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Essex Spartans 6-32 London Olympians
The day was draped in glorious sunshine and most
likely impacted on there being one of great sportsmanship. Despite being out
gunned for strength by a well sized Essex line, on both sides of the ball it
was the execution of the Olympians that prevailed. Essex halted the first drive
of the Olympians and forced them to punt, which placed them deep in their own
half. Not perturbed by bad field positioning Essex kept the ball on the ground
and marched into the Olympians 20 yard area but the drive was halted there. On
the turnover of the ball the Olympians combined short passes and rushing for
rookie running back Toyin Dawudu to score a touchdown from a 15 yard run.
Kicker Carl James successfully converted the point after for a lead score of
7-0. Essex on the ensuing kick-off fumbled the ball for the Olympians to
recover but their defense held firm to prevent another score as the first quarter
came to a close.
The second quarter was again rewarding for the
Olympians in mixing up the short passing and rushing as running back Adrian
John ran 25 yards, led by some pretty sound blocking, to score the team’s
second touchdown of the day and the conversion made the score 14-0. The
visitors kept plugging away but on the first play after a very good kick-off
return the ball was fumbled to the Olympians who returned it from midfield to
the 3 yard line of Essex, courtesy of running back Seun Shobande. The next play
resulted in a touchdown after quarterback Neale Canning scrambled into the endzone
but the conversion was not made, giving London a 20-0 lead. From this point
Essex managed to drive the ball downfield into Olympians territory but lacked
the final push into a scoring position yet their defense gave a pretty good
account of themselves. Olympians promising receiver Chris Davies, who doubles
up as a kicker, took a reception for 20 yards to the Essex 2 yard line and quarterback
Canning found consistently scoring receiver Daniel Jeanton in the endzone for
his sixth consecutive game score (touchdown or extra point conversion) leaving
the score at 26-0, as a bad snap resulted in the conversion attempt being
smothered by the hungry Essex defense. Essex got their tempo up and kept the
Olympians defensive backs busy which drew them a couple of penalties. Now with
good field position they literally hit the ground running and scored their
first touchdown of the game but could not convert the extra point and this
brought the score to 26-6.
A sack from linebacker Wajid Latiff in the third
quarter on the Essex quarterback set the tempo for the dominance the Olympians
were enjoying. Defensive backs Ashton Campbell, Justin Holder, Mark Finney,
Tosin Dawudu and Leslie Oluwale-Wilson kept breaking up the deep passes that
Essex are renown for scoring with and as such kept them to a few short
completions. After a fumble recovery in the Essex red zone Adrian John
obliged with a rushing touchdown after fullback Alwyn Davis ran for 25 yards on
a dive to the visitors’ 12 yard line.
At 32-6 it seemed that all was over yet Essex were
still fighting hard and halted the scoring. In the fourth quarter the next
Olympians drive was halted and at midfield Essex took over and set about
passing again but then an interception deep in Olympians half saw an awesome
“you-got-to-see-the-tape” return for about 75 yards from Leslie Oluwale-Wilson.
Unfortunately Essex then pulled off their second game interception soon after
to return just inside Olympians territory. The drive was short-lived when
Olympians defensive back Paul Barquinha sacked their quarterback and forced a
turnover wherein the next possession by the Olympians controlled proceedings to
end the game at 32-6 to the Olympians.
MVP awards for the game were:
Team MVP: Neale Canning,
Offense MVP: Carl James,
Defense MVP: Paul Barquinha
Special teams MVP: Chris Davies
The next game is at our temporary home on June 21, 2009 at Warren Avenue Playing Fields, Warren Avenue, Downham, Bromley, Kent BR1 4BP against Maidstone Pumas, kick-off is at 2:30pm.