Longhorns first loss
Report and Pics C/o Colin MacMillan

The Lanarkshire Longhorns American football team lost their first American football match at the weekend when they travelled south to take on last years finalists the Lancashire Wolverines on Sunday .

It was a really hot day and after a 31/2 hour bus journey the Longhorns arrived and got their first site of the Wolverine's .They were a big squad in numbers and in size but this did not deter the Longhorns at all .

The Wolverines won the toss and elected to receive the ball. This was to be the first of many thunderous collisions of the day as both teams went all out to make an impresiion .The Longhorns stopped them at the 25 yard line .

The defence then took over and set the tone for the day with crunching tackles by Kyle Greer and Steven Munro right from the start.

It was the turn of the Longhorns offence to try to move the ball and although they did this they were stopped by a well organised Lancashire defence who had not conceded 1 point in 12 months of the normal season last year and it was apparent why very quickly when they came all out after the ball.

The first quarter of the game ended scoreless and it took to almost the halftime whistle for the scores to be broken . This was unfortunately because Qb Alex Ferguson was forced to through away the ball as he was flushed from the pocket protection of the line . His pass however hit the helmet of the rusher and ended up being intercepted by the Wolverines and being run back for the first score of the day .

The Longhorns did not let things go and again it was the defence who scored but for the Longhorns when Nose Guard Jamie McLaughlin forced a fumble and then recovered it in the end zone to level the scores at 6 all .

That was to be the end of the first half .

The temperature was now soring into the 80s and it was taking its toll with two of the Longhorns going down due to dehydration

The biggest blow came when young Andrew Steen suffered from a collision of helmets and had to withdraw due to a possible concussion

Throughout  the second half the Longhorns battled bravely with Craig Samuell taking in some nice catches and moving the ball but the Longhorns could not manage  to finish off the drives by scoring .

The Wolverines added to their score with a safety and a converted touchdown making the final score 16 v 6 to the Wolverines .

Coach Orr told the players to take heart from a good solid performance as they were a highly rated team

MVP for the Longhorns was Kyle Greer who led in tackles .

The team would like to thank Lynne Samuell and Eric Dougan  for organising the day and also the Wolverines for hosting us .