Game MVP Adam Donald (picked by referee)
Adam Donald
(picked by Hornets)
|
The Hornets opened in offence, but the Tigers defence caused them
problems. Poor tackling led to a first down,
after holding them for 2 yards on the rest of the drive. From there, the
Hornets moved ever closer before scoring from a short pass. A 1 PAT pass
was converted.
The Tigers replied in their opening play. A strong
run placed us just short of a first down. From the succeeding play,
Brian found Adam open for the short pass. He broke free of
their last man and run it in for a TD. However, the Tigers failed
to convert on a 2 PAT.
Some
good defensive work from the Tigers resulted in the Hornets failing to
move the ball on their next play. This remained the position for the
rest of the half, with the Hornets only getting into the Tigers half on
one further occasion.
On
our next play, Josh scored a TD, on the run, from a fake
reverse, but again we failed to capitalise, missing out on the 2 PAT.
On
our next possession poor handling led to us making little progress. Adam
was forced to step out of bounds 7 yards short on our third down. A
short pass to Josh looked to be just shy of the first down, when he side
stepped the defender and took off for the end zone, resulting in another
TD for Josh. This time Josh converted for the 1
PAT.
Half Time: Tigers 19 Hornets 7
The
Tigers opened the 2nd half on offence but were intercepted on
a deep pass, intended for Connell. The Hornets QB ran it
back and was just stopped short of the Tigers end zone, by a fine
recovery tackle from Josh. Sharp tackling by the Tigers prevented any
further progress on the next three downs. However, the Hornets finally
broke the deadlock with their last play, securing the TD and quickly
passing to pull in the 1 PAT.
From
this stage on it became a battle of the defences, with both sides
preventing each other from making any real progress, with some good
tackling and positioning forcing errors.
On
their next play the Tigers were just short of the 1st down
after a great run from Adam, but Liam secured sufficient yardage
on our final attempt. On the next play a good pass to Adam was tipped by
the Hornets ‘D’ but somehow he managed to secure the ball.
Adam took advantage of the defensive gaps
to run in and score the TD. The subsequent 1 PAT attempt
was again thwarted by the Hornets. Their final drive of the match saw
them go into ‘hurry up’ mode and they were unlucky not to gain a 1st
down, their progress halted by a tackle from Darren, closely
supported by Josh. Before they could build on this, the referees
whistle halted play.
Final score: Tigers 25 Hornets 14 |
COACHES COMMENTS:
This match saw the Tigers secure an important win, over their City
rivals, at their new East End home. It was, once again, a terrific
tussle played in good spirit by both teams. The Tigers stuck to the game
plan and came away with a valuable win, in what is looking likely to be
a hotly contested South and West Conference, with many of the teams,
like both here, in transition.
I was encouraged to see Josh and Adam lead from the
front, as Captains should, set out the standards for the rest of the team to
match. Our tackling and defensive positioning enabled us to adapt against
the Hornets varied offensive play. Offensively, Josh and Adam may have done
all the scoring but Brian acquitted himself well in his first competitive
game as QB. Connell was unlucky not to get a touch of the ball, but both
Coaches were impressed by him sticking to his task and noted the amount of
times he managed to get himself open. Liam did well playing Centre for the
first time and was always there for his QB. Darren, who played in defence
all day, also proved to be an able player making several important tackles
during the game and ran his heart out when asked to Blitz!
The
Hornets, once again, proved to be amiable hosts, and all the players enjoyed
themselves almost as much after the match! The only minus point was the
weather, but it failed to put a dampener on an enjoyable day, and
miraculously stopped just as the game started. |
