Young Pirates debut in Tigers friendly

08 May 2011

The Pirates' Youth Team made their debut in a specially arranged game against Glasgow Tigers.

While the game on Saturday 7 May at Cambuslang was technically a "controlled scrimmage", it was played to proper rules with the only concession being that coaches were allowed to be on the field during the game.

The home side took a quick lead when they forced a Safety early in the tie. They soon added a further Touchdown to take an 8-0 advantage. The Pirates began to get over their early jitters and cut the deficit to 8-6 when Callum Derrick showed a good turn of speed to run away from the Tigers' defenders.

Unfortunately for EK, Glasgow made the most of both their experience and their physical advantage to add two further scores and one conversion to open up a gap at 22-6. As the interval approached, "Dynamite" Derrick scored his second touchdown to leave the score as 22-12 at the break.

The young Pirates were first to score in the second half when QB Grant McMaster connected with Receiver Scott Marshall to raise a glimmer of hope as the gap narrowed to 4 points. However, the Tigers responded with two more TD's to restore their advantage to 37-18.

Late in the game, two successive Pirates' possessions ended with First Down fumbles on their own 5-yard line, allowing Glasgow to pad their lead to 52-18.

Never downhearted, East Kilbride managed to end the game with their 4th TD of the day when QB Matthew Waddell completed a pass to Marshall.

The same pairing also added the 2-point conversion, leaving the final score as Glasgow Tigers 52 - East Kilbride Pirates 26.

So, the boys have now had their first taste of competitive American Football and have a better idea of what is expected of them. Despite the scoreline, they put up a good performance on both sides of the ball.

The points-scorers of Callum Derrick and Scott Marshall were the obvious highlights on Offense, while on Defense, Fraser Hannah was a constant threat to the Tigers' QB despite playing in the unfamiliar position of Nose Tackle.

The Youth team’s first league encounter will be on Saturday 28 May, when they take on Glasgow Tigers, Edinburgh Coyotes and Inverclyde Phoenix at a tournament at the Jack Kane centre in Edinburgh.

Game report by Bill Campbell