Claymores 17–13 Admirals
Summary: A loud, loud crowd at Hampden Park, Glasgow roared the Claymores to a narrow gritty win to sweep the Admirals. The Ads came out on top in almost every offensive category, except the one that mattered. The Claymores scored 2 TDs to Amsterdam's 1. Once again the Claymores were only on Offense for 23 minutes, but another great defensive performance kept the Admirals to only 13 points. The D has now given up 93 points in 7 games and has a shot at the league record of 121 for 10 games set by the Monarchs in 1991. If only we had the Monarchs Offense of that year!
Claymores now 'possible' on making a World Bowl appearance this year. Still need to win all their games and hope for a break from another team though.
Game Report: The Admirals won the toss and started at their own 30. They opened the game with a 47-yd drive which was capped by a 40-yd FG from Joe O'Donnell to give the Ads a 3-0 lead. The drive was part of a pattern all day: Amsterdam making gashing runs on the Claymores D. But in most cases the Scottish D held out in the clutch and turned the ball over to keep the Claymores in the game right until the death. The tough Scottish D came up with 2 fumble recoveries and 2 INTs to really keep the lid on a potent Admirals attack. Amsterdam had enough yardage and time of possession that they could have won this game several times over. It was remarkable that at half-time the score was 3-3. An impotent Scottish offense had limped to a short 24-yd Rob Hart FG on their fourth possession after Tony Ortiz had intercepted a truly woeful lobbed pass by Kevin Daft at the ADS 9-yd line. Nothing else to write home about for the Claymores O in the first half. Gilliam dropped a deep bomb was as close as it got.
Earlier Goodman had turned the ball over to the Admirals but fortunately he was able to hold on to the ball for the rest of the game. Herbert was the game's leading rusher but we were never comfortable moving the chains all game. It showed in the time of possession and drive charts. 10 first downs all game is very poor. Still Scotland's stars of the first half were Earl Riley with 6 tackles and Cedric Pittman, James Rooths and Tom Tovo with 4 each. Pittman also had a sack for 9 yards and a FF. Rooths, playing with a cast on his (broken?) left hand would go on to lead the team in solo tackles with 5, and Tovo had a sack for 6 yds and a FF. Trangely we didn't get any more sacks in the second half, but we came close a few times. Also, the Amsterdam O line really started holding in the second half, with only the occassional penalty for it thrown.
Aaron Langley was also excellent. He really does make us look like the Ravens.
The second half started with the Claymores running wild on the Admirals D ( a 47-yd drive) and only a Dreisbach interception at the 15 yd line of Amsterdam stopped the Claymores taking the lead. The interception was run back by Perryman for 15 yards before he lateraled to Clinton Hart. The Amsterdam CB was only stopped by a fantastic lunge by O lineman Andy Stensrud (filling in for Ian Allen who is back in the USA after his father was taken ill). Still Hart had added another 31 yds to the return. On the second play on the resulting Admirals drive Pernell Davis captalised on a Daft fumble to give the Claymores O the ball back. The Claymores went three and out but soon had the ball back as Hurley Tarver came up with another INT. Hurley reeled the ball in at the SCO 32 and ran it back 30 yards before Jim Stull (yay!) ran him out of bounds.
Herbert Goodman got one yard before Dondre Gilliam shot up the left sideline for a 37 yard TD. He just toasted Combs the cornerback, but the ball was a bit underthrown and wobbled in the air. Still Dondre snatched it away from the hapless Admiral and we were in the lead. Rob Hart put over the extra point and the score was 10-3 Claymores. The Scottish D held the Admirals again but a 4th and 7 on the AMS 47 became a 45-yd gain on a fake punt. David Dinkins received a short snap and ran to the SCO 8. The fake was almost stopped but it was not to be. Still, the D trotted back on and held the Admirals to a FG. 10-6 to Scotland.
A battle of field position ensued as the game boiled into the fourth quarter. The Hampden crowd was getting noisier with each Admirals possession and with each hit by the defense. Eventually the Ads took the lead with 8:51 left. From the SCO 21 Daft threw 2 incompletions before finding Kenyon Hambrick in the end zone, where he had run right up a seam – splitting the safeties (Riley, Gary?) and linebacker (Hawkes?) in coverage. 13-10 to Amsterdam and the home fans thought it was going to be the Admirals day after all.
The Claymores got the ball from the kickoff (Moses was very entertaining on returns all day) before a 19-yd McKenzie pass was soon followed by a complete breakdown in the Admirals seconday. They let Gilliam hit his deep route. Dear, oh dear. The 51-yd TD was sealed when Dreisbach saw what had happened. Dondre showboated in the end zone and we had a 17-13 lead.
The next Admirals drive was held and the Scots were able to run the clock down from 3:38 to 1:38 before they had to hand possession back to Amsterdam for one last shot at victory. If only we had a reliable driving game then we would have won easily. We seem to have no clue on how to call plays to run the clock out. Getting first downs is paramount to keepong the clock running. In any event, the Claymroes D held out in the face of Amsterdam tearing down the field. I had thought they might try and 50-yd FG to force OT but they went for the TD to win. Hurley Tarver batted away a deep pass in the end zone with 41 seconds left and we were holding on. Amsterdam ended up on a 2nd and 6 on the SCO 26 with 5 seconds left when Daft threw a short pass to Rafael Cooper infield. The coverage in the end zone was superb. Nobody open. Cooper, who had a good day otherwise, was wrapped up by Michael Hawkes at the SCO 16 to end the game and several of the D players collapsed on the turf from their exertions. The crowd was standing for the final plays. Exhilirating stuff and very very noisy.
