Sunday the 19th of May, again saw the HoundDogs U19’s players team up with their fellow teams mates to make up the South East Legion, for the longest trip of the 2019 season as they drove north to Cambridge, as they took on Cambridge Cats in the BAFA National U19’s Div1.

The Legion decided to receive the ball on kick off and the offence started to get the ball to move forward thanks to some excellent work from HoundDogs Running Back George Davis. The first quarter saw a lot of good plays from both the Legion Offence and Defence. It was early in the 2nd quarter that Hounddogs QB, Jacob Boorer connected with Davis to see the pair score the games only TouchDown. Unfortunately for the Legion the 2-point conversion attempt failed to see the score set at 6-0. The end of the 1st  quarter saw the Legion going into the break 6-0 up.

The second half saw the Cats offence start well, with their QB starting to get the ball moving forward. However, the Legion defence was equal to the task and with a few massive tackles completed by the Legion Defence. The quarter continue well for the Legion which saw a Safety taken off the board due to a penalty conceded by the Legion.

The 3rd quarter was an ebb and flow affair with some good plays form both sides of the ball.  The cats scored themselves a TD but for only the refs to pull the ball back as the Cats failed to set for the correct amount of time. The resulting play led to the Cats kicking a 3-point conversion to take the score to 6-3. The Legion came back from the kick-off with a good return from HoundDogs Riley Davis which marched the Legion downfield. The Cats managed to stop the Legion just outside their own end zone and got the ball back. However, after some good work, the Legion D ‘s Captain, Charlie Horne burst through the Cats line to tackle the QB in the endzone giving the Legion a 2-point safety to take the score to 8-3.

With the game clock starting to run out in the 4th quarter, the nail biting started! With the Legion starting to try and run the clock out, they turned to the run game, which saw Thomas Avann carry the ball through the middle of the field for the 1st down with the 2-minute whistle been blown. However, the Legion couldn’t keep the ball till the end of the game. The Cats tried their hardest to get through the Legion D, but the Ref blew the full-time whistle resulting the Legion getting their first win of the season.

Coach Luke Boorer added “This result is fantastic for the Legion and all three of the teams which make up the Legion. The win was about the players and the skills they have developed. We, the coaches can teach them the skills they need but its down to the players to gel as a team and go into the games with the right mentality. Its been such a fantastic experience for me to see the Legion being formed and seeing these players really develop into the team they are. We still have a long way to go and have a very tough challenge ahead of us this Sunday as we take on Solent SeaHawks. However, we have a few reinforcements back this week and a couple of players due back from injuries, so I am really looking forward to the challenge. I and all the HoundDogs players would like to thank Ratton School for letting us use their minibus for this away game. Cambridge is the longest trip of our season and it was great to see the lads all get to travel together. As a club we rely on community spirit and are always looking to develop community links with schools and other organisations. We would also like to thank Committee Member, Peter Drake who gave up his Sunday to come along to help meet the insurance requirements. This spirit is what the Hounddogs organisation is built on.”

The Best of Eastboure MVP’s.

Special Teams – Thomas Avann. Always ready to get into the game and made some extremely good blocks and tackles.

Defence MVP – Clayton Jarvis. Continued to battle hard on the line and got involved to make it very hard for the Cats to run the ball through the centre and sealed his edge on the D-line extremely well.

Offence MVP – George Davies. Scored the Legion TD and was a threat with the ball in his hands all game.