Did the winning team beat, defeat, or down the losing team?

Something I learned while ad libbing my way through radio sports reports: There are so many ways to say that one team defeated another.  I rarely said that one team beat another because I thought it would be too easy to overuse that word.  Thus, one team defeated another.  Team A downed Team B.  The winner topped the loser.  The winning team got past (or got by) the losing team.  In close victories, the winning team narrowly deafeated, took a close win over, or eked out a victory over the losing team.  One team edged the other.  For lopsided wins, Team A won big, skated past, or triumphed over Team B.  In other cases, Team A took the win over Team B.  I avoided saying that a team annihilated, clobbered, or trounced its opponent, however.  These weren't gladiator contests, after all, and I didn't see any reason to add insult to injury.   In other cases, Team A and Team B played to a 1-1 tie, tied at one, or played to a 1-1 draw.  Despite all of those options, however, I still wish I'd come up with a description similar to the headline in an old Shoe cartoon: "Pirates quite rude to Atlanta."