A Hooligan's Game: Sarnia at home (June 8)

Grimsby Gentlemen 43 Sarnia Saints 39

Record:

First place Sarnia: played 3, won 3 with 3 bonus points (although our game was halted for rain in Sarnia last week) and a + 98 point differential
Last place Grimsby: played 2, won 0 with 0 bonus points

Venue: First home game of the season at Alway field : with our new (incompleted) patio
We could use the main field for the first time on Thursday at practice

Weather: after raining all spring so far, it was a sunshiny day (colder wind that you might have thought) a nice 21 degrees a bit of a wind that we were against the first half

Referee: our old friend Jeff Dahl (he said I think it is the first game I have referred that Grimsby has won- maybe it has been his fault all this time)

Attendance: my best guess was between ten and a thousand (never was a good guesser) - notable celebrities in the crowd were Frank Shilte (with his new Raptor's gear), Dean Nasby former president of the club, Freddy Sayers with his two daughters and I believe I saw Drake (supporting Sarnia).

Team: It will take awhile to write for we had subs for the first time in long time: we had to do some actual coaching
(1) Chris Atkinson (40 min) , (20 Brendan Vorstenbosch (60 min), Jon Millington , (4) Ryan Montgomery (then moved to prop for 40 min), (5) Vic Blaney (80 min at lock but only realized what he was doing after 40 min), (6) John Fraser (40 min), (7) Nick Lord (30 min- injured), (8) Dean Crosier(first game in two years), (9) Joe Faint (40 min)(first game for Grimsby) (10) Derrick Weber (40 min then 40 min fullback), (11) Josh Thompson, (12) Will George (has come back home to Grimsby after several years in the in the minors with Stoney Creek),(13) Dan two name (40 min then 40 at nine), (14) Joe Sanders (15) Laughlin Hill (40 min), (16) Myron Jurychuck (50 min at flanker), (17) Jake D'Achille (40 min at 10) (first game with Grimsby in a couple of years after playing at Peterborough), (18) Martin Van Den Hurk (40 min at lock), (19) Sean Fraser (no relation) (40 min at 13 - first game with Grimsby and first score for Grimsby),(20) Chris Golding (30 min-first game with Grimsby)

Game: Lots of scoring

Sarnia came with a much better team than anticipated and played well the first half.
Their young tall # ten scored a good try at about 5 minutes (not converted) but our good young 13 (Dan) scored a try chasing a kick that was mishandled at about 10 minutes (Dan converted). Then Sarnia scored two quick tries (converted one) because they moved the ball well in the backs and we had trouble tackling them. At about 20 minutes Dan made a good penalty kick (about 40 m). But at about 35 min we (Dan) had a yellow card for a high tackle and Sarnia scored quickly after that. At 40 min or so they got a yellow for intentional knock on (after several) I missed this because I was not paying attention but somehow we got the ball down field and Webs passed to Chris Atkinson (who somehow got down field also) and fell down in the endzone. Webs converted. Then, (when you thought there could be no time left) Sarnia scored and then at the last play of the half they scored again with a convert. (they were one man down) Oh no
I originally thought going into the game we had a good team and would surprise Sarnia with our skill
but they were up quickly on us and we could not get the ball out to the backs cleanly, Sarnia was clearly not worried, yet.

Half time score Grimsby Gentlemen 17 and Sarnia Saints 34

We put in our subs and hoped for a better result in the second half.
Then everything came together like a plan

20 min in Josh got a nice ball from Will and ran down the right sideline (I painted them myself) where he was high tackled for a penalty try and a bit of a dust up. Then in the last quarter of the game we started to run against them like they were running against us in the first half.. Dan made a nice break to run a long ways to score under the posts which he converted. Another run a bit later allow Will to offload to Sean to touch down. Dan converted with a drop kick (I took too long with the tee) so we went ahead by five. Then Jake kicked down field, chased it and got it back to score under the posts (missed drop kick). We had out scored Sarnis in the second half by 26 unanswered points.. However at the final whistle they scored an unconverted try to give them a losing bonus point.

Final Score Grimsby Gentlemen 43(6): Sarnia Saints 39(7)

Nice comeback - nice win - must be our fitness

Scoring
Dan Prentice-Chowen 2 tries, 1 penalty, 4 converts, (21 points) 1 yellow

Chris Atkinson - 1 try (5 points)

Josh Thompson - 1 penalty try (7 points)

Shawn Fraser - 1 try (5 points)

Jake D'Achille - 1 try (5 points)

Derrick Weber - 1 conversion (2 points)

Introduction to some of our new players (my camera battery died so I only got one - I thought it was good just to remember my camera)

Joe Faint: first league game with Grimsby (from England)

Not many of Sarnia players stayed afterward as they wanted to get to Norfolk to the first team game which might have been already over by the time they got there because information was that a big fight broke out after 20 minutes and the ref abandoned the game. (hope none of our first team were hurt)
Could all be fake news. But Norfolk lost 34 - 0.

Record
First place (still) Sarnia: played 4 Won 3, with 5 bonus points
Fourth place (out of 6) Grimsby: played 3, Won 1 with 1 bonus point.

Next week (June 15) Hamilton Hornets Away

Below is Webs and Chris taking on ten of the opposition