Sunderland Spartans 13-48 Sheffield Sabres

Sunderland Spartans lost their first game of the season 13-48 against Sheffield Sabres at home on Sunday.

After winning the coin toss, the Spartans elected to receive the ball first. Shortly into their first drive quarterback Aaron Wall’s pass was intercepted to set up Sheffield in good field position. The Sabres capitalised quickly to get the opening score of the game and make it 0-7.

Sunderland bounced back when Wall’s deep ball down the sideline found wide receiver Shea Sullivan-Mcullagh who picked up 15 years after his catch to get the Spartans’ first score of the season.

The Sabres scored twice more to make the score 7-21 before Sunderland got themselves back into the game just before half time when Daniel Awad got on the end of a pass from Wall to give Sheffield an eight point lead at half time.

The visitors started the second half strongly and maintained the upper hand throughout and after touchdowns from several players the game eventually finished 13-48.

After the game the Spartans’ first touchdown scorer Sullivan-Mcullagh said: “It’s an amazing feeling to score against one of the best defences in division two nationally. I’ve been waiting for over a year for that first touchdown and it was worth every second of waiting.”

Sunderland will next be in action later this month when they take on York St John at home.

“Having two receptions for fifty-five yards and a touchdown is amazing and I want to go and improve on that against York St John,” said Sullivan-Mcullagh before adding: “I’d also love to take the team’s spirit and determination forward as, in the end, it’s a team game and we all have to be firing if we want to show how good we are.”

Sheffield running back Tomi Odunukan said: “I think the big surprise was how aggressive the game was, where usually the first game of the season is really sluggish due to nerves.

“In the game [last season] it was really slow starting however in this match up there were early scores. Overall, both teams moved the ball impressively for a first game, and the defences were making all their tackles so hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come for both teams.”