The Maidstone Pumas vs London Olympians (photo-gallery)

[Pumas 0 – Olympians 54] external photos by Vici Holdsworth – [http://www.picsbyvic.co.uk/09%20London%20Olympians%20v%20Maidstone%20Pumas/index.html]

Having the game scheduled for a Saturday was always going to be worrying for head coach Warren Smart and offensive co-ordinator Stuart Miller, wherein key players would not be able to make the trip. However the mental state of every inducted Olympian player is to step up to the plate!! With 4 O linemen, 3 D linemen and a host of others playing out of position the team set off. However there was 7 different TD scorers, 346 yards rushing with an average of 12.4 yards per carry and every player on the trip played!

Total domination was the mindset and actuality as the Olympians defence controlled the Pumas offence with a tally of 3 interceptions resulting in 70+ yards in returns, a fumble recovery and 40 yds of sack yardage courtesy of defensive backs James Goddard, Ashton Campbell, and Ronan Eaton. A persistent thorn in the flesh of the opposition was also LB/D Lineman Victor Olimide who made sure the Pumas QB was always on the run!

The first quarter saw the Pumas acquiring a sound belief that their squad were in a position to make something happen on the afternoon front as they managed a reasonable drive. The Olympians didn’t get going much on their first drive and this had the Pumas in sound voice of triumph, though it proved premature because their ensuing drive was halted after 3 downs. The O’s got a grip of the game and QB Neale Canning stunned the opposition with a misdirection play to Kenny Bello (wide receiver) for a 33 yard TD. A bad snap on the PAT left the score 0-6 to the O’s which also stayed thus to the end of the first quarter.

Kenny picked up from his previous momentum and took a catch from Neale 35 yards out and breezed past the Pumas corner to score his second of the day giving the Olympians a lead of 0-12. Another of the 11 ball carriers for the day on the O’s squad for the day Adrian John ran the PAT in for a 2-point conversion to bring it to 0-14. Coach Stuart now decided to spread the play but keep it simple on the day and speedy running back Seun Shobande took a pitch for a 25 yard sprint to score his season first TD making it 0-20 but the PAT was missed by the kicker. The makeshift O’s team was starting to gel and restrict the Pumas to glimpses of what could be…perhaps!

The Pumas were not aware of the second surge that was to crown the third quarter and beyond when they managed to sack the O’s quarterback and their experienced defensive back Carl Cooke took and interception. A few first downs were all they could muster and the rest was all about spreading the scoring amongst the O’s team. Rookie running back Toyin Dawudu, having come back from a 4 week injury, had a series of carries and topped it off with a 6 yard TD followed by a 3 yard TD from CJ (Carl James) – both PATs were no good [0-32].

In the fourth quarter the onslaught was in full force when exciting running back Chris Forrester Osei outran the Pumas DBs for a 15 yard TD with QB Tomi Biberovic finding Neale in the end zone for a 2-point PAT, wide receiver Shaun Stillwell ran a misdirection for 56 yards for an awesome TD complimented by Folley Ogundele’s 2-point PAT. With the score now at 0-46 and about 2 minutes to go the O’s decided to finish their drive and receiver Folley did just that with a 20 yard counter play run into the end zone and this was the last play of the game

Olympians MVPs for the game were Defence: Ashton Campbell / Offence Mark Chaffer and Daryn Stillwell / Special Teams kick off 2nd unit and overall MVP: Victor Olamide.