Bird helps keep Jets flag flying

The Coventry Cassidy Jets continued their unbeaten start to the Adult Flag season with victories over the visiting Kent Exiles and St. Albans Kings. Marcus Gambrill ably led the rampant Jets offense in the absence of Head Coach and starting quarterback Neil Balthazaar. The Coventry native made an impressive debut, after his recent transfer from local rivals the Leicester Eagles, completing an impressive 78% of his passes and throwing a total of 7 touchdowns.

The imposing Mark 'Bird' Cohen

Mark Cohen made his flag debut and the giant receiver carried over his impressive form from the contact version amassing 5 touchdown receptions; one touchdown pass and two interceptions, returning one for his sixth score of the day. The two wins put the Jets top of the table for the first time in their brief existence. Warwick University was the backdrop of the Jets first home game in the infancy of the fledgling BAFL Flag competition and like their first road game the Kent Exiles provided the opposition. Kent jumped out to an early lead before Gambrill hit receivers Steve Podmore and, cousin, Luke Gambrill for touchdowns. The Exiles didn’t roll over and struck back through Mike Turner before David Sonne’s interception return restored the Jets advantage.

Kent tried to keep it tight as half time approached and a deep pass pulled the score to 22-20 before two quick touchdown passes to Cohen put the Jets into a comfortable lead heading into the break. The second half began as the first ended with Cohen completing his hat trick. The Exiles responded but their score was sandwiched between touchdown grabs for Luke Gambrill. Shadrach McCook completed the scoring for the Jets before Kent added a late consolation score; the final score was 58-32 in favour of the Jets.

After a short break it was the turn of the St. Albans Kings to try and snap the hosts’ hot streak. Once again the Coventry offense was in fine form with 5 different quarterbacks throwing touchdown passes to 7 different receivers en route to a 74-6 victory. The Jets stingy defense was led by dynamic playmaker Adam Etheridge, the speedy defensive back consistently foiled the Kings’ short passing attack keeping them out of the endzone until the final minute of the game.

Youth team graduate Shadrack McCook..

Jumping out to a big early lead behind the arm of David Sonne the Jets scored on their first five possessions to go establish a commanding 42-0 halftime advantage. McCook, who along with Luke, Marcus and Andrew Gambrill, only signed from Leicester this week, did the damage in the second half. A touchdown run, two touchdown receptions and one touchdown pass put the game well out of sight. Steve Timmins capped a busy day with a great catch and run for a well earned touchdown marking an impressive debut for the Worcester based rookie.

Coventry now face a much stiffer test as they travel to Leicester for a showdown with the highly fancied Eagles and the Chichester Sharks on Sunday July 13^th. With only 2 clubs from the English Conference able to qualify for the end of season playoffs this mini-tournament could see one club emerge as favourite for the Championship weekend in Doncaster come September.

Photos courtesy of Coventry Cassidy Jets and EFink.