Final Score:
Claymores 17 - 14 Admirals
A piece of individual magic from Aaron Stecker gave the Scots their first score and provided the boost needed for their 5th win in the Waldstadion.
 Cornerback Duane Hawthrone intercepts a Ted White pass intended for Mario Bailey to seal the Claymores 17-14 win over the Galaxy Photo: David McRitchie. Courtesy Claymores.co.uk |
The Claymores offense, however, couldn't capitalise and went three and out. Frankfurt opened the scoring early in the second quarter when White hit Todd Floyd from 6 yards who sauntered into the endzone for the score.
Eager not to let the defending champions out of their site, the Claymores finally put a drive together near the end of the quarter which finished with an 8 yard swing pass from Daft to Aaron Stecker who broke five tackles to make the endzone in what must be the most dazzling run after a catch this season. Rob Hart's PAT tied the game seconds before the end of the half.
After the break, Frankfurt went up again when Mario Bailey made a stunning catch on a 15 yard pass from White which Kleinmann converted.
| CLAYMORESPOLL |
A second interception of Ted Whiteby linebacker Phil Glover gave the Scots excellent field position later in the third and they capitalised when Rob Hart booted a 42 yard field goal as time expired in the quarter for a 17-14 lead.
Both sides put together drives and exchanged punts in the fourth quarter until Frankfurt got the ball with good field position with around 2 minutes remaining. They drove closer to the endzone and with a minute on the clock, White threw a long pass down the right sideline. Claymores CB (and TouchdownClaymores.com supported player) Duane Hawthorne intercepted the ball to seal the win for the Scots.
Let's start with the offense. After a slow start again this week, the offense looked solid. The line gave Daft a lot of time to make his reads and get rid of the ball. The sacks they gave up were the result of the QB holding onto the ball for a long time.
Daft played well completing 62% of his passes but often took too long to make decisions and took a couple of sacks as a result. However, this boy can scramble! He finished the game with 6 carries for 54 yards which any running back would be happy with. He ran a naked bootleg successfully for first down yardage on kept a number of drives alive on the ground.
The receivers never got a look in as RB Stecker and TE Rickey Brady took the majority of the catches. Brady in particular looked impressive making a couple of good catches and breaking out of tackles. Stecker, like last week looked unstoppable in the open field and his touchdown was just pure magic.
On the ground Stecker as the feature back started slowing collecting -1 yard on his first 7 carries but once warmed up fully ran for 51 on his next three carries. This is a guy with explosive speed and the ability to run outside and turn the corner.
The defensive line did not look as impressive as in week 1 registering only a single sack. They stuffed the run effectively allowing only 47 yards on the ground (onlu 86 on the season).
The linebackers had a good game but there were still a number of plays early on when there was no one in the middle of the park to make the tackle.
If one unit had to be named the most valuable, it would be the secondary. They played out of their skins the whole night. Blaine McElmurry looked superb at safety, tipping a long Ted White pass attempt and wrapping up any loose plays. CB's Duane Hawthorne and Kory Blackwell shut down the passing game. Giving up just 107 yards to the pass is impressive but more so against Frankfurt.
Although not as spectacular as in week 1, the defense on the whole played better allowing 47 yards on the ground and 107 in the air, this is one tough unit to play against.
The offense really seems to be coming together, the line looked a lot better this week and Daft and Stecker seem to have built up a rapport on the field which has been very productive. They are making use of Rickey Brady's good hands and size this year which is good to see, the tight end has the ability to break tackles and run through people.
It would be nice to see the receivers making a catch every now and again as opposing defenses will surely key in on Stecker in future weeks.
Overall it was a better performance against much stiffer opposition. Things to improve on this week are, again the open field tackling which was better but still has space for improvement, and spreading the ball on offense as Stecker can't carry the whole team.
Next week the Claymores take on the Berlin Thunder in the Jahnstadion.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 0 7 10 0 17
FRANKFURT 0 7 7 0 14 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: NONE
2ND QUARTER: FRA - TD, TODD FLOYD 6 YD PASS FROM TED WHITE (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 2:53. FRANKFURT 7-0
SCO - TD, AARON STECKER 8 YD PASS FROM KEVIN DAFT (ROB
HART KICK), 14:40. CLAYMORES 7, FRANKFURT 7
3RD QUARTER: FRA - TD, MARIO BAILEY 15 YD PASS FROM TED WHITE (RALF
KLEINMANN KICK), 8:22. FRANKFURT 14-7
SCO - TD, KEVIN DAFT 7 YD RUN (ROB HART KICK), 12:18.
CLAYMORES 14, FRANKFURT 14
SCO - FG, ROB HART 42 YD, 15:00. CLAYMORES 17-14
4TH QUARTER: NONE
TEAM STATISTICS
SCO FRA
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 15 12
Rushing 6 2
Passing 7 4
Penalty 2 6
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 4-14 3-10
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 243 149
Total plays 57 48
Average gain 4.3 3.1
NET YARDS RUSHING 136 47
Rushes 30 15
Average per rush 4.5 3.1
NET YARDS PASSING 107 102
Completed-attempted 15-24 15-32
Yards per pass 4.0 3.1
Sacked-yards lost 3-25 1-6
Had intercepted 0 3
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-32.0 4-38.5
RETURN YARDAGE 38 61
Punts-returns 0-0 0-0
Kickoffs-returns 3-19 3-61
Interceptions-returns 3-19 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 13-115 7-47
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 34:46 25:14
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: Claymores (Rob Hart 41).
Claymores rushing: Aaron Stecker 17-72, Kevin Daft 9-54, Ben
Snell 3-7, Damon Gibson 1-3.
Frankfurt rushing: Ted White 4-21, Michael Blair 8-19, Norman Miller
3-7.
Claymores passing: Kevin Daft 15-24 for 132 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.
Frankfurt passing: Ted White 15-32 for 108 yards, 3 INT, 2 TD.
Claymores receiving: Aaron Stecker 6-19, Rickey Brady 4-75,
Willy Tate 2-14, Ben Snell 1-11, Sulecio Sanford 1-7, Damon Gibson
1-6.
Frankfurt receiving: Norman Miller 4-19, Mario Bailey 2-19, Werner
Hippler 2-18, Todd Floyd 2-12, Michael Blair 2-3, Corey Thomas 1-20,
Justin Swift 1-12, Kendrick Nord 1-5.
Attendance: 32,459.