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Hampshire Thrashers 8 Cornish Sharks 21
A sunny but windy Sunday at Newquay Sports Centre saw the
much anticipated rematch between the Hampshire Thrashers and the Cornish
Sharks.
The Thrashers won the opening
game of the season against the Sharks this year at their Winchester base, as
they did last year.
And so the Sharks
were hoping for a better result on the return home game – determined to secure
a win against the Thrashers as they did last year.
The Sharks offense took control at the outset, driving
forward with the ball and they thought they had reaped an early reward as they
entered the Thrashers endzone with what they thought was a touchdown. However a
fumble of the ball handed the Thrashers the field and they took the ball and
ran with it scoring the opening touchdown.
They failed to secure the point after so the score stood at 6-0 to the
visitors.
The Sharks once again pushed
forward and rookie Adam Kevern scored the first touchdown for the Sharks,
equalizing the game.
Determined to take
the lead, the Sharks players decided to push for two points instead of the one
point and successfully Ceowlin Hickman brought the Sharks to an 8-6 lead at the
end of the first quarter.
The game remained close with the Sharks defense playing at
their usual high standard and the Sharks offense making steady progress.
Ceowlin Hickman scored again with the next
Sharks touchdown but the two point conversion was missed on this occasion. The
score at the end of the third quarter was 14-8, still very close.
Although the Sharks kept the pressure on in the fourth
quarter, any mistakes by either team would have been very costly.
In the end the Sharks defense scored a 67
yard interception return for a touchdown by Ricky Tanner, bringing the final
score to 21-8.
Head Coach Brian Smallworth said of his team, “This was
always going to be hard-hitting game but we had carried out our game
preparation and homework on Hampshire and it paid off.
We shut their offense down on the ground and
in the air today and our defense had their third shut out of the season.
Andover scored, on a fumble by our offense
and a two point safety after a long snap went wide in the endzone for a
punt.
Every game we improve as a team
on both offense and defense.
We have so
many rookies on this team, but the way they have started playing, you wouldn’t
believe that they are rookies, playing in their first season of American
football.
I’m proud of every one of
them today.”