The Craigavon Cowboys traveled to Cork to play the Cork Admirals in their third IAFL game of the season. This was a crucial game for the Cowboys as they have lost their opening two games and need to get some league points if they have any hope of making the play-offs at the end of the regular season.
Winning the toss, the Cowboys received the ball and on the first play, #2 Quarterback, Chris Bondi completed a 25 yard pass to receiver #6, Martini Lach to establish their passing game and two plays later #25, Aaron Mc Alinden carried in from 11 yards out for the first score of the day. The extra point was blocked and the score was 6 – 0 for the Cowboys.
However the Cowboys Defence was slow to work out a way to handle the Admirals running attack and #86 John Kenny ran in from 25 and 26 yards to claim two touchdowns, one good extra point and a 13 – 6 lead for the Cork men. With the clock running down in the second quarter, Bondi complete a 36 yard pass to #7 , Peter Loughran in the endzone, extra piont no good, to keep the hopes alive and a halftime score of 13 – 12 for the home team. With some adjustments, the Cowboys took the field following the break and persued the ball more agressively on Defense and initially stalled the Cork running game but a clever reverse play saw Kenny run 50 yards for a score,extra point no good, and a 19 -12 lead.
This seemed to inspire the Cowboys into greater efforts and following a fumble recover by #17 , Shane Bell, Aaron Mc Alinden zigzaged across the field for a touchdown from 36 yards out and a pass from Bondi to Loughran for a 2 point conversion was good to put the Cowboys in the lead by 20 – 19. A pass interception by Cowboys #35, Chris Harper set up a 19 yard scoring rush from Bondi, extra point no good and a 26 – 19 score. A fumble recover by Loughran playing on Defense lead to a 17 yard touchdown run from #40 , Bobby Murray and a 2 point conversion to #33, Conal Walsh to make it 34 – 19. To round things off, Bondi intercepted a pass by the Admirals and then received a pass from Loughran at Quarterback in the endzone, followed by a 2 point conversion from Murray to make the final score Craigavon Cowboys 42 Cork Admirals 19.
“The score does not really reflect how hard fought this game was. The Admirals played in the Shamrock Bowl a few years back and are not a bad team but we showed today that we are a competitive team and a little confidence can go a long way when we face the current IAFL champions, the Dublin Rebels in two weeks time” said Head Coach , Greg Loughran The Most Valuable Player award trophy went to Peter Loughran.