Titans march on against Chester Romans!

Manchester Titans @ Chester Romans 11-7-10

Titans march on.

The undefeated Manchester Titans visited Chester for the rematch against the Romans. Despite a 34-6 win, the Titans felt they had under-performed and Chester, who had been missing several players, felt they could still pull off the upset of the Division Leaders.

Once again, the Titans won the toss and elected to receive. A 33 yard kick return by WR Will Kinghorn put the ball on the Titans 44 yard line. From there the Titans moved the ball behind some good running from RB Nick Copley all the way down to the Romans 3 yard line. On 2nd & Goal QB Alan Mead’s pass was tipped by Romans LB Dave Goodall and intercepted.

Chester’s first offensive possession picked up a first down on a 16 yard run but then the Titans Defense stiffened with a DB Martin Fitzpatrick and LB Rob Bainbridge combining to tackle the Romans RB for a 3 yard loss on 4th & 3.

The Titans took over the ball on their 26 yard line and drove the ball down to the Chester 30 yard line where they faced their own 4th & 3. With some excellent pass protection, Mead had plenty of time to find TE Chris Heap from 30 yards out for the go-ahead Touchdown. A bad snap on the PAT left the score at 6-0.

The two teams then exchanged punts to bring the 1st Quarter to an end.

On the Romans next possession Bainbridge again made the key stop on 4th down turning the ball over to Manchester. The Titans wasted no time, with Mead throwing long to Kinghorn for a 56 yard TD pass on their first play of the drive. Mead then hit WR Adam Simms who made a great individual effort to score the 2PAT making the score 14-0.

The Chester Offense produced their best drive of the game next with a 60 yard drive culminating in a 27 yard TD reception by WR Michael Banks. The 2PAT attempt was stopped leaving the score 14-6.

The Romans forced the Titans to punt on the next possession but Kinghorn’s 42 yard punt rolled out of bounds at the Chester 6 yard line. Despite the field position, the Romans drove to their own 39 yard line when DE Matt McCormack recovered a Romans fumble.

Manchester drove the ball down to the Romans 5 yard line where RB Tim Barton ran the ball in for what would have been his first TD of the season but the score was over-turned due to a penalty.

Another penalty pushed the Titans back to the Chester 25 yard line where Mead hit Simms on a post pattern for 6 points with just 20 seconds to play in the 1st half. Dave Barnett kicked the extra point for a 21-6 half-time score-line.

Manchester kicked off the 2nd half and immediately forced a Romans punt, thanks to a 3rd down pass deflection by DB Stewart Hay. The Titans drove 59 yards to score their fourth TD of the game with a 2 yard run by RB Nick Copley. Copley had set up his score with a 34 yard pass reception. Another bad snap left the score at 27-6.

On the Romans second possession of the half, they moved the ball more effectively, picking up 2 first downs before LB Hugh English picked off a Romans pass for the 2nd game running and returned it 25 yards. An unnecessary roughness penalty on Chester gave the Titans great field position on the Chester 30 yard line. However the Titans found themselves with a 4th & 14 but Mead found WR James Dean who broke 2 tackles and picked up a first down with a 19 yard reception. 4 plays later Mead hit Heap with his 2nd TD of the day from 3 yards out. Profit added the 2PAT making the score 35-6.

Chester’s offense put together a 16 play drive moving from their own 28 yard line down to the Titans 4 yard line. But a touchdown was called back due to an illegal block and a sack by LB John Flynn pushed the Romans back until once again Bainbridge and Fitzpatrick tackled the Romans receiver short of the endzone on 4th down.

Manchester produced a 75 yard drive, started by a 36 yard Profit run which was eventually finished by Mead’s 5th TD pass of the game and Simms’ 2nd, this time from 13 yards out. Barnett’s kick made the score 42-6 to Manchester.

The Romans next possession ended in a fumble forced by DB Jeremy Walker and recovered by LB Sandy Kyriacou. The enabled the Titans to run out the clock and finish the game worthy winners by the final score of 42-6.

The Manchester Titans improve their record to 5 & 0 and their next game is away to the Sheffield Predators on July 18th.