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Cambridgeshire
Cats 45-12 Norwich Devils
The
Norwich Devils continued to struggle with a heavy loss to the Cambridge Cats
which leaves them without a win after three games of the new season. The Devils
made a poor start, conceding 3 touchdowns in the opening quarter and never
recovered.
Cambridge
took the ball first and soon had the Devils in trouble, going 56 yards in 6
plays culminating in a 9 yard run from James Gilreath for the opening score.
Steven Bright added the extra point kick to give Cambridge an early 7 point
lead. On Norwich's third offensive play running back James Anderson fumbled and
the Cats recovered the ball and took it back 45 yards for their second score.
This time Bright’s kick was blocked to keep the score at 13 - 0. On the Devils'
next possession quarterback Joe Konieczny was intercepted to give Cambridge the
ball on Norwich's 41 yard line. Five plays later the Cats were in the Devils'
endzone again on a 5 yard run from Casey Campbell. Again Bright’s kick was
blocked to leave the Devils trailing by 19 points.
It
had been a disastrous opening period for the Devils, but they did hit back just
before the end of the quarter, putting together a 10 play scoring drive with
Konieczny throwing a 9 yard strike to Aaron Wheatley. Alex Heaney's extra point
kick was blocked to leave the score at 19 - 6 in the Cats' favour at the end of
the first quarter.
The
scoring slowed in the second quarter, but Cambridge did add to their lead
midway through when Campbell got his second touchdown on an 11 yard run. Yet
again the extra point kick was blocked to leave the Devils trailing 6 - 25 at
the half.
Any
hope of a Devils revival was quickly thwarted in the third quarter when the
Cats went further ahead on a 4 yard pass from Thomas Durkin to Zachary Harris
to extend their lead to 31 - 6, and then in the fourth quarter a 52 yard
touchdown run from quarterback Durkin and a successful kick from Bright pushed
the lead up to 38 - 6. Konieczny was substituted at quarterback by Troy
Schmidgall for the Devils but almost straight away threw an interception which
was run back 25 yards for the Cats' second defensive score of the day. Bright's
kick was again good. Schmidgall then made up for his error, throwing a 29 yard touchdown
to Nick Welsh to reduce the arrears to 12 - 45.
The
Devils now have a week off before entertaining the old rivals the Ipswich
Cardinals on Sunday 31st May at the Hewitt School in Norwich, kick off 2.30pm.