Sydney Uni American Football Club

The Cubs were held out on a last ditch drive to fall 18-16 to the Titans at the St George Hockey Centre on Friday night.  The Titans made the key plays when it mattered at the end to earn the win.

The Cubs received the opening kick-off and almost took it back for a score, Brady Olsson being brought down by the last defender with the line beckoning.  Sydney Uni drove into scoring range but failed to capitalise, turning the ball over with a fumble on a shotgun snap.  The Titans then seized the initiative, driving the length of the field for an opening score.  Playing out of a three receiver set, the Titans ran off the coverage and found room for their quarterback to scramble for yardage.  Andrew Shattuck was unlucky not to bring in an interception on the drive, after pouncing on a seam pass thrown for a receiver out of the backfield.  But after driving to within 25 yards of the endzone, the Titans ran a jet sweep and caught out the containment of the Cubs defence, the receiver skirting up the sideline and in for a touchdown.  The Cubs defence regathered to hold out the 2 point conversion attemptto keep the score to 0-6, Cameron Prentice and Jack Danielson making the tackle.

The Cubs then rebounded to take the lead on a touchdown run by quarterback Sam Darcy.  Darcy settled the offence back into the groove, directing the option attack smoothly down the field and in for a score.  Darcy found wingback Harry Granger in the flats with a smart completion to get the ball down close and then kept the ball on an option play for the score. Darcy doubled up on the 2 point conversion to put the Cubs into the lead at 8-6.

The ensuing Cubs kick-off struck the front row of the return team and was gathered in and returned to mid-field.  This put the Cubs defence under immediate pressure, but they responded by driving the Titans backwards on the series.  Cameron Prentice and Andrew Shattuck combined to tie up the Titans’ quarterback on the run and pressure from Jack Danielson, Daniel Pearson and Hau Neo saw the quarterback taken for successive losses on pass plays.  Neither team was able to make good use of the ball in the time remaining in the first half with the Cubs going to the break with a two point lead.

Max Granger kicked the kick-off for a touchback to open the second half to give the Cubs’ defence good field position.  But the Titans made a  series of big plays on third downs to string together a telling drive.  The Titans’ scrambling quarterback was doing the damage and after running for a key third down conversion to get the ball into the Cubs’ half, he scrambled out of the front of a collapsing pocket, stepped the spying linebacker and was gone through the middle of the secondary for a touchdown.  Again the Cubs defence regrouped to stop the 2 point conversion attempt, but the Titans were back in the lead at 12-8.

The Cubs answered back on their next drive.  Darcy and Granger teamed up again on a long completion to move to within 20 yards of the endzone, but the Cubs got behind in the count and faced third and long for the first down.  Darcy was cool in the pocket, picking out Granger behind the coverage in the endzone for a touchdown.  After Darcy had run in the 2 point conversion, the Cubs were back on top at 16-12.

Max Granger hit another deep kick-off, with the Titans’ returner being brought down on the 16 yard line.  The Cubs took advantage of a couple of dropped passes by the Titans to hold them short of a first down and force a punt.  The Cubs then drove to mid-field and had run off much of the time in the half before facing 4th and 5.  The Cubs went for the first down but Darcy was tackled short of the marker to give up the ball with a couple of minutes left in the half.

The Titans brought in an extra lineman at running back to provide more protection and blocking for their quarterback and drove to the 15 yard line to bring up 2nd and 2.  With time running out, the Cubs made two big stops to bring up 4th and 3 and give themselves a chance to snuff out the drive.  On one of the plays, Stanley Chin played perfect coverage to break up a pass in the endzone and deny a score.  On the fourth down play, the Titans quarterback bought time in the backfield and then lured a Cubs’ defensive back off his coverage by threatening to scramble for the first down.  The QB pulled up and found the open man in the endzone for a touchdown.  For the third time, the Cubs defence rallied to gang tackle the Titans’ runner and deny the 2 point conversion.

With less than 60 seconds left on the clock, Jacob Stevens gave the Cubs life with a return to mid-field.  Harry Granger then found room up the sideline on a wingback reverse to bring the Cubs into scoring range with time to get a touchdown and the win.  However, a couple of dropped catches meant that the Cubs needed to pick up a first down and a fumbled hand-off on a wingback run saw the ball bounce free into the Titans’ secondary.  A Titans’ defender won the race to the ball to seal the win.

There is no rest for the Cubs, as they next face the Sutherland Seahawks at the St George Hockey Centre, Mutch Ave, Kyeemagh, on Friday, 5 March 2010, kick-off at 8.30pm.  The Seahawks sit on top of the Gridiron NSW Colts table with two wins in their opening matches, so it will be important for the Cubs to rebound from their loss to the Titans if they want to keep pace with the leading teams.