PYROS FALL ON CLANSMEN'S SWORD
Stirling Clansmen proved that there was life after Jon Sutherland after dishing out a resounding 50-2 defeat of league newcomers, Paisley Pyros at Robertson’s Sports Centre. Having been eliminated from the play offs last season, the Clansmen has undergone a major rebuilding of their roster for this year, under the direction of new coach, Ian Smith. Today the new look Clansmen running and passing game proved too much for the battling Pyro’s giving up 8 touchdowns, but despite the adversity managed to avoid a white wash when Antonio Wronski gave the Paisley outfit a consolation two point safety. Clansmen Head Coach was full of praise for his new look side but also paid tribute to the never say die attitude shown by the league newcomers this afternoon. He said: “You have to take your hats off to Paisley. It is tough putting together a new team and they have done a pretty good job. “We had about 34 guys down today. And up until last week, more than half of them had never played the game before.” “Those who have played are actually in different positions to where they were last year. It is fairly inexperienced but we are starting to get it together.” “The passing game today was amazing. I was pleased the way that Rich our back up QB came in when Matt Bywater hurt his knee and threw three touchdowns.” Despite having had to introduce a number of new players to their squad, the Clansmen came into this game as firm favourites against the Pyros having got their season off the winning start against Caledonian Roughriders the week before. After a series of preseason scrimmages, this was the first serious competitive outing for the Pyro’s who were outnumbered by their Stirling counterparts but were still determined to put on a show.
Gallagher then stretched the Clansmen’s lead with another scoring run down the touchline which was met with little response from the Pyro’s defense. The home side soon had a rub of the green when the Cris Martinez fumbling away possession, with Colin Doak diving on the loose ball for a Paisley turnover. But the lack of penetration on offense continued to hamper the home side and soon found themselves back on the defensive at the start of the second quarter. |
But
after an ineffective opening drive by Paisley, the home side soon found
themselves a score down when Mike Briggs turned on the speed down the
far side into the endzone, with Paul Gallagher adding a two point conversion
for an 8-0 lead.
