Inverclyde Now Logo AMERICAN Football — Inverclyde Goliaths Impressive Against Glasgow Tigers

30 November, 2017 | Local

INVERCLYDE Goliaths American football team hosted Glasgow Tigers in the fourth competitive game of their affiliate season with the aim of entering the British American Football National League.

There was a last-minute rush to find a ground to play which wasn’t waterlogged and Parklea rugby pitch, Port Glasgow saved the day, allowing the game to go ahead.

Glasgow Tigers were last year’s Division Two Scottish Conference Champions progressing all the way to the British Final where they were beaten by Shropshire Revolution, so Goliaths knew this was going to be the toughest opponent they had faced.

The home side kicked off the game, with Fabio Marturano’s kick covering the full field distance resulting in a touch back. 

Tigers started on the 20-yard line, went through a quick three downs and were forced to punt giving Goliaths a chance to get the offense moving the football. The drive started and ended quickly with a disconnect between the quarterback (QB) and running back (RB). The ball landed on the ground and was recovered by the Tigers defence. 

The Goliaths’s defence were straight back on the pitch, but were giving nothing away, stopping all attempts made by the Tigers to move the ball downfield. The Goliaths’s offense returned to the field and immediately struck gold. On a read option play to the right side of the field, Brian “Bud” McFerren ran the ball past every Tigers defender and scored the opening touchdown of the day, giving an initial 6-0 lead to Goliaths.

The fortunes of the Tigers did not improve; the Goliaths’s defence had forced them back to their own 10-yard line. As they moved into punt formation, the ball was snapped over the Tigers’s punter’s head and moved out of the endzone to give a two-point score to Goliaths.

A common theme started to emerge, with the Goliaths’s defence stuffing everything that the Tigers tried. Clearly buoyant, the home side forced a fumble which was recovered on the Tigers’s own 30-yard line. After a couple of attempts to move the ball, McFerren stepped up and ran the ball for a 25-yard touchdown. The extra point was gained with QB Fabio Marturano running a QB boot leg untouched to the endzone –- 16-0 was the scoreline seeing out the first half of the game.

Goliaths received the kick-off to open the second half, progressing the ball to the midway point of the field. The Tigers had clearly made some improvements from the first half, as they were able to penetrate the offensive line and cause some disruption in the Goliaths’s back field. Minimal gains were made, and this was standard practice for the first few drives from both teams. 

It was the Goliaths who opened the half’s scoring when fullback Scott Little received the ball on a fake toss play running behind his offensive line up the middle of the field to the endzone. For the extra point on a quick slant play wider receiver Bryan Bleasdale received the pass making the two-point scoring play a success — it was 24-0 to finish the third quarter.

Both teams were slowing down their games as squad rotation took place however, on one of the few plays Brian “Bud” McFerren saw in the fourth quarter he managed to take the ball all the way to the endzone again with another outside run with some great blocking on show from the offensive line and wide receivers. The score sat at 30-0.

The Tigers, keen to get a score on the board, brought out a fantastic play on fourth down. Setting up in punt formation, the punter was able to run the ball 30 yards to the Goliaths’s 20-yard line after some rare slack play from the home team. As the pressure was heavily put on the Goliaths’s defence, they were able to stop all four attempts at a scoring play.

The home team ran the clock out to zero remaining unbeaten on their associate season. This was a fantastic fourth win for the Goliaths.

Most Valuable Players

Defensive MVP – Chris Lang

Offensive MVP – Brian “Bud” McFerren

Photo by David Hillier

The final game of the associate season will be played at an all-weather pitch at Glasgow University’s Garscube ground; this ground is permanently marked for American Football, which means the game is guaranteed to go ahead. The game is scheduled to be against UWS Pyros, who play in the British Universities League.

The team continues to recruit players for both the Senior (18-plus) and Junior/Youth teams (Inverclyde Phoenix — 12 to 18 years) Practice is on Thursdays at 7.30pm at Greenock Wanderers Rugby Club, Octavia Terrace, for the senior team and Sundays from 11.30am for the Junior/Youth team. 

The club can be contacted on inverclydeamfit@hotmail.com or via Facebook by searching for Inverclyde American Football.

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