Heavy defeat for Jets at Trojans
In their first game for almost a month the Coventry Jets suffered their heaviest defeat in a year. The West Coast Trojans dominated their visitors in a 50-3 victory that cemented their playoff place and gave them the inside track for the number one seed. The Jets, on the other hand, will miss out on the playoffs for a second straight year after Lancashire’s victory on Sunday.
Gary McNey impressed for the hosts as he took advantage of the absence of the suspended Dominic Olney and injured Adam Biggs to throw five touchdown passes, three of them to Tommy McGeorge. Stuart Miller and David Fallon also had touchdown receptions with Jordan Falconer’s run and Andy Coom’s interception return providing the other scores for the Trojans. Coventry’s only points were courtesy of Josh Hughes, who booted a 28 yard field goal on his return from a lengthy injury lay off.
Head Coach Paul Rickhuss was philosophical in defeat “we’re obviously very disappointed with the result but we’re still ahead of where we expected to be in our development as a squad. We’ll turn our attention to our remaining games and attempt to end the season on a high. We’ve achieved a lot this year and have a good foundation to build upon and will work hard through the off-season to put ourselves in a position to be more successful in 2013 and beyond. More than half of our squad were playing their first senior season and I’m delighted with their progress.”
Amongst the highlights for the Jets was first year linebacker Daniel Shodipo. The speedy youngster was playing like a man possessed before a third quarter injury ruled him out of the remainder of the game. Thomas Singleton-Wells continued to impress in his dual role of wide receiver and free safety, collecting his second interception in as many games. The Jets’ attentions now turn to the visit of the winless Merseyside Nighthawks who will travel down from Liverpool on Sunday the 29th of July.
The match, at Coventry Saracens, will kick off at 15:00 and will see a reunion with former Jets Craig Pennington, Joe Black and Benjamin Barker. Coventry have played the Nighthawks on three previous occasions, all in 2005, and all three were blowouts in favour of the Jets. Rickhuss, who played in all three previous encounters, is expecting a far sterner test this time around, “they’re obviously a far better team nowadays and we were in the midst of a three year win streak, this will be a different game altogether.” Rickhuss will be hoping that cornerback Biggs is fit to return, as well as tackle Jon Maisey.