[MIJB#19]

2079 Regular season, week 1
At last, the Merchantmen were back on the field. The place to be: Oranje Haven. The opponents: the Paris Musketeers. Last season, the Paris Musketeers were 10-4 in games not played against the Merchantmen, but 0-3 against orange, white and blue. A warm welcome back for running back Walt Blair and an even bigger test for the new starting quarterback Elis McAliser.

And boy, did McAlister pass the test. His first three throws turned into negative yardage and a couple of incompletions, but attempts four and five to J.R. Mills were the kind of throws Merchantmen fans have gotten accustomed to the last couple of seasons. A drive with a 15-yard catch and run by Mills was followed up by Walt Blair's first 20-yarder of the season and the drive ended in a deep throw from McAlister to Mills to dance into the endzone for a touchdown.

The Musketeers replied with a drive ending in a 39-yard field goal, but the Merchantmen had only just began. Walt Blair ran for a career long 70 yards to put his team 14-3 up. Shortly after Paris' first offensive touchdown to make it 14-10, things got quiet for a while. Until the Merchantmen saw McAlister connect with Mills for 28 yards with just over 5 minutes left in the first half. Two plays later, Walt Blair stormed into the end zone from 26 yards out. The Merchantmen defense forced a couple of three and outs, but a couple of long passes to Mills and Dennis Nadell went unanswered as Dave Eiermann missed a 47-yard field goal to make it 21-10 at half time.

Paris scored first in the second half, seeing Shaun Dole convert a 47-yard field goal attempt. The Merchantmen quickly responded with a 40-yard field goal, as did Paris again with a 45-yarder. Dave Eiermann missed a 49-yarder to keep the score closer at 24-16 Maassluis.

The fourth quarter started with Paris equalizing touchdown drove. Despite a strong pass rush, the Merchantmen defense were unable to stop Neil Poling on 3rd and 18 from finding Eugene Hamilton in the end zone. A two-point conversion later and 24-24 was the score. Tossed from McAlister and runs from Blair kept the chains moving on the next drive and J.R. Mills once again found the end zone on a long throw from McAlister: 31-24, with 7:25 to go.

A quick three and out gave the Merchantmen a chance to pull the game away, but with 3 minutes to go, McAlister saw an underthrown pass get intercepted near midfield. Paris' hopes were broken only one play later, as pre-season revelation Giovanni Morton returned the favor. McAlister then found Brody Stevens and Mills for 17 yards each to waste Paris' timeouts to secure the 31-24 victory.

The end result was a close score, despite that the Merchantmen outgained the Musketeers 528 to 282 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 26 of 38 passes for 339 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception in his first career start. J.R. Mills caught 11 of those passes for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Walt Blair ran for 179 yards and 2 scores. The Merchantmen fans saw the offense they had accustomed to in the first half of last season.

The Merchantmen take the early lead in the European division, based on tie-breakers that at this stage of the season are pretty pointless to look at. The Gothenburg Giants won a closely competed home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards 27-20.