LJMU Fury 12 - 9 Sheffield Sabres

The Sabres hosted the 5-2 LJMU Fury in their rescheduled 2019-20 regular season finale, with the Fury having already confirmed their place in the Division One playoffs. After the original fixture was postponed due to Storm Ciara, the wind and rain had not let up for the rearranged matchup.

In the reverse fixture, WR Mark Price ran the opening kick-off for a touchdown, but unfortunately there was no repeat this time. The kick was low and the ball eventually rolled into the endzone and the Sabres began their opening drive from the 20-yard line. The opening plays were strong, with two big gains on the ground from WR Rashalen Nayanah Rajh and QB Sam Worrall. Worrall took a sack on third down, forcing the Sabres to punt to the Fury.

On the Fury’s first offensive drive, aside from a 24-yard rush, the Sabres defensive front consistently limited their ground attack to limited gain. The Sabres’ wind-affected punt on their previous drive had meant the Fury were already in field goal range once their drive had started. After being stuffed on third down, they attempted to kick the first points of the game, but the attempt was blocked by Sabres LB Alex Garcia.

The wind began to die down late in the first quarter, so the Sabres began to utilise Worrall’s arm, but excellent coverage from the Fury forced most passing attempts to go to the check down option for short gain. Faced with a fourth down, WR Rashalen Nayanah Rajh was stuffed in the backfield for a 1-yard loss, giving the ball back to the Fury.

It wasn’t long before the Sabres were back on offence however, with DB Akym Davis intercepting a pass after it deflected off the LJMU receiver’s hands. The Sabres couldn’t capitalise however, with Worrall throwing an incomplete pass off the hands of RB Joe Dorr.

The Sabres defence continued their strong start to the game into the second quarter, the Fury’s option-heavy offence being held to minimal gain on the ground by the front 7. The majority of the second quarter became a stalemate, with excellent defensive showings from both teams. After being stopped on third down in the redzone, the Sabres put the first points on the board with a field goal from Liam Pratt. Late in the second, the Fury took the lead with a short touchdown run, but the ensuing kick was missed. The teams went into the break with the score at 6-3 to the Fury.

As the second half began, the Fury seemed to have picked up some momentum from their touchdown late in the first half, extending their lead to 12-3 with a 20-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. After the Sabres offence were stopped on fourth down just outside field goal range, the Sabres defence responded with a number of strong drives, playing how they had been through the majority of the first half. MLBs Charlie Jones and Alex Garcia both had very impressive performances on the day, with Garcia batted down two passes two accompany his plethora of tackles.

For the remainder of the game, the LJMU were completely shut down on offence, with the Sabres defence now also shutting down the broken plays that were exposing them in the first half.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Sabres finally punched the ball into the endzone after driving into the redzone several times during the game. Rookie WR Barny Thorpe scoring on an end-around run. The Sabres attempted a fake field goal to bring the score to 12-11, but K Liam Pratt was stopped short of the goal line.

As the game approached its conclusion, the Sabres were driving, needing a field goal to send the game to overtime. They reached deep into their bag of tricks and attempted a WR pass to QB Sam Worrall, but the Fury defence covered him and Thorpe threw the pass incomplete. Lining up for a long, game-tying field goal, the attempt was blocked and recovered by the LJMU Fury, sealing the victory.

The Sabres will be able to take a lot of positives from the game, on both sides of the ball, as the team had put in one of their best performances of the season despite not being able to take home the win.

The team now has a 3 week gap to their Varsity fixture against the Hallam Warriors, who finished the regular season 4-4. The game kicks off at 2:30pm at Hallam Sports Park on Wednesday 25th March. Put the date in your diaries!