IC American Football | Divison champs

After a season-long fight, it all boiled down to the last Sunday of the regular season. To be or not to be, it’s now or never: all three play-off qualifiers (Imperial Immortals, Cambridge Pythons and Kent Falcons) could come out top of the division if the day went their way.

While our play-off rivals had a game between them, we travelled to Royal Holloway to face their Bears. The coming spring had brought an end to their hibernation, and the 0-7 team were giving tough resistance to teams that used to walk over them just before the Christmas break. We had to fight to not hand them their first win of the season.

And fight we did. After a short offensive drive and a punt on the Royal Holloway part, the ball was handed to Immortals offense. Having found their footing in the previous 46-0 victory against the then-reigning Pythons, the offense gained five to ten yards per carry faster than the Bears could blink. In no time at all the ball ended up in the notoriously grabby hands of Josemi (is it pronounced Hosemi? Yosemi? You choose!) in RHUL endzone after a gorgeous 30-yard pass. 6-0.

Immortals defense proved why they’re the best in the league and forced a three-and-out, officially giving RHUL offense less action than you can get at an average sports night. Ball returned to Immortals offense, which slowly but surely moved forwards until the very beginning of the second quarter when Jason made me recycle his old “Kill’em” nickname by doing exactly what it says on the tin. After waiting for an appropriately-equipped ambulance due to a suspected neck injury on RHUL side, the game was called 6-0 to us. Thankfully, Will the Bear does not seem to have suffered any lasting injury, and we sincerely wish him a speedy recovery. After this rather sombre win, we tuned into Kent-Cambridge to witness a Falcons victory, meaning all three of top division teams ended up in a 6-2 tie. Due to having the undoubtedly best scores, both on offense and defense, the tie was broken in our favour, handing us the 1A South East conference title along with a 3rd seed in the play-offs, a home game at #FortHarlington and a hangover to start the week.

Look for us on www.facebook.com/ImmortalsAFC/ for updates or if you’ve decided to join the champions and #BecomeImmortal for the next season. #HustleHitNeverQuit