Bouncing back from two agonizing losses the previous week the Chichester Sharks posted two excellent wins this past weekend vs the London Rebels and previously unbeaten Basingstoke Zombie Horde in rural Northern Hampshire.
First up were the much fancied London Rebels (who the Sharks split the series with last season). A first half saw the lead exchange hands several times, with the QB to WR connection of Henderson to Merton proving particularly effective (3 TD catches for the game). In the 2nd half, the Sharks were able to make a couple of key defensive stops and managed to pull ahead to seal the victory, ending the game 34-24 to the Chichester.
In the second game the Sharks faced new league team the Basingstoke Zombie Horde, which is led by two former Sharks players. The Horde pulled out a 2 score lead at half time but strong defence in the second half by the Sharks brought them back into contention. The Sharks just manged to sneak in front as time ticked down and were able to halt the Horde as time expired for a superb 36-33 victory.
Speaking about the teams performance, Sharks QB and Offensive co-coordinator Neil Henderson (who himself threw 10 TDs under centre) said “We had a tough job picking ourselves up after the losses last week but the performance today by everyone was outstanding. We were up against two very good teams today so to come away with two wins is fantastic.”
“Both games were very close and could have gone either way but our experience and patience showed as we were able to adapt to what they threw at us. We still made mistakes though and still have much to work on…..we gave up too many touchdowns and dropped too many passes so we can’t rest up”.
Game balls went to Simon Merton (5 TD receptions and 3 XP receptions) and Mike Thompson (2 TD receptions, 1 XP catch, 3 interceptions and 1 XP interception returned the length of the field for 2 pts. Next week the Sharks travel to Coventry for a game against the new Woodham Warriors (Black) team.
For an update on player stats for the season so far click here