Solent tame the Cats in Week 7 rout

Report by Gordon Dedman

Having deferred their options, Cambridgeshire relinquished first dibs to Solent and the Thrashers never looked back. Scoring on their first five possessions while their opponents were failing to make a first down, the Thrashers completely dominated the first quarter.

Playing almost perfect football, the one part of their machine that found it difficult to function was the special team on point after attempts. High snaps and mishandling meant four failed kicks. Even when they resorted to a two points after attempt, it was stopped short.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Cats started a series on the 50. Putting together effective runs and some short passes, they began to believe in themselves and achieved four first downs to reach their opponents one-yard line.

Despite going backwards on two downs, they finally burst outside right behind some good blocking to put six points on the board. On their two points after attempt, their quarterback threw a desperation pass under pressure to see it pulled in successfully with just inches to spare.

 

The Thrashers appeared to hit back immediately. They returned the kickoff for a touchdown, but a penalty pulled that back and then the Cats gave themselves some hope with an interception. The turnover only postponed the Thrashers advance as they went further in front with a 6-yd touchdown pass to Joe Pascoe. Finally a successful extra point kick gave the Thrashers a 38-8 lead after two quarters.

When the Cats took the second half kickoff, they marched down field with their successful formulae of gaining a few yards at a time, both in the air and on the ground. The drive came abruptly to an end in the red zone when Solent recovered a forced fumble. From their own 6-yard line, the Thrashers went 94 yards completed by a superb touchdown pass over the middle to Alex Crowe.

One more touchdown by Solent in the final period finalised the scoring for a Thrasher 51-8 victory as they progress towards a playoffs berth. For Cambridgeshire, they showed real spirit when falling behind so early and must take the positives from the game and not the misfortunes if they are to develop in a tough division.

Thrashers’ coach Russ Hewitt said of the game, “Scoring 31 first quarter points, certainly helped change the team’s whole approach on the day. From watching the film back, everything just clicked early for us last weekend.

I must add how tough the Cats played us. The score will never reflect how tough the game was. The stats show a much closer game, where Cambridgeshire had more offensive plays, more time of possession and even more first downs than us.”