On another hot Texas summer day, the Baton Rouge Tigers travelled to states capital city to take on the Austin Crows on Saturday August 29. The Tigers, with the help of some Houston players brought a strong squad of 28 players for the game. In just there second year of regular games, the Crows suited up 33 players. With the Zilker Park oval in magnificent condition, a vocal crowd anticipated a good contest.
The Crows started out strongly with ruckman Ryan Minnick winning the ruck contests and providing on ballers Jesse Leos, Lalo Herrera and Noor Jehangir first use of the ball. Dangerous small forward Rene Gloria marked strongly and slotted the first two goals of the game to get the Crows going. Revo player Ninja Jehangir followed suit to give the Crows a 21 point quarter time buffer.
With the large bench, the Crows were able to rotate its midfield and this worked well as players remained fresh. Dan Brooks came onto the field and immediately has his hand in several goals. Despite losing his bearings at one stage and missing a gimme goal, Brooks was one of the many solid players for Crows on the day. Jeremiah Dawson was his usual scrappy self, laying huge bumps and tackles on bigger, stronger opponents.
Crows first gamers Blake McLean and Brett Emerson came onto the ground and had an immediate effect with "Casper" McLean kicking the goal of the day with a 55 meter bomb during the second term. The Crows defense remained solid all day through the likes of Chad Benninghoff, captain Dave Enslow, Joe Long, Trey Gebhardt and Andres Campo. "Hitman" Ray Silva was putting his body on the line as usual and along with Gebhardt and Long, the defense worked well to repel all Tigers forward thrusts.
Tigers' Nathan Lane had another big game despite the loss, but on the road they weren't able to stop the Crows from evening the home and home series.
During the third term, the Crows put the game away with "Big" Jon Samuelson and Deren Wilcox (before being hurt) getting there hands on everything and kicking 3 majors between them. Phil Brereton and Stuey Davidson added clever goals and the Crows ended up running out comfortable winners. The Austin Crows are now 5 wins and 2 losses for the year and move into 5th place on the US Footy ladder. The Crows will now put in a month of hard training in the lead up to US Footy Nationals in Mason, Ohio in mid October.
Final score:
Austin Crows- 15 goals, 16 behinds, 106
Baton Rouge Tigers- 2 goals, 2 behinds, 15
GOALKICKERS
Austin: Phil Brereton 2, Rene Gloria 2, Blake McLean 2, Dan Brooks 2, Jon Samuelson 2, U Davidson 1, Deren Wilcox 1, Noor Jehangir 1, Jeremiah Dawson 1, Simon Boyce 1.
Bat.Rouge: Reuben Munnee 1, Danny LeBourgeois 1.
BEST PLAYERS
Austin: Jeremiah Dawson, Ryan Minnick, Jesse Leos, Lalo Herrera, Trey Gebhardt.
Bat.Rouge: Nathan Lane, Reuben Munnee, Tyler Smith, Matt Stevens, Aaron Larose.
