[7 February 3071: TerraSportsNet, Terra (Voice of Blake)]Sphere Bowl CIX lived up to its exciting billing, as the New Earth Cowboys scored two touchdowns late in the game to surge past the Epsilon Indi Vipers 38-33 under clear skies in Sydney, Australia. Cowboys' cornerback Clint Wiley was awarded the MVP as he turned the game around. Up 33-24, the Vipers had the ball on the New Earth 8 with 3:14 remaining in the game and seemed to be about to seal the win when Wiley stepped in front of Vipers quarterback John Trimbley's pass and returned it 106 yards for a touchdown. The Cowboys' defense came together to sack Trimbley twice more on the Vipers' ensuing drive and forced them to punt with 1:44 remaining. Working with just one time out, New Earth quarterback Gunter Yakamura directed a drive down the field, completing 7 of 8 passes to five different receivers. Running back CSA_Eragon Parsons wove through three missed tackles to score from 15 yards out on a draw play with 14 seconds remaining. Trimbley's "Hail Mary" afterwards came up short, as receiver Winston Wu was tackled on the 5 yard line.
The game started slow, the Vipers leading the Cowboys 16-3 at half time, with Winston Wu's 25-yard reverse the only touchdown of the first half. Ken Kittery took the second half kickoff 98 yards to pull the Cowboys close but Indi responded as halfback D. Y. Lee scored from three yards out. They then extended their lead to 30-10 as Trimbley snuck it in from a yard out. Late in the third quarter, Yakamura hit Tim Olson as he ran past the Viper's secondary for a 40-yard score and Wiley returned a Lee fumble 35 yards for a touchdown. A Lex Ming 50-yard field goal extended the Viper lead to 33-24 midway through the fourth. Despite speculation that the game would be cancelled, given the current political state of the Inner Sphere, attendance at the new Sydney Sekkaris Stadium was standing room only with 125,623 people. Word of Blake officials also estimate nearly 3 billion residents tuned in for the live Terran broadcast; transfer downloads on both New Earth and Epsilon Indi have already broken last year's record of 6.5 billion.
