Chester Romans 39 - 12 Highland Wildcats

 Match Report by Simon Taylor

The Chester Romans welcomed the Highland Wildcats from Inverness on Sunday and were deserved and convincing victors.
The Wildcats had beaten pre-season favourites Edinburgh Wolves in their opening game and narrowly lost to the Wolves in their 2nd Meeting, so Chester expected a tough contest.

 Photos Courtesy of Nigel Torrens

After winning their opening game 19-0 a week earlier, Chester were determined to play better and they didn’t disappoint. The Romans received the kick off, Nadgy Khirat taking the ball back 29 yards to the Romans 34 yard line and the much improved offence went on a 11 play drive ending with Mark ‘Smiler’ Thompson scoring the touchdown. With the extra point converted, the Romans led 7-0.
The fired up Romans defence and defensive lineman Ryan Billington then forced the Wildcats to turn the ball over on the ensuing kick off and Andy Richardson recovered. Great running from James Tootle, Mark Thompson and Richard Chudyk-Williams saw the Romans just outside the Red Zone when Chudyk-Williams connected with Michael Banks for a 21 yard touchdown through the air, with the conversion it was 14-0.
The Wildcats couldn’t do anything on their next drive and were forced to punt giving the Romans the ball on their own 15 yard line.
The Romans moved the ball well but 15 plays later found themselves faced with a tough choice of whether to go for it on 4th Down, fortunately the coaches had faith in the offence and the result was an 18 yard run by James Tootle which gave the Romans first and goal, Chudyk-Williams then drove the dagger of defeat into the Wildcats' hearts and tore through into the End Zone for a touchdown which wasn’t converted, but the Romans led 20-0.
The teams exchanged punts, the latter being from Mark Donald leaving the Wildcats on their own 6 yard line, 2 plays later and the Romans forced another fumble this time recovered by Mathew Parker. A couple of successive penalties against the Romans sent them backwards away from the End Zone only for James Tootle to weave 10 yards down to the 4 yard line, Chudyk-Williams then scored his 2nd TD on the ground, a feat he achieved a week earlier to, this time behind great O line work and offensive linemen Gareth Pinnington creating a lane for the quarterback  to score. The touchdown was converted and at halftime the Romans led 27-0. 
 
The Visitors made a game of it second half but it never looked like the visiting Scots would break down the Roman wall. A long drive by the visitors was capped with a touchdown pass, despite the Romans contesting the final grab by the Highland WR. This seemed to spark a bit of life into Highland who held out the Romans offence for the rest of the 3rd Quarter. The Romans defence stepped up late on and defensive linemen Ryan Billington recovered another fumble for the Romans as the 3rd quarter ended.
9 plays later and James Tootle got a well deserved touchdown, with over a 100 yards rushing on the day, he again wove his way between tacklers to score in the far corner and give Chester a 33-6 lead. 
33-6 soon became 39-6 when, after threatening from every kick off, punt and every ball thrown his way, Nadgy Khirat recovered a fumble and his pace left the Wildcats in their wake as he ran back 53 yards for a touchdown, leaving the visitors dejected and the Frenchman elated!
The game wasn’t over though and the visitors scored another touchdown to make it 39-12 from another great play on the day from running back Anthoney Levy, from North Dakota, who has added a new dimension to the visitor's offence.
The Romans caught the onside kick attempt and were on the march down the field when time ran out before they could score again. Final score Chester 39 – Highland 12.
The Romans travel to Edinburgh next on 30th May for the first of 3 away games and a difficult match up against the Wolves.