Naturals ousted, couple more teams on the brink
After seven games Saturday at the Marianas High School Gymnasium, the 2008-2009 World Organized Rocball Community League is down to eight teams and two more are facing an early Christmas vacation.
Ghasias Brothers pushed the Naturals to the exit door via a 76-48 overtime win. The Naturals dropped their first four matches in the second round and in the league’s rules teams that lose four games are ousted.
The Naturals had a chance to extend their stint in the league after winning the fourth set, 15-13, preventing Ghasias Brothers from gaining a juiced-out win and sending the game into overtime.
Ghasias swept the first three sets and led at 65-44, after four sets. But in Rocball, a leading team can only win the match if it also prevails in the fourth set. If the leading team loses, the game will go into overtime with the trailing squad needing to win two sets to steal the match. The leading team needs only to win one set (race to 10 points) or score a goal to wrap up the game.
Ghasias Brothers finally ended Naturals’ hopes of pulling off an upset with a 10-3 triumph in the first set overtime giving the former their third win in five games.
Ghasias made it 4-1 after a juiced-out win over the Islanders, 63-39. The Islanders dropped to a 2-3 record and another loss will put them in the company of the Naturals.
Ghasias played its third game of the day against Evenflow with the latter foiling the former’s bid for a sweep with a close 51-49 win.
The defending champion Evenflow drew first blood with a 15-12 win in the opening set, but Ghasias swept the next two, 15-14, 14-5, to take the lead, 41-34. Evenflow must win the fourth set by eight to take the victory and it did by beating Ghasias by nine, 17-8 , to improve to a 3-2 slate.
Evenflow failed to make it back-to-back when it bowed to No-Mercy. Evenflow won the first set, 17-8, but dropped the next three, allowing No Mercy to pull off a 59-47 juiced-out victory.
The second overtime game of the day featured the Fanians battling the Okies with the former taking an 80-60 win. The Fanians swept the first three sets, 17-12, 16-7, and 15-12, but failed to finish the game early losing the fourth set, 12-16. Despite a 70-56 lead after four sets, Fanians had to play Okies anew in overtime before claiming the victory, the former’s fourth in five games.
The Okies played in the last game of the day sending the Soul Rebels a loss away from packing for an early holiday vacation.
The Okies juiced out the Soul Rebels, 61-60, to get their fourth victory in six games. The Soul Rebels dropped to a 2-3 slate.
