1st Quarter:
CAL- Slater 3 pass to Slater (Young Kick); 7-0
2nd Quarter:
BAL- Lovell FG 32; 7-3
CAL- Young FG 42; 10-3
BAL- Rogers 18 pass to Emerson (Lovell Kick); 10-10
3rd Quarter:
CAL- Young FG 37; 13-10
BAL- Lovell FG 23; 13-13
4th Quarter:
BAL- Lovell FG 45; 13-16
CAL- Young FG 40; 16-16
BAL- Lovell FG 24; 16-19
The Ballymore Tigers won the 49th Crystal Bowl with a Field Goal with just 38 seconds remaining. Kicker Todd Lovell kicked his fourth FG in a low scoring and tight affair.
The Caligara Bulldogs had started off well, with a 16 play Touchdown drive, engineered by QB Zack Slater. Slater passed to his namesake Seth for the go-ahead score.
The Tigers and Bulldogs combined for 14 punts in a defensive struggle. The Tigers’ defence pressured Slater all day and forced two early interceptions (Adams and Randall) from panicked throws. The Bulldogs were stingy up front and forced Ballymore to pound it out in the running game.
It was 10-10 at halftime, 13- apiece after three quarters and 16-16 with just minutes remaining as the Tigers embarked on their final drive. It really felt that it could have gone either way.
Bulldogs’ QB Zach Slater was frustrated with his two errors ” This is on me, if I hadn’t thrown those two picks, we would have scored more points and won. Our defence was superb and everything else went our way. We had a good plan but it wasn’t executed fully by me. It’s going to be a long off-season.
Fourth year QB for the Tigers, Cam Rogers, showed the faith of management- who traded for him with the Iomagh Steelers. He said “I am so glad to help bring the championship to Ballymore. I’ve had nothing but great support from everyone here, it’s been like a dream. It was a dogfight, no- a catfight out there. The wilder animals won. We had to fight like a champion today, to get this in the bag. So proud!”
Many of the Tigers’ players had tasted Crystal Bowl defeat three years ago, so this was a vindication for them.
Stats-wise: Zack Slater was 24 of 48 passing, for 238 yards (1 TD/2 INT). Jeremy Franklin had 66 yards on the ground and Seth Slater caught 13 passes for 134 yards and one score.
For the Tigers: Cam Rogers went 14/25 for 145 yards and a score, plus he added 41 yards on the ground. Tito Hawkins ran for 64 yards. DeRon Styles had 10 total tackles.
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