A step too far for Carnegie

Carnegie American Football suffered only their second defeat of the season on Wednesday night against Sheffield University in the final game of the season, a result which means they just miss out on the playoffs in this their inaugural season. 

Despite this disappointment Carnegie can hold their heads up high on what has been a remarkable first season in the BUAFL finishing the season with six wins and two losses, just missing out on a post-season berth. By comparison, the other two new teams in the division have only managed two wins between them.

Going down 33-14, post season action in their first year proved a step too far in the inaugaral Carnegie American Football campaign. The Leeds Met Programme came up against defending divisonal champions, Sheffield University, in their last game of the regular season. A win would have seen them in to the first round of the Plate Trophy. However, a poor start to the game cost the away team dear.
 
With the Carnegie offense stuttering in the first half and gifting easy possession to the South Yorkshire side, Sheffield University were consistently able to turn this into points. Combined with a miss-firing offense, the defensive side did not put up their usual spirited display. Going in at the break Carnegie put themselves in a difficult position at 20-0.
 
The second half saw more promising signs for the travelling side who were able to start putting together some offensive yards. Emmanuel Amadi capped off a drive in the third quarter with a speedy run through traffic to cross over the end zone line for Leeds Met's first troubling of the scorer. Unfortunately lax special teams play allowed Sheffield to return the ensuing kick off to nullify the score. A further touchdown from the home side effectively put the game out of reach for Carnegie, but they continued to plug away leading to a well-worked pass play. Behind good pass protection from a hard working offensive line Quarterback, Andy Green, found Dale Elom with a long pass into Sheffield territory. The quick receiver raced through the Sheffield defensive cover into the end zone for the final score of the game for Leeds Met.
 
Commenting on the game Coach Wake said, "It's a disappointing way to end the season as for much of the game we didn't give ourselves many chances. We didn't come out of the blocks at all in the first half and today's opponents were too good to not take advantage of this. The second half gave us more hope, but the poor first half performance proved too much of a barrier to overcome. We'll learn from tonight's mistakes to take into next season. Although the coaching staff have already been looking to next year, now as a whole the returning student-athletes will look to build on this solid foundation."