Cats by a whisker.

The Cambridgeshire Cats took the early season initiative as the season opening local derby against the Peterborough Saxons resulted in a hard-fought close victory for the home team.

Cats and Saxons prepare to renew the rivalry.

Both sides are heavily fancied for title honours in BAFL2 East and the Cats controlled the start of the game thanks to early dominance from an offensive line which bolstered by the return of James Watson after his championship sabbatical with the Norwich Devils in 2007 as well as veteran stalwart Chris “Spook” Cooke. Quarterback Martin Brown commanded his troops, and progress was made thanks to the rushing of starting tailback Fox and rookie Ally Minto. The Saxons defense held the Cats opening drive to a field goal attempt that was pushed wide in the wind. The touchback gave the Saxons a long field against the Cats strong defense, and the visitors were unable to make significant headway in the first quarter.

The Saxons themselves boast a heralded defense, who managed to open the scoring in fortuitous circumstances in the second quarter. A mix-up in the Cats backfield saw the visitors handed the ball with an open route to the endzone when a dump-pass went backwards, Saxons rookie Steve George. Procedural errors proved costly as a sequence of penalties for the ensuing extra point attempt backed the Saxons up and they were unable to convert on the 2point pass as the tight-end was overthrown on a route to the pylon.

Brown harassed the Saxons QBs all day.

This setback seemed to affect the Cats as they struggled to get going with the ball until midway through the third quarter, as the Saxons defense redressed the early Cats initiative. Fox was limited to 86yards rushing from 18 attempts and the Cats gave up 10 turnovers on the day. The Saxons enjoyed the larger share of possession with 64 plays to the Cats 56, however thanks to the usual mean Cats defense Peterborough managed 16 yards less than the Cats 195 in total. Indeed a 4 down goal line stand kept the Cats in the contest when a touchdown saving tackle was made by defensive MVP Matt Brown, who peeled back from defensive end to push the Saxons quarterback out of bound inches shy of the end zone.

Smith scores unouched to tie the scores.

The Cats new strength in depth allowed them to turn to experience when youth was thwarted, and the tough between tackles rushing of Stephen “Booty” Morrison gave the Cats some much needed breathing space. Given good field position from the defense, quarterback Brown moved his offense into close range where he was able to find veteran wide receiver Jonathan Smith all alone in the endzone from 15 yards out. Smith’s 61^st receiving touchdown puts him just 3 behind the all-time Cats record, and marked his return to the Cats having played for the Saxons in 2006 and sitting the entire 2007 season out injured on the Cambridgeshire sideline. Matt Casey kicked what turned out to be a game winning extra point, which along with his interception and 5 passes defended gained him game MVP honours.

The remaining 20 minutes of the game saw the Cats defense take over, as the Saxons were forced to chase the game but were unable to gain any ground on the Cats. Cats Head Coach Bice was delighted with the win, putting to rest the demons from last season’s 6-0 defeat at Stanground:

Game MVP Casey kicks the winner.

“After the events of last season, this win has given me a huge grin on my face. Whilst the weather ruined the game in 2007, today saw two hard-nosed teams going head to head, and that’s what kept the scoring down. It was the grit and determination of this years’ team that enabled us to prevail! Five and a half months of training paid off today! We are 1-0 with our next opponent being Bedford, they may be newcomers but we can not look past them!”

The win gives the Cats the initiative in the division and they will look to build on this start as they entertain BAFL newcomers, neighbouring Bedford Blue Raiders on May 4^th.

Photos courtesy of Cambridgeshire Cats.