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Sussex Thunder 6 Southern Sundevils 9
Despite another outstanding performance by their defensive
unit on Sunday, it was not enough to prevent the Thunder falling to 3-2 on the
season as they slipped to a last gasp defeat to the Southern Sundevils. In a
tense hard fought battle, the Thunder went down to a last ditch field goal with
20 seconds left on the clock.
The Sundevils took the led early in the first quarter when
quarterback Ted Baynham had time to pick out his receiver down the sideline and
his inch perfect pass just eluded the backfield coverage, the extra point was
no good.
It was a case of same old story, with the Thunder struggling
to move the ball on offense, but not giving much away defensively. The rest of
the half was mainly a defensive battle with neither team managing to make much
headway. The break arrived with the Thunder trailing by 6-0.
Half time gave the Thunder a chance to regroup, and they
started the second half much better. They started to make inroads against the
stout Southern defense, but errors meant they still couldn’t get the score
needed to level the scores. Halfway through the third quarter and the Thunder
finally put it all together and a long drive brought them back into the game,
the Sundevils defense was finally beaten when Paul Robinson took the hand off
and his powerful run broke two or three tackles for a seven yard touchdown run.
Chris Percival point after was blocked and the game was tied at 6-6.
Sussex now seemed to have the upper hand and were moving
the ball downfield at each opportunity but lacked the killer touch to finish
things off, three times passes from quarterback Eber Kington came off
receiver’s fingertips to halt promising drives.
On a fourth and one for the Sundevils, a terrific play by
the Thunder defense stopped the home side. Baynham tried to sneak the yard
needed but was met by a wall of defenders and driven back but whilst going to
ground managed to hand the ball off to his running back, who sprinted to the
outside apparently for the first down, but great pursuit by linebacker Paul
Nixon and a tremendous hit by James West drove the ball carrier out of bounds
inches short.
On the next
possession Kington was intercepted and aided by a 15 yard penalty the Sundevils
drove into long field goal distance, attempting to move even closer the Sussex
defense appeared to stop them short but a flag on the play gave the Sundevils
the required yardage for a short field goal attempt. With 20 seconds left in
the game, the kick was good and the home side led 9-6. With one last attempt to
either get within field goal distance or to score the winning touchdown the
Thunder had to go the air, but Kingston’s long pass was picked off and the game
was over.
Chris Percival-Player of the week nominee.
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Linebacker Chris Percival earned a BAFL Player of the week
nomination with his team leading 16 tackle performance.