Fire 7-17 Claymores
Summary : Nearly 13,000 fans at Hampden Park saw the Claymores claim a victory against the league leading Rhein Fire despite giving the opposition a last second chance to win for the second week in a row. The win which improved the Claymores to 3-3, also saw Jason Byworth claim his first professional TD.Game Report : This game started just like any other this season...not that i can remember exactly how it started though because it was so boring i barely managed to stay awake. A quick look back at the stats though shows that both teams punted on their opening 3 possesions....so nothing exciting missed then!
But then....the 2nd quarter arrived and things exploded! It was Rhein who scored first, and quickly, on a 4 play 76 yard drive which only took just under 2 minutes. Brandon Miller found an open Onome Ojo in the endzone. The ease with which Rhein moved the ball was frightning and didn't bode well for the rest of the day. But then...
...enter one JJ Moses who settled under the kickoff at his own 11 yard line and then danced and cut his way thru the Fire defence all the way back to the Fire 24 yard line where he was finally brought down by Rhein's Adrian Sadler. Then just when we thought it couldn't get any better a late flag was thrown on Sadler for a Face masking call which moved the Claymores to the Fire 12 yard line. The crowd came alive and 2 plays later Scott Dreisbach found national WR Jason Byworth for his first ever Claymores TD to tie the game at 7 a piece.
Moses' kickoff return and Byworth's score really fired up the crowd and the rest of team. But no one was more pumped up than Willie Gary as he gobbled up a Jamal Robertson fumble and returned it to the Rhein 18 yard line giving the offense another short field to work with. And once again it took them no time to capitalise on it as Dreisbach hit Dondre Gilliam for a 16 yard strike to put the Claymores 14-7 up at halftime.
The teams trotted back onto the field to start the 3rd quarter and the crowd were anticipating the excitement to continue from the 2nd. And the 3rd started promisingly as the Claymores retained their momentum and put together a solid opening drive on the back of some nice running from Herbert Goodman and a 33 yard reception by Scott McCready. But the Claymores couldn't punch the ball in despite a 1st and Goal from the 9 yard line as the Rhein defence stepped up and held them out. So instead the Claymores settled for a short Rob Hart FG and extended their lead to 17-7.
The game then reverted back to it's 1st quarter quality as both teams punted away their next 2 possesions and the game looked to have once again reached a stalemate. But then on their first possesion of the 4th quarter, Rhein suddenly looked threatening again. A key roughing the passer call on 3rd and 17 against Radell Lockhart gave the Fire new hope and a new set of downs. The roughing the passer call was quickly followed by a 15 yard face mask penalty against Tony Ortiz which again gave the Fire a new set of downs. Miller used these new downs well and drove the Fire into FG range. But then the potential comeback was quashed when Miller looked to hit WR Jimmy Robinson over the middle but only found Claymores safety Scott Shields whoi recorded his 3rd interception of the season.
So the Claymores offence took the field with plans on putting the game away. And a 13 yard reception by TE Elliott Carson gave Lawrence Tynes a chance to do just that. Unfortunately his 42 yard effort was pulled wide right and so the Fire had another chance. But the Claymores defence held firm and when forced to go for it on 4th and 1 the Fire offence came up short. So we were faced with a familiar position....2mins remaining and in the lead, all we've got to do is run out the clock. So no surprises for guessing then that we went 3 and out and decided to punt.
But then it got worse....a high snap from Matt O'Neal flew over punter Aaron Langley's head and he done well to race back and cover the ball at our own 20 yard line. So once again we handed a comeback chance to the opposition with less than 2 minutes to play. This time though our defence was ready! After an incomplete pass on 1st down, Miller was sacked by Tony Ortiz on 2nd and fumbled the ball. It was recovered by Fire TE David Newman though so the defence would have to hold firm for 2 more plays. A short completion to Newman on 3rd down setup and all or nothing pass on 4th. Miller dropped back to pass and floated a ball up in the direction of WR Scott Cloman but he was well covered and Willie Gary picked off the ball at the 4 yard line to end the game. So once again the Claymores had held on to win despite handing a chance back to the opposition late in the 4th quarter. Final score Fire 7 Claymores 17.
Player Watch :
Herbert Goodman (Claymores) 26 att for 95 yards rushing, 4 catches for 24 yards
Willie Gary (Claymores) 2 tackles, 1 interception, 1 pass defensed and 1 fumble recovery
Jimmy Robinson (Fire) 9 rec for 96 yards and a long of 21
Tim Johnson (Fire) 5 tackles, 1 assist, 3 passes defensed and 2 special teams tackles
MVP : Willie Gary for his key interception to close out the game and his fumble recovery in the 2nd quarter which setup Gilliam's TD.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
RHEIN 0 7 0 0 7
CLAYMORES 0 14 3 0 17 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: NONE
2ND QUARTER: RHE - TD, ONOME OJO 33 YD PASS FROM BRANDON
MILLER (MANFRED BURGSMULLER KICK),
8:57. RHEIN 7-0
SCO - TD, JASON BYWORTH 12 YD PASS FROM SCOTT
DREISBACH (ROB HART KICK), 9:59.
RHEIN 7-7
SCO - TD, DONDRE GILLIAM 16 YD PASS FROM
SCOTT DREISBACH ( KICK), 11:50.
CLAYMORES 14-7
3RD QUARTER: SCO - FG, ROB HART 24 YD, 5:19.
CLAYMORES 17-7
4TH QUARTER: NONE
TEAM STATISTICS RHE SCO
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 14 16
Rushing 1 5
Passing 9 10
Penalty 4 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-12 5-13
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-2 0-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 264 255
Total plays 53 58
Average gain 5 4.4
NET YARDS RUSHING 44 71
Rushes 20 29
Average per rush 2.2 2.4
NET YARDS PASSING 220 184
Completed-attempted 22-33 16-29
Yards per pass 6.7 6.3
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 0-0
Had intercepted 2 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 6-39.8 5-41.8
RETURN YARDAGE 15 26
Punts-returns 4-15 3-9
Kickoffs-returns 4-84 2-76
Interceptions-returns 0-0 2-17
PENALTIES-YARDS 8-58 6-60
FUMBLES-LOST 4-1 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 28:32 31:28
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
RHEIN rushing: Tony Taylor 7-14, Jamal Robertson 8-13, Jordan Younger
1-7, Onome Ojo 2-6, Brandon Miller 2-4.
CLAYMORES rushing: Herbert Goodman 26-95, Robert Arnaud 1-7,
Scott Dreisbach 1-MINUS 1, Matt O'Neal 1-MINUS 30.
RHEIN passing: Brandon Miller 22-33 for 220 yards, 2 INT, 1 TD.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 16-29 for 184 yards, 0 INT, 2
TD.
RHEIN receiving: Jamal Robertson 9-96, Scott Cloman 4-48, Onome Ojo
3-47, Corey Alston 1-10, David Newman 2-6, Mark Thomas 1-6, Akahito
Amaya 1-5, Oyeniran Olalere Odunayo Ojo 1-2.
CLAYMORES receiving: Elliott Carson 3-48, Scott McCready 1-33,
Kevin McKenzie 3-32, Dondre Gilliam 2-26, Herbert Goodman 4-24, Jason
Byworth 1-12, Kwame Cavil 1-6, Stevan Fontana 1-3.
Att: 12,843 Time of Game: 2:36