Pirates suffer heavy defeat at home to Tamworth

July 12th, 2017

East Kilbride Pirates 7 – Tamworth Phoenix 59

The Pirates poor run of form continued with a heavy defeat at home to conference leaders Tamworth. The visitors had eight possessions in the first half and scored on every one of them.

Tamworth received the opening kick off and immediately set about moving the ball up field. Just 5 plays later and QB Patrick Daley passed to Will Hussey from 15 yards for the go ahead TD, with Alex Lenkowski tagging on the PAT. 7-0 quickly became 14-0 with Daley running the ball home from 23 yards and Lenkowski converted. East Kilbride appeared helpless and saw Daley again find Hussey, this time from 26 yards for another converted TD. Before the quarter was out, Daley housed the ball from 7 yards to add his second rushing TD, Lenkowski again converting. The period ended with Tamworth 28-0 ahead and again moving the ball while the home side had failed to even achieve a single first down.

The second quarter started the way the first had ended with Daley notching up another passing TD. The recipient this time was Ben Burslem with a 26-yard catch. Lenkowski’s kick was initially signalled good but subsequently ruled out on a technicality. Daley and Burslem teamed up again (32 yards) for the sixth TD of the day and Lenkowski converted. EK’s day was summed up when a lateral Tamworth pass to Ryan Reid was dropped, but he still had time to pick the ball up, reverse his field and run it home from 46 yards. There was some suspicion of it having been an incomplete forward pass, but any protest was academic. Although East Kilbride were now at least making their drives last more than 4 plays, it was still the visitors who scored again, although they had to settle for a 32 yard field goal from Lenkowski on this occasion. A touchback on the restart saw EK take over from their own 20. They quickly moved the ball to the Tamworth 3-yard line only to have time expire at the end of the half.

At the start of the 3rd Quarter Phoenix were finally forced to punt. However they even did that well, with the ball going out of bounds at the EK 1 yard line. Scott Widdowson was then caught in his own endzone while trying to run the ball out, giving another 2 points to Tamworth. The Pirates then had to kick off and a good return left Phoenix with a short field. They worked the ball down to the 4 from where Reid ran in his second TD, but Aaron Callaghan blocked the PAT. In the final period, following an Iain McFarlane interception, the Pirates finally got on the scoreboard. Four successive carries by Adam Kyle saw him break the plane with an 8-yard run. Steven Kane kicked the PAT to conclude the scoring.

Next up is a trip to face the Merseyside Nighthawks, and the Pirates will be hoping for a better performance against a team they have already lost to this year.

Report by Bill Campbell
Photo courtesy Duncan Gray, Duncolm Photography

 

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