Report by Tony Miller
Sussex Thunder 50 -13
Oxford Saints
In a match-up destined by most of the pundits to go down to
the wire, the home town Thunder
cruised into the semi-finals with a convincing 50-13 triumph over the Oxford Saints at Thunder Field.
The rain stopped and the sun showed its face as the teams
took to the field. Both teams lined up after the coin toss for a minute's
silence in respect of the victims of the previous day's tragedy at the Shoreham Air Show just a few miles along
the road.
Sussex started the game on top form, forcing the visitors 3
and out on their first two possessions, both times taking the ball back for a
score. Roland Williams opened the
scoring with an 11 yd. run. This was
closely followed up when QB Junior Price
found Adam Fishlock, who took the
ball home to make the score 14-0 with less than 5 minutes gone.
The visitors struggled to make any headway against the
Sussex defence, with Jimmy Stavropoulos
and Dave Lawrey leading the tackles.
It was well into the 2nd quarter when the Saints put their first decent drive
together: hard running by Oxford #14 got them down inside the Sussex 10, and
two plays later he carried the ball into the end zone to bring Oxford back
within 7 points.
However, the visitors, who were without their starting QB,
were soon down by two scores again when a thumping hit by SS Dominic Gould on the back-up passer
forced the ball straight into the hands of Dan
de Lucia, who returned the pick all the way to the end zone. Even more bad
news for the Saints was they were now down to their number 3 QB. The
incident-packed 1st half finished with the Thunder extending the lead to 24-7
with an Andy Stone FG.
Thunder HC Ian Ellis
stressed to players at the interval not to slacken off. Oxford could still get
back into the game if they lowered their concentration levels.
The home side did not let up and it wasn't long before they
scored again, with Jaden Ellis now at the helm, set up a 5yd TD run by TK Chisango.
With the Saints now down 31-7 and the game seemingly out of
their hands, the Saints #14 exploded through the line, broke a couple of
tackles to bring the score back to 31-13.
However, this was no deterrent to the Thunder offence who
kept on moving the ball downfield, with Ellis and Eber Kington finding WR's DJ
Ser'Jeanton and Fishlock on a regular basis, and Chisango and Ben Chukwu-Onu chewing up the yardage
on the ground. It took just 3 plays for the Thunder to revisit the end-zone, RB
Andy Stone going in from a yard out.
Another pick 6, this time by Dom Gould and a late run by rookie Bright Kubi finished off the scoring. The game ended with a Chris Aldridge interception as time ran
out with the home side taking a thoroughly-deserved win
One sour note on the day for the Thunder was the loss of WR Tom Kelly with a badly broken
collarbone sustained in the pre-game warm-ups.
Coach Ellis commented after the game "We went out and gave a thoroughly professional performance today:
that was one of the best games we've put together all season."
Saints HC Andrew Day said "We were beaten by a very, very good team today and wish them the
best in the semi."
Looking for their third championship in 7 years, the Thunder
now travel to Norfolk, to the league's other Saints. Bury St Edmunds on the 6th
September.
Suffolk
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