point score posted in each of their previous games, but on opposite sides of the win column by big margins, the Kings and Knights matchup seemed like it might be destined to go south quickly. Whatever woes the Kings were working through in week one seemed a thing of the past as they took a 15-6 lead with a wild headbutt 3 from Strembitsky, and basically doubling that score at half. The one-two punch of Ow with 26 points and Strembitsky with a rare double digit assist line led the kings to a flashy 55-32 victory over the knights.
With most of the teams sitting at 1-1, the standings are still wide open for anyone to make a move. The two undefeated teams will look to achieve a statement 3-0 record next week, while two other teams and their winless woes will look to part ways in a few short days. Catch week 3 starting Wednesday, Nov 24.