The Offense got us TDs and the D held on for almost 37 minutes. A feature of our run of winning games. Not easy on the nerves but a great feeling when you win!
16–13 final score. Amsterdam go bottom at 2-5 and Claymores have turned 1-3 into 4–3. Can this winning streak last?
Player Watch:
Herbert Goodman (Claymores) 21 for 86 yards rushing, 0 TD (4.1 average), long of 29 yds (pads the stats). Caught 0 passes, 1 fumble (lost).
Tony Ortiz (Claymores, LB) 4 solo tackles, 1 assisted (4th on team). 1 special teams tackle and 1 INT for no gain at the AMS 9.
Rafael Cooper (Admirals, RB) 23 for 84 yards rushing, 0 TD (3.7 average), long of 13 yds. Caught 6 for 40.
Paris Lenon (Admirals, LB) 5 tackles (3 solo), 1 pass defensed and 1 Special Teams tackle.
Number Watch: 0 for 8 on third down. Ouch! Gilliam's TDs were for 37 and 51 yds. That is a toasting! Combs was the victim this week, so at least ex-Claymore Kory Blackwell got off this highlight reel. Dresibach's QB rating of 73.1 was much better than Kevin Daft's 56.3. It makes Daft's 2000 season record of 107 look a long way off though! Scotland now lead the league in turnover ratio and despite Goodman couching the ball up again in this game, we have only fumbled the ball away 3 times all season. In return we have recovered 6 fumbles by the opposition and pulled in 10 INTs to only 7 thrown (4 of which were in the week 2 disaster, and 1 this week).
Points To Improve Upon: Offense. Sounding like a stuck record but we just don't have a scheme that moves the chains on a consistent basis. These sweeps left and right lose us yardage by the handful. We can't seriously go to the World Bowl relying on circus catches from Mister Gilliam...
Turning Point: Gilliam's first TD in the third quarter when we took the lead for the first time. Up until then it had been a real arm wrestle and our D was somehow holding out. If Amsterdam had gone ahead then I couldn't see us coming back but Gilliam's TD not only gave us the lead, it gave us the confidence that we could win. It showed we could score. Gilliam topped it all with his come from behind TD in the fourth but it was his first TD that turned the game.
MVP: Dondre Gilliam. Two TDs on his two cathces for an average of 44 yds, only a dropped deep ball and the lack of catches marked an otherwise mesmerising performance. Without Gilliam we would have lost despite our great D.
FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
AMSTERDAM 3 0 3 7 13
CLAYMORES 0 3 7 7 17 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: AMS - FG, JOE O'DONNELL 40 YD, 5:38.
AMSTERDAM 3-0
2ND QUARTER: SCO - FG, ROB HART 24 YD, 2:02. AMSTERDAM 3-3
3RD QUARTER: SCO - TD, DONDRE GILLIAM 37 YD PASS FROM
SCOTT DREISBACH (ROB HART KICK),
8:39. CLAYMORES 10-3
AMS - FG, JOE O'DONNELL 27 YD, 12:37.
CLAYMORES 10-6
4TH QUARTER: AMS - TD, KENYON HAMBRICK 21 YD PASS FROM
KEVIN DAFT (JOE O'DONNELL KICK),
6:09. AMSTERDAM 13-10
SCO - TD, DONDRE GILLIAM 51 YD PASS FROM
SCOTT DREISBACH (ROB HART KICK),
7:31. CLAYMORES 17-13
TEAM STATISTICS AMS SCO
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 22 10
Rushing 9 4
Passing 12 5
Penalty 1 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 7-16 0-8
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-2 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 354 228
Total plays 75 42
Average gain 4.7 5.4
NET YARDS RUSHING 149 87
Rushes 30 22
Average per rush 5 4
NET YARDS PASSING 205 141
Completed-attempted 23-43 7-20
Yards per pass 4.8 7.1
Sacked-yards lost 2-15 0-0
Had intercepted 2 1
PUNTS-AVERAGE 4-44.8 7-43.3
RETURN YARDAGE 86 83
Punts-returns 4-40 3-53
Kickoffs-returns 4-56 4-67
Interceptions-returns 1-46 2-30
PENALTIES-YARDS 5-55 4-40
FUMBLES-LOST 3-2 1-1
TIME OF POSSESSION 36:52 23:08
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
AMSTERDAM rushing: Rafael Cooper 23-84, David Dinkins 5-63, Kevin Daft
2-2.
CLAYMORES rushing: Herbert Goodman 21-86, Robert Arnaud 1-1.
AMSTERDAM passing: Kevin Daft 23-43 for 220 yards, 2 INT, 1 TD.
CLAYMORES passing: Scott Dreisbach 7-20 for 141 yards, 1 INT, 2
TD.
AMSTERDAM receiving: Kenyon Hambrick 6-95, Rafael Cooper 6-40, Corey
Nelson 4-35, Ryan Collins 3-23, Marcus Knight 2-21, Takao Mitzuguchi
1-7, David Dinkins 1-MINUS 1.
CLAYMORES receiving: Dondre Gilliam 2-88, Kevin McKenzie 2-23,
Scott McCready 2-19, Kwame Cavil 1-11.
Att: 10,373 Time of Game: 2:42