Claymores 16-13 Admirals
Summary : A visit to the Amsterdam ArenA yielded the second Claymores victory of the season and our first TD since week 2 thanks to a 41 yard TD reception by a diving Dondre Gilliam. In a less than convincing performance the Claymores nearly threw away the win by failing to run out the clock with just over 2 minutes to play giving the Admirals one last chance. However, the Claymores managed to hang on as the Admirals could only drive to the Claymores 37 yard line to set up a 54 yard FG attempt from Joe O'Donnell which fell short with only 28 seconds to play.Game Report : The game started promisingly for the Claymores when midway through the 1st quarter Tony Ortiz intercepted a Daft pass intended for Allen on the Claymores 22 and promptly returned it 40 yards to the Amsterdam 48. Despite the short field though the Claymores had to settle for a Lawrence Tynes 42 yard FG in a drive which set the tone for the day.
The Ad's then came out looking to respond quickly and moved the ball downfield to Scotland's 10 yard line thanks to some nice rushes from Cooper and a couple of key catches by Knight. From there the Amsterdam drive stalled and they too settled for a 22 yard O'Donnell FG to tie the game at 3. Even this early in the game it was clear that one big play would decide the game as both offences looked poor.
The Claymores offence then re-took the field but yet again threw the ball away whilst in a position to score as a Driesbach pass goes straight into the hands of Ad's CB Brandon Godsey. The Admirals then dorve into scoring position themselves but again the drive stalled. A 46 yard FG attempt by O'Donnell this time sailed wide right. Can anyone see a pattern forming yet to these drives?
The Claymores then made a good decision and tried to run the ball more with Herbert Goodman carrying the load....that is until a 2nd and 6 on the Ad's 11 yard line when once again 2 incomplete passes from Dreisbach forced the Claymores to bring on Rob Hart to nail the short FG.
After forcing the Admirals to go 3 and out the Claymores looked a more confident team driving all the way to the Admirals 2 yard line when on 3rd down it looked as though Goodman had dove into the endzone for a TD but a closer look showed that TE Elliot Carson had false started on the play. And so the TD drought continued and rob hart cam on to boot the claymores into a 9-3 halftime lead.
The Admirals came out fired up to start the 2nd half and looked for a few minutes as though they could score the first TD of the game before the Claymores D stepped up and forced them to (once again....yawn) kick a 44 yard FG to bring them within 3 points. The rest of the 3rd quarter was dominated by inept offense and decent defense with neither team managing to make it into their opponents half.
It got worse at the start of the 4th quarter when a false start nullified a Tynes 52 yard FG and a subsequent holding call forced the Claymores to punt the ball away to an Admirals team growing with confidence. And that confidence showed on the ensuing drive as the Admirals main offensive wepon RB Rafael Cooper broke out a 43 yard run to the Claymores 19 yard line to setup a TD strike from Daft to Kenyon Hambrick. 13-9 behind with only 10 minutes left and things looked bleak for our TD starved offense.
So starting from their own 27 the Claymores got going thanks to a terrific 18 yard 3rd down reception from Kwame Cavil. The catch seemed to lift the whole team and make them believe that for the first time they might be able to win the game. 17 yard and 12 yard rushes from Goodman sandwiched an offensive holding penalty before Dreisbach once again found an open Cavil for 12 yards. A loss of 5 yards though on 2nd and 8 brought up a 3rd and long with around 6 minutes to play....Driesbach dropped back into the pocket....got good protection.....and fired off a bomb deep down the right sideline towards a sprinting Dondre Gilliam. Everyone held their breath as Gilliam layed out and made a terrific catch on the goaline....the TD drought was over!!
So 16-13 up and only 5 minutes to play things looked good for the Claymores...that is until after forcing the Ad's to punt they couldn't get a 1st down giving the Admirals one last chance. Daft lead the Ad's upfield with 2 quick strikes to Knight and Collins to setup a 4 point 54 yard FG attempt to win the game. But it was all in vain as the effort fell short to give the Claymores their second victory of the season.
Player Watch :
Herbert Goodman (Claymores) 22 attempts for 107 yards and a long of 17
Hurley Tarver (Claymores) 6 solo tackles (including a TD saving one on Cooper_ and 1 pass defensed
Rafael Cooper (Admirals) 20 attempts for 130 yards and a long of 43, 6 rec's for 39 yards
Brandon Godsey (Admirals) 6 solo tackles, 2 passes defensed and an interception
MVP : Dondre Gilliam for his highlight reel diving TD catch to win the game. Special mention has to go to Herbert Goodman though who looked good when he was given the ball.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLAYMORES 3 6 0 7 16
AMSTERDAM 3 0 3 7 13 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: SCO - FG, LAWRENCE TYNES 42 YD, 6:34.
CLAYMORES 3-0
AMS - FG, JOE O'DONNELL 22 YD, 12:45.
CLAYMORES 3-3
2ND QUARTER: SCO - FG, ROB HART 28 YD, 10:09.
CLAYMORES 6-3
SCO - FG, ROB HART 25 YD, 13:49.
CLAYMORES 9-3
3RD QUARTER: AMS - FG, JOE O'DONNELL 44 YD, 7:27.
CLAYMORES 9-6
4TH QUARTER: AMS - TD, KENYON HAMBRICK 16 YD PASS FROM
KEVIN DAFT (JOE O'DONNELL KICK),
5:41. AMSTERDAM 13-9
SCO - TD, DONDRE GILLIAM 41 YD PASS FROM
SCOTT DREISBACH (ROB HART KICK),
9:49. CLAYMORES 16-13
TEAM STATISTICS SCO AMS
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 14 17
Rushing 8 7
Passing 6 10
Penalty 0 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-10 4-13
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 1-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 302 319
Total plays 50 61
Average gain 6 5.2
NET YARDS RUSHING 125 160
Rushes 26 29
Average per rush 4.8 5.5
NET YARDS PASSING 177 159
Completed-attempted 13-24 21-30
Yards per pass 7.4 5.3
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 2-8
Had intercepted 1 1
PUNTS-AVERAGE 4-41.3 3-44.3
RETURN YARDAGE 130 167
Punts-returns 2-34 3-42
Kickoffs-returns 4-56 4-114
Interceptions-returns 1-40 1-11
PENALTIES-YARDS 6-50 4-25
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 26:59 33:01
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
CLAYMORES rushing: Herbert Goodman 22-105, Scott Dreisbach 3-11,
Dondre Gilliam 1-9.
AMSTERDAM rushing: Rafael Cooper 20-130, Kevin Daft 3-20, David
Dinkins 1-12, Morgan Kane 4-0, Jerry Westbrooks 1-MINUS 2.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 13-24 for 177 yards, 1 INT, 1
TD.
AMSTERDAM passing: Kevin Daft 20-29 for 166 yards, 1 INT, 1 TD. David
Dinkins 1-1 for 1 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.
CLAYMORES receiving: Dondre Gilliam 2-47, Scott McCready 4-45,
Kwame Cavil 2-30, Elliott Carson 2-28, Jason Byworth 1-20, Stevan
Fontana 1-12, Herbert Goodman 1-MINUS 5.
AMSTERDAM receiving: Kenyon Hambrick 5-51, Rafael Cooper 6-39, Marcus
Knight 4-34, Ryan Collins 3-23, Morgan Kane 1-11, Joey Getherall
2-9.
Att: 9,243 Time of Game: 2:40