A victorious Dallas Magpie team returned home after a solid weekend of football in Louisiana this past weekend. Heading into the Nationals preparation month this was the last main hit out before heading to Mason, Ohio for the USFooty Championship.
Dallas made the road trip to Baton Rouge in very wet conditions from Friday night until early Saturday morning. Fortunately the rain stopped just before their first game. The ground was wet and slippery but held up the entire day quite surprisingly. Dallas first took on home team the Baton Rouge Tigers and from the very first bounce the Magpies too charge. It was a text book play out of the center when Storer delivered the ball to the forward line finding Rackham leading out strong. The conversion was made and in less than 10 seconds the pies were on the board. The 20 minutes saw numerous advances into the Dallas forward line and capitilizing on many of those attempts. While the pies forwards and on ballers managed to get off to a great start there were chances that went begging as inaccuracy accounted for about 8 behinds. The second half was much the same as the first half with the Dallas on-ballers maintaining control, the forwards putting the team further ahead and the rock solid defense not letting the Baton Rouge players anywhere near the goal line. At the end of the 40 minutes it was a victorious visiting team who were too good on the day piling on 11 goals 17 points for a total of 83 points to a scoreless Baton Rouge. While ;difficult to select best players in such a team effort Dallas team selectors and coaching team acknowledged 5 players : Craig Storer 5, Stuart Rackham 4, Stephen Moore 3, Brandon Peek 2, Duncan Relf 1.
Heading into the second game the Dallas players were confident but wary of Florida. Being the first time these two teams had met there was a degree of the unknown. Play kicked off and for the first 5 minutes the competition was intense but it was again the Dallas mid fielders who began to break up the game and start to prove their worth. Through ruckman Rob Kliefgen and on ballers Duncan Relf, Stephen Moore, Craig Storer, Adam Frizel and Brandon Peek the Pies moved the ball preciesly to the forward line. If it wasn’t the forwards kicking goals it was the evasive and lightning fast mid field running through and scoring. Full backman Chris Olles even got a piece of the action booting his first major of the day. He was well supported by rookie Rhett Rhode and veteran Jim Rhodes. There was never any doubt in the game heading into the half time break and Dallas had asserted their dominance on the Florida redbacks. As the final siren sounded to end the days football it was Dallas Magpies 9.3.57 to Florida 0.1.1. Dallas best in the game: Duncan Relf 5, Rex Moxley 4, Rob Klifgen 3, Jim Rhodes 2 , Jess Wortman 1.
Dallas now set their focus for the next three weeks on Nationals preparation and hope to play the same style of football there as was played in the wet conditions in Baton Rouge.