Slayers back in business
The Slayers defeated the Boston 13s over the weekend and in doing so sent a warning to all clubs that they are more than just a dark horse for the 2012 Championship.
Playing in D.C., both teams came out strong with the 13s striking first in Q1 off of a Slayer's mistake inside their own 20 yard line. Sticking to their guns, the Slayers responded with a powerful try from fullback Matt McBay and halfback Nick Watson converting. The 13s answered again with the try and conversion to end the first quarter 12-6. Q2 saw both teams settling down in both attack and defense until right before the half time siren, Slayers center Martyn Nicoll easily walked into the try zone with Nick Watson converting making it 12-12.
It was exactly what the Slayers needed and the players could sense this might be theirs to lose. Coming out of the gate D.C. put on an attacking display that was easily their best ball of the season and were rewarded when forward Rich Nolte went over the line. Nick Watson added the extra two points along with another two penalty kicks to bring the score to 22-12 a the end of quarter.
The final quarter saw the Slayers attempting to put the game away through forward Vinny Schmidt who after two unsuccessful attempts finally found the tryline with Nick Watson converting. They weren’t done as Anthony Elghossain also found the line and thanks to Nick Watson’s golden boot, the extra points had them leading by over 22 points.
With the score now 34-12, the 13s regrouped and quickly put 18 points on the board in similar style to the Axemen’s crushing defeat weeks earlier. With 5 minutes left on the clock, the Slayers defense held strong and forced a 13s turnover which may have proved the difference. Their offense the completed a strong set of attacking runs, kicked the ball deep and run out the clock for the 34-30 win.
Coach Danny Hanson talked about his win, "We held 4 training sessions this week and thanks again to Chris Thorman for the pointers. We looked the best we have all season and knew this was a must win match. The 13s are a strong opponent who have definitely improved over last season and are a top tier team, but I was confident that we would have a good showing due to the hard work we put in this week. We've been fortunate to have guys step up this season and we're ready to finish strong and make some noise in the playoffs."
Other Round 6 scores.
Philadelphia Fight defeated the New Haven Warriors 72 to 6.
Jacksonville Axemen defeated Baltimore Blues 88 to 0
Rhode Island Rebellion defeated Oneida FC 100 to 12