Varsity Report: UWE win American Football

The UWE Bullets American football team once again grabbed the varsity bragging rights with a confident 42-6 victory at the University of Bristol Barracuda on Sunday. On a day that will also be remembered for the appalling weather conditions, the Bullets raced to a 35-0 halftime lead through errors by the Barracuda. Despite a greatly improved second half showing, the damage had already been done, giving UWE the first rubber of the 2014 Varsity Series.

Human clutter. Photo: Keith Baugh

The game kicked off in front of a large partisan crowd at Clifton College and Bristol’s powerful defense forced UWE to punt on their opening drive. The Cuda offense entered the field and a miscommunication in the backfield forced a fumble, giving UWE great field position to open the scoring. They duly obliged with a short 5-yard run down the middle to take the early advantage. The Cuda O came back to the field, desperately looking to find their rhythm. However, more strong work from the Bullets’ D–line prevented any gains and the Cuda conceded a 2-point safety following a failed punt attempt from the endzone. 8-0 Bullets.

The rest of the first half saw further mistakes that allowed UWE to take a dominant lead into the break. A muffed catch and an interception set the Bullets up with great field position in the Cuda redzone and composed work from the UWE offense converted both chances for touchdowns, leaving the Barracuda in deep hole. Things went from bad to worse before the half with Bristol conceding another safety for a blocked and punt and the following kick returned 85-yards for another UWE touchdown. Halftime: 35-0 Bullets.

10,000 years of human development. Photo: Keith Baugh

As the Barracuda headed to the dressing room for halftime to determine what went wrong, the Bristol Jets and UWE Comets cheerleader squads took to the field for the Angelberry halftime show to wow the crowd with impressive routines, as well as prize giving for the most committed supporters.

The game resumed with the Cuda looking for a much improved showing.  The first offensive drive was again thwarted with UWE’s defense preventing yards on the run and Cuda again were forced to punt with heavy hail and strong winds now affecting the match. Possessions continued to be traded with defenses largely on top as the weather took a turn for the worse. Once the storm passed, UWE extended the lead with a deep throw, that was caught in stride and taken to the house, all but finishing the game as a competition.

The Barracuda looked to finish strong and the opening points came from an unlikely source. With the Bullets offense pushed right back to the goal line a huge sack on the QB saw ball fumbled up and straight into the hands of rookie linebacker Scotty Newall, who strolled into the endzone for Bristol’s first score of the day. Despite the huge deficit, the home crowd were delighted to see their boys finally get on the scoreboard.