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Colchester Gladiators 0 London Cobras 44
The London Cobras welcomed the
Colchester Gladiators to Boston Manor on Sunday for the return fixture of the
opening game of the season for Cobras.
That game ended with a 34-0 Cobras victory but with a vast amount of
improvement coming from the Gladiators, including an impressive win against
East Kent Mavericks, they were looking to make this fixture a lot less one
sided.
A lot of hype surrounded the game
as the opening kick off was returned to the Gladiators 43 by Cobras Mark
Horne.
However, the offense went three
and out and so the Cobra punt team pinned the Gladiator offense on their own
15.
The Cobra defense lived up to their
feared reputation all game, and forced Colchester to punt.
The dominant Cobra offense went to work and on second and 10 Jerome
Allen threw a 35 yard strike to Emmanuel Mukoro for the opening score.
The 2 point conversion was no good leaving
the Cobras with a 6-0 lead. The ensuing kick off showed why the Gladiators have
been making yards on special teams of recent weeks.
Misdirection and fake handoffs left the Cobras looking for the
ball carrier who was quickly heading for the Cobras endzone, where only one
team have been before.
He was finally
brought down after 80 yards well inside the Cobras 10 yard line.
Time for the Cobra defense to step up, and
as usual they didn't disappoint.
On
third down a floated pass was picked off by safety Ariel Mofondo and run back
85 yards for the score.
Unfortunately,
due to a penalty, it was brought back to the 5 yard line leaving the Cobra offense
with a lot to do.
Stand out Kwabena Oteng ended with 202 yards and 3 touchdowns,
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Midway through the second quarter
Cobra's defensive tackle Tanny Fernandesz forced a fumble giving the offense
the ball on the Colchester 7 yard line.
Running back Oteng made light work of the Gladiator defense with
linebackers bouncing off him as he raced in for the score.
The 2 point attempt was given to Victor
Muhammed who strolled in, giving the Cobras a 20-0 lead at half time.
The third quarter started off as a
defensive struggle with hits coming from both sides.
Tackles from Sio Stevens, Mark Horne and the aforementioned
Fernandesz kept the Gladiator offense quiet while Oteng was making his own
noise on the other side of the ball.
Consecutive runs of 11 and 9 yards found him in the endzone for his
second score of the afternoon.
Muhammed
came on again for the successful 2 point attempt advancing the Cobras to
28-0.
The final quarter started with the
Cobras firmly in the driving seat.
The
defense were very unlucky to not come up with their second interception of the
afternoon as a tipped pass fell through two sets of hands on a Gladiator fourth
down attempt.
The Cobra offense took
over on their own 18 as Oteng burst through the defense and the rest of the
field as he ran 82 yards for his third touchdown of the afternoon.
Allen passed to Dominic Fevrier for the 2
point conversion making it 36-0.
Late in the quarter, Cobra's punt
returner Damilola Alaran picked up the ball just inside the Gladiator half and
impressively returned it all the way to the house.
Another successful 2 point conversion left the final score at
44-0.
Cobra's Head Coach Jeff Brown
commented after the game, 'This was a big win for us.
Colchester has seen significant improvement since we played them
back in May, and have climbed to second in our division.
However we're not the same team we were back
then, we are learning and evolving.
There was a lot of talk surrounding this game and it was very important
for us to keep the division title in our hands.
The team did themselves proud and we're now looking forward to
meeting East Kent again next week'.
The undefeated London Cobras now
travel to the East Kent Mavericks for the final regular season game next
Sunday, where they will be looking to seal the perfect regular season.
Image courtesy of London Cobras.