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Cornish Sharks 61 Milton Keynes City Pathfinders 0
A seven hour coach trip to Milton Keynes on one of the
hottest days of the year was the prelude to the Cornish Sharks’ penultimate
game of the regular season.
The Sharks
were rewarded with a devastating win over the hosts the Milton Keynes Pathfinders
with a score of 0-61, the best ever score since they joined the league last
year.
The team had been hopeful of a win, following their recent
form when they only lost one of their five home games, however, nothing is ever
guaranteed – especially after a long journey explains Sharks’ Head Coach Brian
Smallworth, “It would be easy to look at a team’s playing record and think, oh
yeah – no problem.
But that is not our
style as a team and it is certainly not my style as a coach.
I take nothing for granted every win has to
be won and I drill that into my players.
I was really pleased that we had such a great turn out of players for a
game that was such a long distance away, it demonstrated that the team is very
determined to secure our place in the playoffs, which will be ours, if we can
just win our final game of the season in two weeks against the Plymouth
Admirals. I am extremely proud of all the Cornish Sharks players who have again
this year, with a team of around 50% rookies, gone out and played a very high
standard of football.
The Killer Sharks
are indeed a team to be reckoned with and our wins this year clearly prove to
any doubters that our wins last year were not just a fluke.”
The scoring spree started with the first of a plethora of Reggie
Jackson touchdowns with the first being only 3 minutes into the game with a run
from 30 yards out.
Kiel Purell realized
the first field goal of the day, the first of six, bringing the score to 7-0. Adam
Kevern scored the second touchdown only minutes later from 9 yards out with
another field goal from Kiel Purell.
Reggie Jackson went on to score a further four touchdowns
in the first half with 2 of them converted with the field goal bringing the
half time score to 40-0.
The Sharks continued their winning drive with a further
touchdown each from Reggie Jackson and Adam Kevern.
Andrew Dixon scoring the first touchdown of the second half from
7 yards out and all three field goals achieved by Kiel Purell.
Coach Smallworth said, “This was a special game as it was
the last game played by Ricky Tanner who has been with the Sharks since they
started in 2006.
It was also the first
game for two of our rugby players – Lee Ambridge, who has just moved from the
junior team to the seniors and plays rugby for the Newquay Colts (the junior
team of the Newquay Hornets), and Barry Howard who has played rugby for many
years, this being his first game of American football - they both had a brilliant
first game.
Special mention also to
Josh Bullen who also had a great game, since moving into the senior team – he
is also a Newquay Colt.”