At the most crucial time of the year, the Club House Bulldogs are playing their best football.
Armed with the number one seed, the Bulldogs now take aim at the postseason of the Digicel Summer League, put on by the Cayman Islands Flag Football Association.
Defensive lineman Dillon Claassens states the squad is ready for more success.
“We’re feeling the most prepared for this stretch,” Claassens said. “We’re putting what happened this year behind us. Ending number one was a big psychological boost for the team. We looked very shaky a lot this season but we’re feeling rejuvenated heading into the playoffs.
“We’re going to do what we do every week and we have a game plan for every team. As a whole, our team is on a high and with confidence we’ll succeed.”
The Bulldogs locked up the regular season crown last Saturday by crushing the Maples Packers at Ed Bush Field in West Bay. The victory allowed Club House to end the campaign 9-3, ahead of the 8-3 dms West Bay Hellcats and 8-4 Burger King Panthers. The loss knocked Maples down to fourth place at 7-5.
Playoff matches take place this Saturday, 22 September, at Ed Bush. Club House face Maples at 1.30pm while the Hellcats tangle with Burger King at 2.45pm. The finals are slated for next Saturday, 29 September, at 4pm.
Team captain Todd Hazlewood states in spite of the recent victory, it is not a given Club House will crush Maples again.
“We play every team differently as everyone has different strengths,” Hazlewood said. “They know what we can do and we know what they can do. Our game plan is to try and win every game. Whoever it is, it doesn’t matter, we’re ready.”
Club House would split the regular season series with Maples after the Packers won 29-18 back in late July. Maples go into the playoffs ranked second in offence with 180 points scored while the Bulldogs had the league’s top defence with 57 points allowed.
The Bulldogs had an effective quarterback committee with snaps shared between Chris Spigner, Luigi Moxam and Dave Velez. Jon Pump was the team’s top receiver with 20 catches and six touchdowns. Hazlewood led the team with three interceptions and 16 tackles and defensive linemen Kevin Zimmer, Chip Whitney and Claassens combined for a league-best 20 sacks.
Maples featured rookie quarterback Barrett Edri who had 14 passing and a league-high seven rushing touchdowns. Leslie Harvey led the offence with 19 receptions while Christopher Bennett had a team-best four touchdowns. Harvey had a team-high three interceptions, Davanni James had the most sacks with three and Edison Jackson had the most tackles with 31.
Last Saturday’s victory makes the Bulldogs the sport’s hottest team. Club House has won a league-high six straight contests since losing to Maples, including a 6-0 victory over the Hellcats on 8 September.
Hazlewood states while the West Bay triumph and the winning streak are good, the focus rests on succeeding in the playoffs.
“To us, the West Bay game was just another game. We prepared for it, we executed and played our game. We didn’t allow them to make big plays to beat us. Like I told the guys then, there’s no trophy for beating West Bay now. Our work is still ahead of us, we got to win in the playoffs.”
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