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	Related links Mass Mutiny Professional women’s football team recently relocated to Jamaica Plain from Lowell. National Women’s Football Association The largest women’s tackle-football league in North America, founded in 2000 by entertainment entrepreneur Catherine Masters. The Russell Center Mass Mutiny owner Dr. Sheri Russell runs this chiropractic sports-medicine practice in Beverly. ABC’s The Benefactor Online home of the six-episode reality-television show featuring Mass Mutiny linebacker Linda Caruso. Bay State Warriors Women’s football team from the Independent Women’s Football League, with a home field in Medford.

Girlfight

Game night against Connecticut. About 75 minutes before kickoff, the Mutiny is suiting up in the away-team locker room beneath the visiting grandstands. Caruso clomps out of the locker room holding a banana like a telephone. "Hold on, I gotta call my manager before the game," she yells. Speaking into the fruit, she demands, "Two million? Make it three."

At seven o’clock, Rossell collects everyone for a pre-game huddle. "I don’t know who this team thinks it is!" she belts out in a banshee scream. "They’re out there doing their warm-ups yelling, ‘Mutiny!’ Let’s get out there and kick their asses!"

A sea of black and gold spills out into the gravel parking lot adjacent to the field. Coach McStay asks his team to line up in pairs and "make it look good. There’s nothing more to say. Let’s go out there and kick some ass. It’s game time."

"Let’s go, black!" they cheer. "Mutiny!"

They jog over the high-school track and onto the field, separating into three lines, with the captains facing the rest of the team. "Are we ready?" yells captain Kendra Cestone.

"Ready!"

"I hope they are ready," remarks Mutiny marketing manager Michele Pytco, watching the team stretch. "Those of us on the sidelines who don’t have control, we’re concerned they’re taking Connecticut for granted. That could be bad."

At halftime, the Mutiny is losing, seven to 13. Connecticut has a couple hundred fans in the stands, plus a marching band and a baton-twirling posse borrowed from the local high school; on its side, the Mutiny has about 50 spectators. After two early Crush touchdowns, the Mutiny spends most of the first half down by 13 while Russell paces on the sidelines, muttering things like, "We’re so much better than this!" Finally, toward the end of the second half, wide receiver Ginger Snow catches a ball tipped into the end zone.

But they’re still behind. As the halftime performers stomp onto the field, the visiting team gathers in a solemn clump by the end zone. Everyone’s quiet, stunned. But Coach McStay doesn’t rebuke them. "Offense, way to fight back," he says evenly. "This is our game to win right now. We will win this game. Heads up. We got it. We got it. We’re better than them."

The second half starts. Snow returns the kickoff for a 60-yard gain. With 11:42 left in the third, quarterback Cahill sneaks into the end zone and the Mutiny takes the lead for the first time in the game.

After the touchdown, Rossell trudges off the field. "This team cannot play four full quarters with us."

Connecticut scores again.

But as the clock runs down, Mutiny fullback Candi Shoemaker and halfback Jeannette Smith start advancing the ball in two-, three-, and four-yard increments. The push feels like forever. The clock ticks. They get closer, finally, to the one. "I can’t watch," cringes defensive end Deb DelToro from the sidelines. "My stomach’s sick." Russell crouches, wincing.

Finally, with a minute and nine seconds left, Shoemaker plows through the Connecticut defense and into the end zone. The Mutiny wins.

"We like to drag it out," says DelToro, jumping up and down. "We love the drama."

Post-game report

The following Monday, Sheri Russell’s heart is still racing. "They are like the Bad News Bears," she jokes of her beloved team. "We have the opportunity to do extremely well this year. We have the talent, the leadership, we have the desire, and we have the drive. If we continue to play down to the level of our opponents, we are going to have a little bit of an issue," she says. "On Saturday, my team didn’t wake up until the third quarter."

Fortunately, that game was somewhat of a fluke. Although the Mutiny lost 22-12 to the DC Divas the following week, they were the first team to score on the Divas during the past three regular seasons. Since then, they’ve beaten every opponent, and with only one game left against the winless Maine Freeze, they’re ranked third out of 20 in the NWFA’s Northern Division, nearly guaranteeing them a spot in the playoffs.

Hence, Russell’s dreaming of bigger and better things for her team. "My goal is within the next five years to have three to five thousand people in the stands and my athletes being paid on a regular basis, and two championships in hand," she says. "The girls are going to kill me for saying that — that is, if I survive. I almost had a heart attack on the sidelines in Connecticut."

The Mass Mutiny play the Maine Freeze this Saturday at Jamaica Plain’s English High School, Washington Street and Williams Street. Tickets are $10; kickoff is at 7 p.m. To access links related to this story, read it online at BostonPhoenix.com. Camille Dodero can be reached at cdodero[a]phx.com