Great Britain – BUCS: UWE Bullets shoot past Birmingham Lions with 82-0 win
The University of West England Bullets continued on their streak of domination through the UK, handing the Birmingham Lions an 82-0 loss.
While Birmingham opened up the game doing something that SGS failed to do last weekend in tackling Jason-Matthew Sharsh on multiple occasions, the Bullets quickly asserted their dominance as Karekin Brooks went 60 yards untouched on an outside zone run to open scoring.
The Lions opened up their next drive with a very well-run kick return to the 40-yard-line by Kevin Davies but were unable to capitalize on this field position. A tackle-for-loss and muffed snap brought up a third-and-long, where quarterback Ethan Payne was picked off by Rashaun Hinds on a pass intended for the back. The big man ran the interception back for UWE’s second score before British wideout Zay Amaechi brought in a lofted fade ball over a defenders head for the conversion.
Despite some strong running from the Lions’ backfield, they still found no success. A Ramari Bennett tackle-for-loss led the visiting side to punt to Sharsh, who returned the ball all the way inside the 10-yard-line. The Bullets took just one play to punch in the score, as Brooks went in untouched up the middle.
The following offensive drive for the Bullets was a short one, as Jadrian Clark hit a wide-open AJ Mealing deep downfield for a 70-yard touchdown pass.
A drive later, they faced their first 4th down situation; Clark found the reliable Sharsh by the first down marker and the ex-Rainbow Warrior did the rest, taking the ball another 40 yards for a touchdown.
Photo: Andy Watts
Coach Maher put the offense in the hands of KK Brooks for a drive of wildcat; it resulted in Brooks being caught in the backfield for what should be a tackle-for-loss, but driving a further eight yards for his third score of the first half.
Another great punt return from Sharsh in which he spammed the ‘spin move’ button until he found himself down inside the five set up the UWE offense at the goal line. A quick slant to Amaechi gave the Bullets another score.
The final moments of the first half began with a muffed snap by the Lions recovered by Ramari Bennett, putting the ball back in Clark’s hands with 55 seconds on the clock. Sure enough, Clark found the endzone again, this time on a double-move to Max Hardy. AJ Mealing caught the conversion with 10-yards of space to make the score 60-0 as the teams headed off for half time.
The second half was much of the same, with the only difference being a running clock. Clark hit Sharsh deep for a touchdown and converted the two-point attempt to open the half. Clark would go on to find Harry Buckland for his first touchdown of his freshman season on the following drive before the end of the third period.
Photo: Andy Watts
UWE’s next drive saw them turn the ball over on downs for the first time this year, but not without some controversy; Clark launched a deep ball to Jahmoy Stewart-Sinclair on third down, bouncing off the defenders limbs before the ex-NFL Academy receiver impressively kept concentration and brought the ball in on the back of his leg in the endzone – unfortunately he had his first touchdown of the year stripped off him as the officials called the pass incomplete. Stewart-Sinclair had a chance to rectify the mistake on fourth down, but dropped a perfectly placed ball in the endzone.
The final score came by way of Victor Wright on the defense, as he picked off Birmingham’s backup quarterback in the flats and ran the ball in for the touchdown. Another successful conversion made the score 82-0 to the defending champions.
Photo: Andy Watts
The commentary crew on the day awarded the MVP award to KK Brooks for his three rushing touchdowns in the first half.
The Bullets are on the road next Sunday as they head to Cardiff to face the winless Cobras, while the Lions have a week off before heading back to Bristol to face SGS.
