On Saturday June 20, the Austin Crows took on the Kansas City Power at Celebration Park near Dallas.
The Dallas Magpies groundsmen had the Celebration Park oval in pristine condition for the June 20 weekend tourney involving the Kansas City Power, the Dallas Magpies, and the top of the USAFL ladder Austin Crows. In sweltering conditions in Allen, TX, the Crows took a strong squad of 26 players to Dallas for the days action.
Against the KC Power, a powerful Austin effort allowed for the Crows to extract revenge on the team who took the USAFL Division 3 trophy from their grasp last year in Colorado Springs. Dedicated Deren Wilcox was elected captain for the day and chose to kick into the strong breeze at Celebration Park, which has quickly become known as the premier footy ground in all of North America. Despite kicking into the wind, the Dallas midfield led by Cambo and Eddie Kiel, moved the ball forward to create scoring opportunities for captain Wilcox, Phil Brereton, Ford Shanley, Noor Jehangir, and Mark Drinnan. Early goals to Wilcox, Kiel and Cambo had the Crows comfortably up at half time. Down back, "solid" Sam Harris and "Dirty" Dave Enslow gave the KC Power forwards nothing.
Kicking with the wind, Austin continued to dominate the middle and pile on the score. "Bomber" Smith came onto the ground and put the Power defense into immediate fright with his loud, barnstorming forward movement. Alex Corones did a fantastic job tagging the Power's best onballer and with an overall strong effort from the Crows they ran out 44 point winners.
KC Head Coach, Mark Lambert, saw some bright spots from the big loss. "Austin blew us out of the water from the first bounce and we despite settling down eventually, we were never in the hunt. They ran hard and their disposal by foot into a strong wind was very impressive. Individually, Travis Poytress in his first game as number one ruck competed hard all day, Wes Edwin seemed to relish the extra responsibility of playing upfield, and Matt Unger was a rock in defense."
Kans. City 1.0 (6)
Austin 7.8 (50)
GOALKICKERS
Kans. City: Jim Grindley 1.0.
Austin: Eddie Kiel 3, Simon Boyce 2, Deren Wilcox 2.
BEST PLAYERS
Kans. City: Travis Poytress, Mathias Amick, Matt Unger, Jim Grindley.
Austin: Eddie Kiel, Alex Corones, Sam Harris, Grant Campbell, Ryan Minnick.
