The Lancashire Wolverine Colts secured their place in the Junior Contact National Final with an outstanding 19-6 win over the Lanarkshire Longhorns this past Sunday. The game was the third meeting between the two teams this season and promised to be a tight affair once again. During their regular season bouts each team won with a shut-out victory as well as taking identical 6-2 records into the playoffs.

Buoyed by a quarter final shut-out against the Nottingham Caesars, the Colts defence made a strong start ensuring the host Longhorns had drawn a blank at the halfway mark. The Colts offence also showed some promising signs in the first half. However, despite some successful drives, it would take until after the half before they found the end zone against the tough Scottish defence.

The offence found their breakthrough in the third quarter. A long field goal from the strong boot of Jordan Bowen gave the Colts the lead. Soon afterwards, he added the extra point to a Ben McNally touchdown pass which had found Ryan Morton in the right corner of the end zone.

The defence continued to be aggressive and their relentless pressure on Longhorns’ quarterback paid off when Tom Salerno stepped in front of a hurried throw and returned the ball for the Colts second touchdown. Jordan Bowen again tagged on the extra point to make the score a commanding 17-0.

There was time for a late Longhorn consolation score but their attempt at a two point conversion was intercepted by Safety Ryan Morton and the Colts defence again returned the ball for points. Those two points proved to be the last of the game and with the 19-6 win the Colts celebrated booking their place in the National Final for the third time in the last four seasons.

With regular season victories over divisional rivals Manchester, Leeds and Gateshead followed by play-off victories over Nottingham and Lanarkshire, the Northern Champion Colts will now compete in a game ‘for all the marbles’ against the Southern Champion London Blitz. The final will be held at 1.30 pm on August 26th at Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield.

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Recently, the Lancashire Wolverines joined the ‘Wolverines Unite’ programme to unite fellow Wolverine football clubs from all over the world. The idea of this concept is to foster development and player transfer opportunities all over the world and strengthen the Wolverine brand.

After brief discussions with the West Coast Wolverines based in Australia, the Lancashire Wolverines have joined the Wolverines Unite programme and will be promoting the new alliance to our members. This provides fantastic opportunities for players from the Lancashire Wolverines to travel to Australia in our off-season and train or even play with our West Coast brothers and vice-versa. Recently Kyle Webzell, who was a member of the Lancashire Academy affiliated Chorley Buccaneers moved to Western Australia with his family and has already become an active member of the West Coast Wolverines club.

Edited Jake Barrow

The Lancashire Wolverines were looking to solidify their status at the top of the Division 1 North but in their way stood a small Gateshead squad who were striving to avoid a losing record this year.

The home team opted to receive the ball and it was returned well by Chris Astley, setting up a good drive behind quarterback David Mead. But the Senators’ defence stepped up in the red zone and Lancashire could only put up 3 points with a big Astley field goal.

The away side couldn’t capitalise with the offence turning the ball over on downs after a huge Jack Watson sack on quarterback Ross Elliott.

Another good drive for Lancashire ended in another field goal attempt, which went wide in strong wind.

The Senators’ offence then drove well, with Elliott hitting his receivers and running back Evander Harewood breaking a couple of big runs. However they turned the ball over on downs yet again, this time in the red zone.

Gateshead’s defence stood up well though, getting the ball back for their offence before Watson made an interception on Elliott, turning the ball back to Lancashire in what was becoming a cagey affair.

Gateshead’s next punt return brought a levelling tackle by Lancashire’s Craig Oliphant. But the Senators began to click. Harewood and Elliott both broke big runs before Lancashire’s Black Swarm defence got into the backfield and brought the running back down for a 10-yard loss. But even that couldn’t stop the North East team as Elliott got the ball out to Matthew Long for a huge gain and a first down.

Gateshead got down to Lancashire’s one yard line just before the two minute warning. Ross Elliott then pushed forward on the sneak and grabbed the first touchdown of the game. Harewood kicked the successful PAT, leaving the score at 3-7 to Gateshead.

The second half began equally as cagey, with Lancashire utilising their set of big full backs, James Lago and Craig Oliphant, to run over the Senator’s defensive line. As they began to drive though, the referees missed a clear pass interference and the offence stalled, turning over on downs.

The home team’s defence stepped up yet again, forcing Gateshead to punt. A long drive followed, with a Phil Riley reception moving the chains before Mead, Lago and running back Chris Littler all picked up moderate gains. But yet again the Senators’ defence, missing Great Britain safety Matt Kidd, stopped the Wolverines short. The home team kicked a field goal to make the score 6-7, setting up a close finish.

