Boston Renegades Advance to WBowl II in Pittsburgh
Boston Renegades defeat Chicago Force 47-33 in Conference Championship
The Boston Renegades (Formerly the Boston Militia prior to 2015) and Chicago Force have met in the playoffs every postseason for the last six seasons. It’s only fitting that the 2017 National Conference Championship game would come down to Boston and Chicago once again, with one team moving on to play in WBowl II and the other, ending their season.
Earlier this season, on May 20th, The Renegades traveled to Chicago to take on the Force in a regular season tilt. Chicago built a 24-7 lead, before the Renegades stormed back for the 25-24 comeback victory. It was almost destiny that these two teams would have another epic battle in the playoffs and that’s what fans were treated to in the Conference Championship on Saturday night.
Leading up to the game, Renegades Quarterback, Allison Cahill told MyWSports “We know we have to protect the ball and the defense has been playing great and they will have to get us the ball back.”
The Renegades came out on fire. Boston mixed up their formations and protected the ball by using their dynamic rushing attack. The Renegades scored first on a run by Angelica Pascual, to take the early lead 7-0. As Cahill predicted, the defense started hot in the first quarter with two three and outs on Chicago’s first two possessions. Cahill ran the second touchdown in herself to make it 14-0, with 4:55 to go in the first quarter.
On the next snap for Chicago, Allie Genereaux stripped the ball out of the Chicago running back’s hands and Boston recovered. Genereaux lit up when asked after the game about the fumble, “We all wanted this, I was amped up, I saw the ball and just ripped it out.” Right away, Cahill hit Steph Pascual over the middle for a touchdown, extending the Boston lead to 21-0.
Boston took the lead into the second quarter and had no signs of letting up. However, if anyone thought at the end of the first quarter that the Chicago Force were going to go away quietly, they were sadly mistaken.
Chicago dominated the second quarter, closing the gap considerably. Sami Grisafe showed why she’s a great quarterback, threading the ball between two Renegade defenders to Tamika Robinson for the first Chicago touchdown. Shortly after, Chicago drove the field again, but were stopped at the 17 yard line. The Force attempted a 33 yard field goal, but it was no good.
The Force defense stepped up big in the second quarter, putting more pressure on Cahill to throw the ball. Late in the quarter, the Chicago defense stripped the ball out and took advantage of a Boston turnover, by scoring a touchdown with under 30 seconds left in the half on a pass from Grisafe to Jeanette Gray. After trailing 21-0, the Force dominated the second quarter to get back into the game with 14 unanswered points making the halftime score 21-14.
Whether it was halftime adjustments, or just the desire to win, the Boston Renegades always seem to know how to turn the fire back on when they need to. The third quarter was once again owned by the Renegades. Boston’s longtime running back, Whitney Zelee took over on the ground and in the air. First, Cahill dropped back to pass, surveyed multiple options, then found Zelee wide open on the back side for an 18 yard touchdown. Later in the quarter, the offensive line opened a huge hole for Zelee to run 62 yards for another Renegades touchdown, extending the Boston lead to 33-14 after three quarters of play.
The fourth quarter included two interceptions, 33 points scored, and 1 winner moving on to the WFA Super Bowl. Although Boston held a 19 point lead with 15 minutes to play, Chicago would make a late run to make this one of the classics. Right away to start the quarter, Grisafe threw a slant route to Robinson, who took it over 50 yards for the touchdown, cutting the Boston lead to 33-20. On the next set of downs, Cahill lost a handle on the ball and Elisa Okrey stripped the ball and ran it back for another Chicago touchdown, bringing the score to a one score game, 33-26.
The Renegades defense reemerged in the fourth for a couple of huge plays. The first with 10:42 to go when Bri Gallo picked off a Grisafe pass on a Chicago drive that could have tied the game. Cahill followed that momentum wave with back to back deep passes to Adrienne Smith, including a 38 yard touchdown pass with 8:22 remaining to extend the lead back to 13 points.
Chicago did not go away and with 4:09 to go, Grisafe steam rolled into the end zone, once again bringing the force within six points. Grisafe said about still being in the game even until the end, “It’s the last game of the season, that’s what motivated both sides.”
In an effort to run the clock down, the Renegades once again relied on the legs of Whitney Zelee. After the game Zelee said “Our O-Line was always one push away, I was always one cut away… we stayed consistent and when it was open, it was wide open.” Zelee found that wide open hole and gained large chunks of yards on multiple runs, including a 40 yard run to bring it down to the Chicago two yard line. The Renegades gave the ball to Zelee one final time with 1:17 remaining and she scored the final touchdown of the night on a two yard carry. Cahill joined in on the scoring one final time as well, running in the two point conversion, giving Boston the 47-33 victory.
In the end, both teams knew this would come down to the wire Grisafe said “Boston is a great team and if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile, they came out with more gusto than we did.”
Even with a 21 point lead and a 19 point lead during the game, Cahill knew Chicago was always in the game saying “It’s the tricky part of playing a really good team, you come out with everything working, then you hit a couple road bumps and you gotta maintain your confidence and know they’re not going to give up.”
The Boston Renegades advance to W Bowl II and will play the Dallas Elite in Pittsburgh on July 22nd. Catch the coverage on MyWSports.
