Sydney Uni American Football Club

Sydney Uni came away from its top of the table clash against the Penrith City Chiefs with a strong 36-20 victory.  The Cubs jumped on the Chiefs early and never lost control of the game.

The Cubs started on defence and sent the Chiefs out without picking up a first down.  Cornerback Chevy Abraham-Jacob showed sound technique and timing to break up an early pass attempt and a tackle for loss on a third down option play saw the Chiefs punting from 4th and 14.

The offence wasted no time with quarterback Sam Darcy stretching out for a long range touchdown run, only to be brought back on a holding penalty.  The Cubs got back to work and eventually fullback Francis O’Neill sliced through the defence with a well-timed cutback and into the endzone for the opening score.  O’Neill doubled up on the two point conversion to have the Cubs in front 8-0.

The Cubs defence kept the Chiefs out of the endzone again, this time strong run defence from Nabeel Siddiqui and Cameron Prentice combined with opportunistic play from Siddiqui in scooping up a fumbled pitch to give the ball back to the offence at midfield.  The offence grabbed the chance to put wingback Alex Klaric away for a touchdown run and a two point conversion to double the lead at 16-0.

The defence held firm for the third straight series, getting a turnover on downs after the Chiefs missed with a 4th and 14 pass attempt.  Daniel Pearson, Jack Danielson, Sergen Isik, Elliot Mills-Connolly and Jon Vavouris were all getting good pressure from the defensive line while Abraham-Jacob, Vlad Matovic, Stanley Chin, Justin Chow and David Chau were all rotating in at defensive back without any drop in coverage.  The offence kept the pressure on, with fullback Hugh Tomkins taking a pitch play the distance for a touchdown and O’Neill ramming the ball into the endzone on the two point conversion for a 24-0 lead.

The Chiefs managed to peg back a score before the end of the half, hitting a deep pass down the middle for a long range touchdown.  They followed that up with a neat pass to the corner for two points to cut the lead to 24-8 at the half.

The Cubs came straight back out on offence and drove for a touchdown to open the second half.  The offensive linemen of Oscar Heidrich, Angus Bishop, Alex Panebianco, Kendall Generoso and Jack Horgan copped a few penalty calls but were manhandling the tough Chiefs’ defence.  O’Neill continued his strong showing for the night with another long run on the dive play for a touchdown.  O’Neill was showing real strength at the contact and had added an effective cutback into his running since his last outing.  The two point conversion was stopped to leave the score at 30-8.

The Cubs defence was burned badly by a fullback draw on the next series, pushing the Chiefs into a passing down but then overrunning the play and losing their run fits to allow a long range rushing touchdown.  They recovered to force an incompletion on the two point conversion to hold the score to 30-14.

The Cubs offence was methodical on its next drive, holding the ball and running time off the clock with ruthless efficiency.  The Cubs drove down close before unleashing Max Granger on 4th down for a touchdown run to the corner.  The two point pass attempt was incomplete, but the Cubs were out to a 36-14 lead with little time remaining.

The Chiefs drove in for a final score, completing a long pass down to the goalline and then throwing into the endzone on a crossing pattern for a touchdown.  Good pursuit from Mills-Connolly saw the two point pass attempt fall incomplete to finish the scoring at 36-20.

The win was a strong result for the Cubs on the road against a team which had won its last six games and will obviously feature in the play-offs.  The Cubs now have their final regular season game on the road against Wollongong this Saturday before heading into the playoffs.