Axemen Remain Undefeated at Home for 8 Straight Years

The Axemen finished the 2016 regular season undefeated with their 48-12 win over the Central Florida Warriors. Jacksonville has not lost at home since 2008 during the regular season competition.

The first matchup between the Axemen and Warriors in DeLand was much closer during the first half, but last weekend Jacksonville pulled away early, scoring two tries out wide from David Washington and Sean Balaban. Hayden Diggins was unable to make the conversion kicks but scored a try of his own to bring the score to 12-0. David Washington scored his second try of the game, and Ben Nicoll’s kick is good for the conversion sending the Axemen into halftime up 18-0.

Early in the second half Ben Nicoll scored and Will Mueller’s kick was good to widen the lead to 24-0. The Warriors answered back with 4 points, but Nicoll scored again, and with Diggins completed the conversion for a 30-4 score. Another 6 points from Kevin Wathen and Hayden Diggins upped the score to 36-4 but the Warriors refused to give up and managed another try to put up 4 more points.

With the score at 36-8 David Washington scored two tries for the Axemen and Diggins conversions brought the score to 48-8. The Warriors ended the game with one more try to bring the final score to 48-12 and the Axemen will go into the 2016 playoffs undefeated.

“This week we completed our sets early which I was happy with,” said Coach Ben Nicoll. “We also blew a lot of opportunities and dropped a lot of ball but we will work on that during the week and hopefully convert those opportunities into point this week.”

The Axemen will host the Central Florida Warriors on Sat August 6th in the USARL South Division Semi-Final.