Jsckdonville Axemen Post Their Third Straight Win

[danno]

Another big win for the Axemen.  It wan'tas hot this afternoon as it has been in previous weeks.  There was a good turn out for the regular season home opener.

From
http://www.americanrugbynews.com/artman/publish/rugby_league/Axemen_Shut_Down_Bulls.shtml

The Jacksonville Axemen brought Aston’s unbeaten run to an abrupt halt with a stunning 26-6 victory over the Bulls Saturday in Week 4 action in the American National Rugby League.

The Axemen scored early through a Zac Matta try and never looked back.

Jacksonville’s relentless attack and stodgy defense set up an 18-0 lead by the end of two quarters at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.

The Bulls gave up too many easy yards around the play-the-ball and missed too many first up tackles to stay in contention.

Former University of Colorado linebacker Akarika Dawn, who has returned to the Axemen after a stint playing rugby league in Australia, was virtually unstoppable once he built up a head of steam and nabbed two tries as just rewards for his efforts.

Axemen halfback Brent Shorten was another force who played a big hand in Jacksonville’s win. Shorten scored a pair of tries of his own and set up Dawn’s second touchdown with a heads up 20 meter run before offloading to the fast finishing Dawn.

Other try-scorers included Matt Schell and Bob Knoepfel, the latter producing numerous barnstorming runs over the middle of the ruck.

Aston’s star Australian import Daniel Wagon was bottled up well by Jacksonville, who gave him little room to work, set up plays or look for inside runners. The Bulls’ lone four-pointer was scored in the third quarter by Marcus Vassilakopoulos. Nate Smith converted the extra points.

“It was tough for us, we really didn’t have much firepower up front,” Vassilakopoulos told ARN. “They shut us down but we’ll regroup. We’ve got a couple of weeks off, we’ve got a lot to work on and we’ll get ready for the [Philadelphia] Fight in two weeks.”

Elsewhere, the Connecticut Wildcats posted their maiden win of the season by pasting the Northern Raiders 50-10. The Cats were in control from the get go, while the Raiders played short for periods of the game due to a lack of substitutes and players carrying injuries.

Chris Taglia and Everton Henriques scored for the Raiders, while player/coach Joel Venables added a conversion. Eric Moreira of the White Plains rugby club put in another top effort, particularly on defense.

In the nation’s capital, the Washington DC Slayers also notched their opening win of the season with a 54-14 triumph over the Pittsburgh Vipers.

Jaron McLaurin (2) and Tom O’Connor (2) led the way for DC. Halfback Tai Vakatale played well and ran the midfield superbly until having to leave the field with a mild concussion. DC led 32-14 at halftime.

“It was a hard fought game and the Vipers tackled hard,” said Slayers coach Bill Weeks.

In the Friday night game in Boston, the New Haven Warriors scored a 30-18 victory over the hometown 13s.

Five tries to three was the final margin in what was a physical contest. The 13s couldn’t capitalize on some significant final moves at critical moments; while the Warriors made every post a winner.

MVP Noel Tupou (2), Ed Reed, Tony Sunia and Brian Lee got on the scoreboard for New Haven. Roy Leoni went 4-from-5 on conversions and landed a penalty goal to round out the scoring.

For Boston, George Aroyan (2) and Lance Gaines got tries, while Stephen Carson converted all three scores.

Standings (unofficial):
New Haven Warriors (4-0) 20pts
Jacksonville Axemen (3-0) 15pts
Aston DSC Bulls (3-1) 15pts
Philadelphia Fight (2-1) 11pts
New York Knights (2-1) 11pts
Washington DC Slayers (1-3) 7pts
Connecticut Wildcats (1-2) 7pts
Fairfax Eagles (1-2) 6pts
Boston 13s (1-3) 5pts
Pittsburgh Vipers (1-3) 4pts
Northern Raiders (0-3) 0pts

And to stay up to speed on everything from the exciting world of rugby league we highly recommend visiting our friends at www.rleague.com


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[JaxByDefault]

Great start.