Imperial Immortals face surprising and frustrating defeat
Their rookie-heavy squad is improving, especially the offence, but faced stiff competition from the UEA Pirates.
The Imperial Immortals came out strong in our second game of the season. During the first quarter of game we were pushing the University of East Anglia’s defence back, making them work for first downs. As the game carried on, however, the Imperial Immortals’ injuries grew, and – with our small squad size for the game – this made it difficult for us to structure ourselves.
Amongst our injured players was Francisco “what’s a training session” Costa who, after only a few training sessions, was able to make great tackles, stopping two UEA touchdowns. Fran did his best to keep up with the automatic adjustments and coverages at every play, but was unfortunately taken off after his second head injury of the game. In the end, after a few lucky breaks and some good plays, the UEA offence put up 33 points against our defence.
“As the game carried on, the Imperial Immortals’ injuries grew, and – with our small squad – this made it difficult”
On a positive note our offense had good improvement, making a lot more yards than we made against Kent, as our rookie-heavy offense gets used to the triple option style of play. A big congratulation to Michael “Alex Moran” Urashima for stepping up to the role of quarterback after our first string QB rolled his ankle. Michael had great play awareness and avoided tackles left right and centre, trying to make the right read and follow the play. Being only a rookie, this level of skill really caught the coach’s attention – he was able to pull off great plays, all without wearing red jeans.
Dan “handsome Dan” Grumberg won line MVP this game for his consistency and leadership on the O-line. Dan made sure the rest of the line was aware of the plays at every point, and always managed to execute when making crucial blocks to protect the plays.
“Dan made sure the rest of the line was aware of the plays at every point”
Once again Harry “floodgates” Lawrence was able to win overall MVP, making plays for both offence, defence, and special teams. Harry scored our only touchdown from a great return at special teams, and he didn’t even need Fran to score first this time. Harry gave his all on the field and really proved his value to the coaches and the team. The final score of the game was 33-6 to UEA Pirates – a frustrating loss for the Immortals that was not expected. We will improve upon this score and show other teams we are to be taken as a serious contender from this season, as we were before.
UEA Pirates 33 - 6 Imperial Immortals
