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The Arrows opened their season with the short trip South to ex-division rivals, the Oxford Saints on Sunday,
looking to open their account in Division 2 - Central.
After an early exchange of possession, the Arrows defense held the Saints deep in Oxford territory to force a
punt, which the Oxford special teams unit was unable to succesfully clear. This left the Arrows offense in fantastic field position with a first and goal at the 2 yard line. Fullback Toby
Rhodes powered in on second down to take the early lead, with Jon Riddell adding the extra point.
In the second quarter Oxford responded with their own score, a 33-yard pass from Wayne Mayers found Eric Watts
who ran into the endzone, however their Point-after-touchdown sailed wide right, leaving the score 7-6 to Redditch. In what was becoming a pass orientated game, Arrows wide receiver
Phil Grove took a short over-the-middle pass 51 yards down field to put the the Arrows in scoring position once more. From there, Quarterback Richard Wilde fired a 6 yard pass to
receiver Steve Bell to extend the Arrows lead to 13-6.
Early in the 2nd half, the Arrows were pinned deep in their own half with the Saints defense looking to put the
pressure on, when quarterback Wilde again found Bell behind the defensive secondary. Bell then outran the last defenders to complete an 83-yard scoring play, and put the Arrows further
ahead, 19-6. The Saints were quick to respond however with a scoring pass from their quarterback Mayers again to Watts from 14 yards out, setting up a frantic final quarter for the
Arrows.
The defense repeatedly turned back Saints drives. Defensive ends Noel Fischer (4 tackles, 5 assists), James
Chatoe (2 tackles, 5 assists) and linebacker Andy Mortimer (3 tackles,7 assists) shut down the Saints running threat, whilst cornerback Andy McAnenny (4 passes defensed) snuffed out the
passing game. The Saints final hopes to draw level were extinguished when a fourth down pass into the end zone was batted down by LB Andy Mortimer, to preserve the 19-12 scorline and
leave the Arrows with an extremely encouraging opening day victory.
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