By: Jay Rosquites, EBC Sports International, Florida Bureau
July 29, 2017 (Tampa, FL) – In what would be the tie-breaker for the season, the match between the Tampa Mayhem and the Jacksonville Axemen would also end up being a playoff battle to find out who would advance to the USARL Southeast Conference finals. The Axemen were on the board first, 6-0 at the 14-minute mark. With 27 minutes left to go in the first half, Half-Back, Matthew Cook, scored for the equalizer. At the half, Cook found himself with two scores. Continuing the momentum into the second half, the Mayhem proved to be too much for the Axemen to handle. With 5 minutes left in the game, the Axemen scored on some desperation points bringing the 40-point deficit to only 20 points. However, Time was the ultimate helper for the Mayhem, in securing a 42-22 victory over the Axemen.
Player of the Game, Matthew Cook, emphasized the Mayhem’s defensive strategy:
“Complete our sets…turn around and make them make mistakes. That’s what we work for in training. That’s what we work for every week”.
This marks their first playoff victory in franchise history. The Mayhem will face the Atlanta Rhinos in the conference finals on August 12. Owner, Billy Neilson expressed his happiness for the team’s accomplishment, but knows there’s still some work to do going forward.
“We’ll have to tighten up our defense in the middle… we gotta work on our interior defense a bit, and react to their [Rhinos] quick ball play, so we’ll be working on that practice within the next couple of weeks”, says Neilson.
After their first two meetings in the regular season, the Mayhem still has yet to find a win against the Rhinos. Can they pull off this feat and make it to the National Championships? We will just have to wait and see.