On Saturday 4th of September, Hellingly Phoenix played, a joint team of Hellingly HoundDogs and Kent Phoenix, played in the final tournament of the 2021BAFA South Division. The games were hosted at the home ground of Wembley Stallions. Hellingly Phoenix would play three games however the game against London Blitz was classed as a scrimmage game, a non competitive game due to low players numbers on the Blitz behalf.

Hellingly Phoenix’s defence started off well, making some big plays and containing the Kent Exiles offence from driving the ball down the field. However the offence could not get rolling in the first game and struggled to advance against the Kent Exiles defence. However Hellingly Phoenix’s defence displayed the strongest performance against the Kent Exiles holding them to three scores for the entire game. An interception from Ryan Hedges and another from Calvin Clark helped limit the high powered Kent Exiles offence. Strong pressure from Lucas Apps at nose tackle helped keep pressure on the Kent Exiles QB and strong performance from Fin Wilson, Sam Espie and Andre Silva, who was playing in his first ever contact game, helped limit the pass game.

Exiles 19 – 0 HoundDogs

The Kent Phoenix team next kicked off against the hosts, Wembley stallions. The offence had a better performance during the game and scored the first touchdown of the game midway through the first half. This was chalked off the board by the referees because the Hounddogs player celebrated as he entered the endzone. The rest of the game the Hellingly Phoenix offence came close but was simply just not good enough when the times mattered most. The defence put in another strong performance against the Wembley Stallions with, Charlie Brooker and Lucas Apps providing pressure to the Stallions QB. There was also impressive performances from Sam Espie, Fin Wilson, Ryan Hedges and Calvin Clark which helped hold the Wembley Stallions offence to only 12 points

Wembley Stallions 12 – 0 Hounddogs

For the final game of the season the Hellingly Phoenix would play a scrimmage against London Blitz which gave the younger side of the Hellingly Phoenix team a chance to show their talent. There was several good performances from Sol Irving and Joe Malloy on Offence.

Coach Luke Boorer added “It was been a massive learning curve for all our U16 players. Unlike most teams, we don’t get to train week in, week out with each other. We can see the progression from the first tournament to the last tournament. All the players have come on leaps and bounds. When you look back you can tell we were missing several key players in areas that really strengthen our game for the last tournament. But you go to these games with the players available and its great to see them step up and grab the opportunity with both hands.”

Article written by Ollie Stratford