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Kent
Exiles 56-12 Norwich Devils
Norwich
Devils suffered another heavy defeat which leaves them without a win at the half way point of the season and still routed to the bottom of the division.
The
Devils had started the game quite promisingly putting together a 9 play drive on their opening possession before stopping the Exiles on their opening drive. However on Kent's second possession the Exiles started to move the ball. Starting at their own 35 yard line, they took just 6 plays to get into the endzone, when quarterback Aaron Griffiths hit receiver Clive Palumbo for a 12 yard score. Kent then faked the extra point kick, as kicker Richard
McHugh ran in for the two point conversion to open up an 8 point lead.
Things
got worse for the Devils when kick returner Cordero Sanderson, at the end of a good return of 26 yards, fumbled the ball, which was recovered by
Kent. The Exiles then took just 5 plays to get in for their second touchdown,
when Griffiths found Harry Innis from 19 yards out. This time McHugh went for
the conversion kick but it was blocked by Troy Schmidgall for the Devils.
Kent
went further in front in the second quarter with an 8 play 72 yard drive culminating in a Griffiths 9 yard strike to Palumbo and then, just before half time, an 11 play 65 yard drive, finished off by a Griffiths 19 yard touchdown pass to Sean Starwind. Both scores were capped off by McHugh's extra point kicks to leave the Devils trailing by 28 points at the half.
The
second half started with another successful Kent drive to open up a 35 point gap on running back Stuart Muir's 3 yard touchdown run. However, the
Devils were not giving up without a fight and on their next possession, drove
downfield 68 yards on 9 plays with quarterback Joe Konieczny running in the
final 8 yards for the score. Stuart Utting's extra point kick sailed wide to
leave the Devils trailing 6-35. The Devils' joy was short-lived, however, as
Kent ran the kick off back to the Devils 38 yard line, from where they took
just 4 plays to score, Griffiths hitting Starwind for his second score, this
time from 31 yards out. The Devils' defense did step up on Kent's next
possession, and following two quarterback sacks, from Jason Shorten and Steve
Hoskins, the defensive pressure at last took effect when Troy Schmidgall came
up with an interception in the Kent endzone to close the gap to 12-42. Utting's
extra point kick was again wide. That was as good as it got for the Devils, as Kent further extended their lead by two more touchdowns in the final quarter, the first when backup quarterback Damian Marshall hit Innis from 8 yards out on a fourth down play,
and then when Griffiths returned to throw an 8 yard score to Palumbo. Both scores
were converted by McHugh kick to leave the Devils well beaten 12-56.
Despite
the defeat the Devils will take some heart from the return of tough tackling Chuck Pope on the defense and a very promising debut from running
back Cordero Sanderson on the offense and hope for further improvement for their game next week when they travel to Cambridge to take on
the Cats.