Tigers
get off the mark
Two late touchdowns
helped the Glasgow Tigers finally break their duck in the 2003 British
Youth League season following a hard fought 28 - 8 victory against
a battling Inverclyde Sharks.
Both teams were in
desperate need of a moral boosting victory to inject some life into
their league campaign.
And despite fielding
a heavily depleted squad once again, the Greenock side were determined
to put the misery of last weeks 58-0 mauling behind them and came
into the game with a slight advantage over the visitors having already
tasted victory this season.
But with the Sharks
minus 15 of their personnel for today's game, they were forced to
play a number of the same players on both sides of the ball.
And despite coming
back into contention following a 90 yard score from running back
Darren Banks to make the score 12-8, the Sharks ran out of steam
late in the final period and went down to late touchdowns from Ryan
Hunter and rookie, James McIntosh in his first game for the Tigers.
Both defences held
their ground during the first quarter, but it was the visitors that
made the breakthrough early in the second when a Sharks punt attempt
was touched in the end zone and resulted in a two point safety.
The Tigers were forced
to punt the ball away on their next possession which was caught
by Gary Clark inside the Tigers half and taking the ball to the
Tigers 16 yard line.
But the lack of coverage
on the offensive line started to become more evident as Quarterback
Sean Carney was flattened by two Tigers linemen and had to go to
the sidelines.
And with no other
established quarterbacks available the Sharks fielded rusher banks
at the controls. But with no established centre available,
the communication was evident and not surprisingly turned over possession.
However on the next
Tigers drive, the momentum turned back in the home sides favour
when cornerback, Ross Cuff picked off a long pass from quarterback
Craig Wilson.
Unfortunately failed
to do anything with the drive and turned the ball over the Tigers
again with 7 seconds of the half remaining
Then Wilson, a
seasoned campaigner at club and at youth international level,
showed his experience when he took to the air and picked off Brother
Kyle for the opening touchdown, which was converted to put the
Tigers 10 ahead at half time.
The Tigers were
threatening early in the 3rd quarter and were stopped
short on third down, when Craig Wilson was picked off by cornerback,
Jonathon McNelis.
The Sharks were
boosted with the return of regular quarterback Richard Campbell
to their line up and was lucky not to concede another safety after
intense pressure from Davie Thompson and threw the ball away from
danger.
The Sharks looked
to be more settled as they were moving towards the half way line,
but the drive eventually stalled and were forced to punt the ball
away.
Then disaster struck
for the Sharks on another botched punt attempt saw Rugby player
Darren Ward after an impressive first game in pads, failed to
recover a poor snap in the end zone, conceding another safety
and crashing into the posts in the process.
The Sharks were
under pressure deep in their half of the field at the end of the
3rd quarter until Banks found a gap and sped up field
of a terrific 90 yard touchdown, with was converted by Martin
MCilone to reduce the gap to four points.
The home side were
desperately trying to get that elusive score that would put them
in front during the final quarter, but tiredness was starting
to tell and the Sharks went further behind when Wilson picked
off Ryan Hunter, who broke a couple of tackles to charge into
the end zone.
During the dying
minutes, the Sharks turned over possession again.
And the Tigers
drove the final nail in the Sharks coffin when McIntosh, in his
first game showed excellent composure when he brought home his
first touchdown on his debut game, which was converted to make
it 28-6 final score.
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