LEEDS CELTICS

In the season opener against the Bradford Bears, many returning players had the narrow overtime defeat in last year's fixture playing heavily on their minds, and stepped onto the field determined to not allow a repeat occurrence.

It became quickly apparent that this mindset had rubbed off onto the rookies on the team, and in the opening kickoff, new running back Will Stephens-Smith returned a short kick from the Bears back to their own 30 yard-line, setting up the offence with great field position. This was immediately capitalised on by the Celtics with a short pass to Jack Fuller, who then proceeded to evade the Bradford defence and score on the very first play!

Due to the field goal unit not being installed, the Celtics were forced to attempt a 2-point conversion, which was unfortunately stopped short of the goal-line, leaving the score 6-0 to the visitors.

 

The Celtics managed to pin the Bears back deep in their own territory on the subsequent kickoff, and the pressure now fell to the Leeds Defence to hold their opposition to no points. 

Clearly agitated by the early score, the Bears attempted to run the ball through the middle of the Celtic defence, but this attempt was quickly halted by a combination of the Defensive Line & Linebackers, causing a fumble, recovered by the Celtics, very early on in the game.

The offence took to the field once again in an attempt to build on the early momentum of the game, but it appeared that the early combination of a touchdown and fumble had shocked the Bradford defence into life; despite some excellent power running from new Fullback Oscar Taherbeigi and veteran Halfback Toby Richardson, while the Celtics were able to make some headway, they weren't able to punch it in for the score. 

 

It quickly became apparent that this would be the tone for the rest of the game - a strong defensive performance from the Celtics forced many turnovers, notably 'JC' Carmichael's first interception of the season, rookie linebacker Rory Ellis' fumble recovery, and the defensive ends' prevention of reverse plays. However, due to issues inherent at the start of any season, the offense were unable to convert these opportunities into points, despite many close moments, including otherwise big gains being called back due to penalties. 

 

Unfortunately, just before the end of the 3rd quarter, starting quarterback Dan Tope-Charlton went down with an elbow injury after a Bradford linebacker broke through the offensive line for a sack; this meant the job of leading the offense fell to new quarterback James Warren, who did a great job of taking over and trying to move the ball down the field. 

 

Whilst the momentum of the game still remained with the Celtics, this didn't prevent errors from creeping in, and a succession of preventable penalties late in the 4th quarter gave the Bears their first real scoring chance of the game. Unfortunately, Bradford seemed to rally around this opportunity, and were able to find a lane for the running back into the endzone for 6 points. Bradford also elected to attempt a 2-point conversion, but the Celtics defence was able to pull together and hold the scores level at 6-6. 

 

As the clock wound down, both teams' offences tried to move into a higher gear in an attempt to score a last-minute touchdown to avoid the game going into overtime, a situation all too familiar for last year's players. However, as the final few seconds of regular time ticked away, it became apparent that this sudden-death format, in which each team has 4 downs in which to attempt to score from 25 yards out, would decide today's victor.

 

The Bears elected to attack first, and the Celtics defence took to the field. Despite a tense four downs, the Bears were unable to make any ground, and returned to the sidelines unsuccessful. The Celtics fared little better, throwing an interception to a Bears player, who was fortunately dragged down well before he was able to score a game-ending touchdown.

 

In the second overtime play, the Celtics forced yet another fumble, and were able to leave the field early. Determined to better their last outing, the Celtics were able to push all the way to the goal-line, but despite a concerted effort, were unable to punch the ball through into the end-zone.

 

On the third possession, the Bears elected to defend first, and this time the Celtics offence was finally able to click into place - a perfectly executed end-around by rookie receiver Recardo Nguty found the goal-line, and the game was almost over. The Celtics defence had to hold for 4 plays to seal the first win of the season. The dominance that the defence had shown throughout the majority of the game became quickly apparent once more, as the Bears were unable to make any ground on their 4 attempts, and after a long and hard-fought afternoon of football, the Celtics emerged victors, the score 12-6.