Immortals lose to Stingers in overtime

The BUAFL season got off to a flying start this Sunday as the Imperial Immortals narrowly lost a nail-biting thriller on an overtime field goal to their Thames Valley Conference rivals, the Surrey Stingers. The two teams last met in March when Surrey managed an 18-8 win and the Immortals were out to avenge last season’s loss.

On a cold day at their home ground in Harlington and supported by their vociferous new cheerleading squad, the Immortals went behind early as the Stingers scored on a passing play. This early setback seemed to galvanise the team and both offence and defence buckled down to make plays which paid dividends when the defence created a takeaway when Geoffrey Chow recovered a forced fumble by Dexter Valencia.

On their next drive the offence marched 58 yards down the field to score. Tino Millar rushed 30 yards to the end zone only for the play to be called back for a holding penalty. However a key 1st down reception by Tight-End Michael Peacock set Millar up for a touchdown run two plays later and with a two-point conversion the Immortals took the lead. Unfortunately the Immortals defence were unable to halt the Stingers passing game and Surrey recaptured the lead before the half adding a two-point conversion.

After the break the Stingers extended their lead as they took advantage of an offensive fumble and scored another passing touchdown to make the score 8-20. Down by 12 points the Immortals offence dug deep and engineered a 35 yard drive to score. Good blocking by the offensive line led by rookie centre Zhiyao “Jackson” Xing and a first career reception for wide receiver Charles Edwards of 15 yards, set up first-year running back Alistair Boyce for his maiden rushing touchdown. Back in the game at 14-20, the Immortals defence set about countering the continued aerial assault as the Stingers completely abandoned the running game and attempted to pick apart the defensive secondary. A decent pass-rush from the Immortals defensive line and linebacking corp gave the Surrey Quarterback little time to make his throws and Cornerback Irfan Raza and Safety Arjav Trivedi were able to break up plays and almost picked the ball for multiple interceptions.

With time running down the offence once more handed the ball off to Millar and solid blocking sprung the running back for a 34 yard touchdown run, levelling the score. A failed two-point conversion meant the game would be heading for overtime.

Getting the ball first, the Immortals drove from the 25 yard line and despite solid play by the Stingers’ now tiring defence, Quarterback Rob Wolstenholme threw a beautiful spiral pass to Arjav Trivedi for a 25 yard, career-first, touchdown. Failing on the two point conversion the Immortals led 26-20. Surrey commenced their drive and the defence almost won the game, only for the Stingers to score on 4th down, but failing to convert the two-point conversion. Receiving another drive each, the Immortals failed to score as Millar was stopped inches short of the goalline on 4th down. The ensuing Surrey drive saw the Stingers clinch this hard-fought game by kicking a field goal leaving the score at 26-29.