It's tough at the top for the Knights

Report supplied by Farnham Knights

Having achieved promotion in each of the past two seasons the Knights knew that the return to the top level of British American Football would be a tough task. The challenge was made still more stretching when the fixture schedule dialled up the London Blitz away as the first fixture. The Blitz have been National Champions 5 times and runner up 5 times in the last 10 years.

The first quarter saw the speed and power of the Blitz stop the Knights normally highly productive offense and their offense scored two breakaway running touchdowns and a passing touchdown to lead 21-0 at the end of the first period.

The Knights were climbing the learning curve and good blocking saw Nick Roope gaining good yardage - his partner at tailback Aaron Sekwalor was also productive - Aaron was playing his first senior level game having graduated from last year’s junior squad. The Blitz added two further scores in the quarter and the Knights were in Field Goal range as time expired but unfortunately with no time outs left they didn't get the kick away in time. 35-0 at half time.

Photo courtesy of Andy Soltysyiak - Knights running the ball

It would have been easy for the Knights to have folded under the pressure of the game and the score - but they showed great spirit and the third quarter hopefully showed signs of progress as it remained scoreless with both teams forced to punt after good defensive work. 35-0 at the end of the 3rd period.

Into the 4th quarter and both teams were using the depth of their squads. For the Knights there were some impressive debuts for example Max Schmidt recorded the first sack of the season for the Knights - Max was playing his first senior league game having been recruited from the successful Surrey Stingers University team. On offense Ricardo St Hilaire carried the ball twice for 6yds for his first American football action.

Top tackler of the day was David Francis who led the defense to limit the Blitz to just one second half score.

The home team added their further score at the start of the 4th Quarter but the Knights had the final say as Nick Roope opened the teams account for the year with a 3yd run on the final play of the game following a 37yd pass reception for another Junior team graduate Harry Carter who was making his senior level debut.

Head Coach Steve Rains said “Clearly not the result we wanted but we always knew it was going to be tough, we learnt a lot today and we were a better team in the second half. We need to take those lessons on board and prepare to return to London in 2 weeks’ time - to play the current National Champions the London Warriors who are making a bid for their 4th consecutive title - there are no easy games in this league!"

OFFENSE:	DEFENSE:
Passing:	D Francis 3S 2A C Goodall 1S 3A M Schmidt  1S 3A + 1Sack C James 1S 1A L Scott 1S 1A J Vince 1S 1A D Hatcher 2A A Reid 2A R Balderson 1S A  Alothman 1S M Rutter 1S M Gumas 1S M Marriott 1S V Fedotov 1A L Bridcutt 1A
O De Ruyter 1 of 10 for 37yds  N Roope  0 of 1 for 0yds
Receiving:
H Carter 1 for 37yds
STATS:
N Roope 13 for 76yds 1TD A Sekwalor 12 for 58yds K Ejiogu  2 for 8yds R St Hilaire 2 for 6yds O De Ruyter 1 for  4yds J P Jones 3 for 0yds S Rance 1 for 0yds A Head 2 for -4yds
KICK OFF RETURNS
N Roope 2 for 51yds S Godfrey 3 for 57yds PUNT  RETURNS
J Symons 1 for 9yds
OFFENSE TOTALS:
KNIGHTS:
Rushing 36 for 148yds  1TD Passing 1 of 11 for  37yds TOTAL 47 for  185yds  1TD