Tuesday 1 March 2016

The Sabres Journey Continues!


Sunday 28/02/2016 - East Essex Sabres 18 Maidstone Pumas 0

On Sunday the 21st February, a highly motivated training session took place at Chase High Rugby Fields in preparation for an American football (Scrimmage) game at Maidstone Pumas this was followed by an emotionally charged speech at the East Essex Sabres first Annual General Meeting of which was held at O’Neil’s in Southend the following Tuesday evening.


This game was the second time the two teams had met in a friendly the first of which took place on the 28th November, 2015 in which the Pumas won 22-0, however the East Essex Sabres were to reverse the score line at the Maidstone New Line Academy on Sunday, and ran out 18-0 winners.

Buster Hodges ran in the Sabres very first touchdown followed by two touchdown receptions one from Wide Receiver Kyle Bury, the other by Hodges for his second score of the day.

Defensive Coordinator & player/Coach Kirk Beacham says:

"What continues to impress me about this defense, as with the team as a whole, there was not a sign of anybody giving up or quitting, everybody gave me 110%. This was displayed in the third series, when their offense did get a big play that took them to our 20, only for Greg Crease to get pressure early which enabled another defensive player to strip the ball from the QB"

Kirk goes on to say "It was a pleasure to coach the Defense today, it wasn't about one player, everyone played hard and contributed, players were flying to the ball and gang tackling. Now we just need to carry this into training next week, continue to work hard and get ready for the next game going forward"

 


Head Coach Lee Joseph gave a brief match report by saying:

"Can’t really say too much about one individual player as the whole team started off with the perfect attitude and work ethic and they carried it through to the end. We started off putting our defense on the field first. They basically shut down the Pumas offense from the first minute to the last. The Defensive line stopped the Pumas running game all day long. They put the Pumas Offensive line under so much constant pressure that when the Pumas tried to then throw the ball our Defensive backs intercepted 2 passes and batted down another 3 attempts.

The Pumas tried 4 different Quarterbacks but none of them could get their offense moving. On offense, the East Essex Sabres began by running the ball. Within a few plays Buster Hodges broke free and ran 40yrds for his first touchdown. After that the Sabres pretty much moved up and down the field putting together some very impressive drives using both their running plays and passing plays. It was not long until the Sabres scored their second touchdown. After an impressive 89 yard drive, QB James Dawson threw to a wide open Kyle Bury in the end zone for a touchdown making the score 12-0 to the Sabres.

In the second half the Sabres defense continued to strangle and disrupt the Pumas offense, stopping them on every series. Towards the end of the game the Sabres offense took to the field for the last time and put together another 80 yard drive by passing and running the ball in a balanced attack. In the last play of the game James Dawson through a pass this time to Buster Hodges to score his 2nd TD. This was a total team effort with both offense and defense totally dominating the game"

HC Lee Joseph also goes on to say, "Sabres offensive line worked so hard to spring our running backs and because of their hard work they managed to achieve that. The offensive line is a unit that doesn't get the credit it deserves sometimes and they should as today they were the guys that made it possible for our running backs to have a big day running and catching the ball out of the back field.

All the coaching staff of the Sabres could not have wished for a better way to get there 2016 campaign under"

 


If you would like to know more about the East Essex Sabres American football team, then please phone Head Coach Lee Joseph on 07772446468 or follow us on FB and Twitter, you can even contact us through our Website.