Slippery When Wet

Kansas City Blues 1 vs St. Louis Royal Ramblers 1

Bring your studs, bring a towel and bring a trash bag” Coach Scott Kram told the players in the team huddle at the end of Thursday Night Practice.   There was rain in the forecast, 100% chance for STL area said the weatherman.  It was going to rain all night Friday and all day Saturday until late afternoon.  In fact the slow moving storm had passed Kansas City when the Blues were meeting at the side parking lot of the Walmart at 70 HWY and Blue Ridge Blvd and the players and coaches filed into the bus under a dry morning sky.  Most of the state was dry. The Concordia, Columbia, Fulton exits were all seen through dry windows.  But around the Wentzville exits the rain began to fall.

The opening kickoff of the D1 game went up into the air as the largest drops of the day were falling.  It was corralled, taken into contact and to deck, rucked over and phased back out to a forward crash, annnnnd knocked on for a penalty.  The Blues collectively took a deep sighing breath.  This one was going to be a grind.  The ball from the resulting Royal Ramblers scrum came out of the back of the scrum and through the hands attached to some familiar faces.  #9 Giovanni Falco, #10 Ani Mteto and #12 Jabari Leopold have all worn Blues Jerseys of some kind in the past, Jabari being a major contributor to our ultra-successful 2019 D1 Campaign.  They are good players and those three proved to be a threat to the Blues D and major part of the success of their new team.  Gio played quick ball all day and was his same Field General self at 9.  Ani and his big boot played havoc with the field position of Blues all day, several times putting the kick over the heads of the back 3.  And Jabari showed the same skills he used to score the last minute go ahead try over Palmer in frozen ass Davenport by breaking tackles and making productive runs from minutes 1-80.

It was all STL in the first half.  Several kicks over top and big runs by Jabari and their large and hard running 8 man led to scores.  22-0 was the score at the halftime whistle.  The second half proved more competitive.  A Blind side line break by 10 Ty Lewis and then pin and pass to winger Sam Tanner lead to a Blues Try.  A Royal Rambler kick for points, try and then a sentimental “morale victory special” last possession try by Jimmy Lillis at the goaline after a long, double digit phase possession rounded out the scoring for a final of 30-10 Royal Ramblers.