Birmingham Lions

The Lions started as they meant to go on against a first year Worcester side, with Sarunas Babonas breaking an inside run for a 33 yards with the first play of the game, after the Birmingham D set up the offense in good field position. With Birmingham’s next 3 drives, in the first quarter, Ben Brown caught two passes that resulted in touchdowns, along with veteran receiver John Zinkus getting a nice ball from Tristan Varney on a precise corner route.

Birmingham’s defense had another flawless performance. Worcester failed to get past the line of scrimmage in the game and there only first down came from an unnecessary roughness penalty. The Lions solid defense also recovered a few fumbles throughout the game to leave the offense with a short field and an ever-higher chance of scoring. Birmingham scored with every drive in the first half, with Shane McNeil getting two nice runs, with Andy Watson and Chika Kalu chipping in with one a piece.

The second half of the game saw many rookies get game experience for the Lions, with the score board still ticking over. Shane McNeil added another in the second half and Sope Disiru got his first TD of the season on the ground. Birmingham’s special teams came to play also, with Dan Conroy returning a punt 55 yards for a TD. Dan Conroy also found himself on the end of a 2 point conversion by John Zinkus as Birmingham tried to rep all elements of their game. All in all it was a great performance from Birmingham but credit to Worcester who kept fighting. Play stopped about half way through the fourth quarter as a Worcester player was injured, with the ambulance crew deciding to take him to hospital. Birmingham move to 4-0  with a convincing victory and the team starting to click on all sides of the football.