A few exchanges later and Lancashire looked set to drive again, but Ben Forster stepped up to intercept Mead. Gateshead began to run the ball and count the clock down. A facemask penalty on Lancashire pushed the ball closer to their end zone, before Harewood broke out another good run, sneaking into for a touchdown at their pylon.

The game looked over and essentially was when Gavin Barr picked off Mead again, as the quarterback launched down field.

The Wolverines slip to third in the division whilst Gateshead has to beat Merseyside and Shropshire to gain a .500 record in their final to games.

Game report and photography courtesy Nathan James Sharrocks. www.dblcoverage.com

The Lancashire Wolverines halted the Coventry Jets in a fiery affair in Blackburn yesterday, as they continued to reign at the top of the Division One North.

As they have all season, the home side came out all guns blazing with a great return by Chris Hearle setting them up in good field position.  The Jets’ defence couldn’t stop the run and pass combination that ended with quarterback Jack Barton hitting tight end Rick Cole in the end zone for 6.  Coventry stepped it up on special teams and Dominic Olney blocked the PAT.

Up stepped Joe Brammer but the Lancashire defence, and particularly good pressure from Stephen Donaldson-Ellison, stopped the Coventry offence dead, forcing them to punt.

Barton couldn’t repeat his opening drive though, throwing an interception to Olney.

The Jets began to pick up momentum but stalled again in the red zone, turning the ball over on downs.

It was then the game began to turn a little contentions. An air horn sounded from the Jets’ sideline each time Barton went to snap the ball for Lancashire.  In credit to the referee and Coventry’s coaching staff though, they stamped out the issue immediately, but it didn’t stop the game getting edgy, as Christian Faccin recovered a fumbled snap to Brammer for Lancashire on the next drive.

Heading into the second quarter and Coventry began to fall apart. Penalties began to drive them back and their players and coaches were clearly getting frustrated.

Lancashire capitalised, as Barton hit Cole with a great pass over the middle to move the chains before receiver Neil Sullivan gratefully met a spiral in the back corner of the end zone. The PAT was hit again by Coventry’s special teams but had enough legs to go over for the extra point. 13-0 Lancashire.

The Black Swarm defence stood tall again on the next drive with Sam Bloomfield stripping running back Anthony Perkins of the ball and recovering the fumble. The offence couldn’t capitalise and punted back to the Jets, pinning the away side deep.

Bloomfield again proved effective as he got into the backfield to force a safety. The Wolverines led 15-0.

With less than two minutes before the half Brammer came out slinging with a couple of good completions. However a short pass a couple of plays later fell straight to Lancashire’s Lee Horrocks who returned the pick for 6 – PAT blocked by Bless Ango.

21-0 down at the half could have clinched the game but in the third quarter Coventry looked a different side. They came out more organised and their defence stepped up.

Thomas Singleton-Wells grabbed an interception on a Barton pass attempt. The offence couldn’t capitalise but the Jets’ defence brought their first points of the day with Oli Campbell bringing down Hearle in his own end zone for a safety.

The Jets offence finally began to click. Brammer found a couple of good completions before a fine pass to Sam Hyde got them 6 points. A fake field goal attempt was then converted by Singleton-Wells who ran well to the pylon. At 21-10 the Wolverines began to wobble. They couldn’t move the ball and the Jets’ offence was on a roll.

Donaldson-Ellison got to Brammer for the sack but some fine running from Perkins, who had a massive game, got them in a good position early in the 4^th quarter.

Brammer then hit Olney in the end zone with a good pass over the middle. With the PAT converted the game was well and truly on. 21-17.

The Wolverines punted the ball back to Coventry but then forced a turnover on downs to get their offence back on the field. However running back Chris Littler sent them back with a deserved unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and they had to punt again.

With a little over a minute and no timeouts the Jets had to drive effectively, and they did just that, as Brammer hit his wide outs, who responded by getting out of bounds and stopping the clock.

With a little under 40 seconds left they were knocking on the door but good coverage by Lancashire allowed Donaldson-Ellison to get into the backfield again and bring down Brammer.

Tragedy then struck for the Jets as they hurried up the play only for Brammer to be picked off by Greg Freeman and for the Wolverines to kneel out the game.

Game report and photography courtesy Nathan James Sharrocks. www.dblcoverage.com