The elite in both conferences are starting to pull away from the second tier teams, in the Eastern Conference it has become a 3-headed race between Tampa, Philly and Miami. In the Western Conference, Los Angeles and surprising San Diego lead the pack while the newcomer Chicago seems to be the class of the West.

Following their 2009 Eastern Conference championship and Lingerie Bowl appearance, the Bliss had a roster overhaul and coaching regime change, the identity of the franchise changed so much that many analysts anticipated that 2010 would be a rebuilding season.
But returning veterans like Tasha ‘Tank’ Pryor, Deborah Poles, Sarah Swanson along with a host of great rookie additions like Heather Furr, Stacey Jarrett, Shannon Rene and Yashi Rice had other plans. No one expected those plans to be possibly winning the Western Conference, but here it is, Oct.18th and the Bliss are in 1st place in the Conference with a 2-0 record, and a strong possibility of going to 3-0 in front of their home crowd on November 13th.

To get to 2-0 the Bliss rolled over another good team in the Seattle Mist behind the play of their breakout rookie Heather Furr who surprisingly started ahead of the much heralded rookie quarterback Stacey Jarrett. Furr silenced the sold-out Seattle Mist crowd by running for 3 touchdowns and passing for another 2 touchdowns.

The league’s most rabid fan base who packed the ShoWare Center were relegated to basically sitting on their hands as Chicago scored early and often to take a  20-6 halftime lead with two Heather Furr touchdown passes to Deborah Poles and a Furr touchdown run. Despite the lopsided halftime score, Seattle had two key opportunities inside the redzone one of which included having a 1st goal at the 1yd line but quarterback Laurel Creel fumbled the center exchange and Chicago’s Deborah Poles recovered and ran it back to midfield. Another redzone opportunity was wasted when Creel threw an interception to Chicago’s Shannon Rene.

Seattle did manage to finally get on the scoreboard behind a controversial Jessica Hopkins  2yd run that was heavily debated by the Chicago coaches as to whether or not she broke the plane.

The 2nd half included much of the same Chicago dominance orchestrated by Heather Furr, Tight End / Middle Linebacker Deborah Poles and  of course the Tank continued to roll. Poles is maturing as perhaps the best middle linebacker in the game while Furr has made an immediate impression across the league. To continue their dominance, the league’s most dominant player Tasha ‘Tank’ Pryor will need to carry the offense alongside Furr.

Furr started the 2nd half with a touchdown run followed by a Sara Swanson run for a score to put them game out of reach. Seattle finally answered with a late game Creel to Danica Brace touchdown pass. As most viewers and fans expected Chicago to take a knee with only seconds remaining, Coach Sinclair kept his foot on the throttle going into a hurry-up offense and scoring with only .06 seconds remaining on a Furr run. Chicago ran up the points to have an edge late in the season with the LFL point differential system usually comes into play in deciding Playoff berths and seeds.

Chicago now sits at the top of the Western Conference at 2-0 with a Nov 13th date with San Diego in Chicago in front of what will surely be a packed and charged-up Sears Centre Arena. Bliss Nation finishes their season at the Los Angeles Coliseum against the 2010 LFL Champs in a game that could determine the Western Conference crown on Jan 7th.

For Seattle, they are in must-win scenarios for the remaining half of the season to have any shot at the post-season. Seattle goes to San Diego on Oct. 22nd and finish their season at the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 21 against Dallas.

Photo Credit: © Eddie Perlas/LFLUS.com

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