Bury Saints open 2016 with resounding victory

Report supplied by Neil van Holland - Bury Saints
Images Courtesy of Hayden Marie Photography

The Bury Saints coming off a 2015 season in which they never lost a game and won the 2015 Rose Bowl with promotion to National League Div. 1 football continued that win streak with a 34-0 dismantling of the 2015 Semi-final opponents Sussex Thunder.

RB Tommy Ellerbee

After holding the high powered Sussex offense scoreless on their opening drive the Saints Offense took only 3 plays to drive 84 yards and score culminated by RB Cory Jenkins' 54 yard TD scamper. The point after was perfect by Rob Giles. 

The next few drives by both teams failed to secure points, however late in the 1st quarter the Bury Offense drove the field and finished off with a Fred Boyle run at the goaline to push the scoreline to 13-0. Pauly Bowers nailed the PAT to make it 14-0.

RB Cory Jenkins

A few more field position swaps and the Bury Offense once again made a drive midway through the 2nd quarter to the Sussex 9 yard line where Boyle passed to Don Washington for a Saints touchdown. Giles once again made the PAT and the score was 21-0 going into halftime.

Coming out of the half the field position battle ensued with Bury and Sussex trading punts. Bury on their 2nd possession after the intermission drove another 80 yards and capped it off with a 35 yard run by another new RB in Tommy Ellerbe. This time the PAT was blocked by Sussex so the scoreline stood at 27-0. 

The score stayed that way until late in the game when the Saints in a spirited final drive managed to get to the Sussex 12 and Boyle connected with Josh Marlow on a TD pass. Bowers made the final PAT finishing the scoring at 34-0. 

CB Dmont Herring

The Sussex Thunder could not get anything going all day and were held to 108 total yards combined through the air and on the ground, never getting into the Bury red zone. The Defense was responsible for intercepting the Sussex QB's 4 times with Dmont Herring, Troy Cockerill, and Rob Giles picking off the passes along with Jack Hewett. Herring also added a fumble recovery after a big gain for Sussex to stop a drive. Fabian Mitchell and the rest of the Def line had a standout game with Mitchell getting a sack to help seal the win. 

Bury Saints Interim Head Coach Christian Cantrill had tempered enthusiasm following the game: "Although we got a massive result against a team we needed 3 OT last year to beat, we have a lot to work on with the SFC1 Bowl finalists coming to town in 2 weeks. I can say I am very proud of the way my coordinators Neil Van Holland, Bobby Coffman and Jamie Nuttall prepared and executed a very precise gameplan to achieve the result. We have work on our hands with 9 more very tough games going forward with the Thrashers on the forefront of our preparations". 

WR's Ray Don Ellington (#18) and Axl Rodwell (#6) celegrate the 3rd TD

The Bury Saints are back in action on Sunday 24 April at Thetford Rugby Club Vs the last years SFC1 finalists Solent Thrashers. Kickoff is 2PM.