Axemen Game Report: Round 7
The Firehouse Subs Jacksonville Axemen secured a home playoff game with a win against the Rhode Island Rebellion in Round 7 of the USARL competition. After a long day of travel the Axemen quickly got rolling with a try scored by Brent Shorten early in the first quarter. A feisty Rebellion squad didn’t hesitate to tie up the game with a try of their own and the score was 6-6. This is when the Axemen really got the offense going with three more tries scored in the first quarter by Kenny Britt, Josh Cock, and Brenden Beedle.
The momentum rolled into the second quarter when Josh Cock literally ran over a Rebellion player for a try and with Rich Alleger’s 5th conversion kick of the game the score came to 30-6. Josh Cock and Kenny Britt scored twice more in an effort to close the gate on the Rebellion but they bounced back with another try to make the score 42-12. The Axemen managed to get the ball back with an interception from Dan Morcom, which resulted in two tries scored by Kevin Wathen and Matt Thornton, bringing the score to 54-12. The Rhode Island Rebellion continued to fight and scored their 3rd try of the game but the Axemen racked up more points on the board with two more tries from lead scorers Kenny Britt and Josh Cock. Daniel Morcom scored his first career try for the Axemen early in the 4th quarter, followed by yet another try scored by Kenny Britt and the game ended with a final score of 76-18. Notably, both Kenny Britt and Josh Cock scored 4 tries each, and Rich Alleger was good for all but one conversion kick.
Captain and Coach Brent Shorten was happy with the Axemen’s performance and impressed with the Rhode Island Rebellion’s game. “I don’t think the score line showed how good a team Rhode Island is, but it did reflect on how well we executed the attack. It’s the second game in a row that we have performed really well as a unit and simply played our style. This is arguably the best drilled Axemen team I’ve seen. We have carried on what Mat Keeley got us to last year and we are hitting our best form at the right time. We still have some things to work on but I am very impressed at this point.” The Axemen are preparing this week to travel to Boston to take on the 13’s on their home field in the final round of regular season competition. Fans can now look forward to an August 10th home playoff game for the Axemen, 5pm at the UNF Soccer fields next to Hodges stadium.
