The Red Eyes started their fall season with an impressive victory over Orlando this weekend. After a short practice week and with several people playing out of position we held Orlando scoreless until the final minutes and secured a 15-14 victory over the home team.
The Brevard pack dominated the scrums, stealing ball and disrupting the scrum half the whole game, Orlando got no offensive production from their pack at all. Dean did a great job of shoring up an inexperienced front row, Jessie and Kyle both played phenomenally at second row; thanks to Sully and Rob Saunderson for filling in at flanker. Matt played his normal great defensive at flank before splitting his cheek and leaving the game (8 stitches). Koko had the tackle of the day, chasing down their tall, stiff arming flanker, saving a try and knocking him out of the game.
Our back-line operated smoothly offensively with Colin doing a great job of securing messy ball, and Kiwi adjusting on the fly. Brandon played his first game in the back line and was always there in support. Matt played his first game for Red Eyes and was a very welcome addition with some try saving tackles and long break always. Josh had two (?) tries and had a great game. Chandler had some nice crashes despite battling a nasty cold.
Special thanks to everyone who came out to fill in wherever we needed them: Sully, Rob Saunderson, Dan Grunner, John Scott, and Kyle. If I forgot anyone, its because I took too many shots to the head. All in all it was a great performance, we physically beat them in every aspect of the game, and despite a few minutes of losing our cool, did a great job of not responding to their cheap shots.
That said, everyone who was there knows what we need to work on this week:
Support for the hammers, protecting ball more in the tackle, and defense. I think that we have the makings of a quality team, we just need some practice time together. Everyone please make an effort to be on time Tuesday, we probably don’t have lights, so we need to make the most of what natural light we have left. We will work on scrum-downs if we have the numbers and hammers off the line outs. When we lose the lights we WILL be running, so be prepared, our fitness was somewhat lacking.
Thanks,
Virgil
