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.
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.
