The San Fran Fire enter the 2016 undefeated in the regular season. Going 5-0 in regular season matches through the past two years, the Fire are set on continuing their run and making some noise in the playoffs. On the other end of the spectrum are the LA Reign, a team that has yet to win a match since the inception of the league.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | TOTAL | |
| San Fran | 2 (2) |
2 (4) |
2 (6) |
1 (7) |
2 (9) |
2 (11) |
0 (11) |
2 (13) |
2 (15) |
2 (17) |
4 (21) |
21 |
| Los Angeles | 1 (1) |
1 (2) |
1 (3) |
2 (5) |
1 (6) |
1 (7) |
3 (10) |
1 (11) |
1 (12) |
1 (13) |
1 (14) |
14 |
The match started with two very close finishes in races 1 and 2, but both went to the Fire. After losing the first of the Women’s Echo, the Reign won their first race on the second Echo race. However, the Reign’s men could continue the momentum and let both Echo races slip away, putting the Reign down 4 points heading into Race 7, Ladder.
The Reign found their footing in the deadlift ladder of Race 7 as they swept both the total and the women’s weights giving them three badly needed points. The race sweep moved the Reign within one point of the Fire, but that is as close as it would get.
The Fire’s bodyweight specialists, Justin Adams and Courtney Walker, set fire to the bar muscle-ups while the Reign struggled. Coach Max Mormont commented, “The bar muscle-up staging was misinformation,” when asked what happened during that race.
The mistakes continued into the Women’s and Men’s Triads for the Reign. Miscommunication on double-unders and box jump-overs proved costly once again. The race losses put the Reign four points back heading into the final race. With the bonus flag thrown, the Reign would need to win Race 11 and force the Fire to not complete the race within the 30 second time cap. The Fire, however, proved too much as Cameron Pernich finished off the Reign with two 335-pound clean and jerks and the race win.
The Fire won 21-14 and head into their match against the Phoenix Rise next Tuesday. The Rise doused the Fire’s playoff hopes last season.
As for the Reign, it’s back to the drawing board as they search for their first victory in the NPGL. Kelly Wild, first pick in the 2016 draft, said after the match, “We are a new team so we expected to have a couple hiccups here and there.” The Reign will need to clean up their communication over the next few days before their match-up with the Miami Surge.
Up Next:
LA Reign (0-1) vs Miami Surge (0-1) // Tuesday, August 23 at 6:00pm ET
San Francisco Fire (1-0) vs Phoenix Rise (1-0) // Tuesday, August 23 at 9:00pm ET
