Dragons Slay Bombers in SoCal Derby

SoCal rivals, the LA Dragons and OC Bombers went to battle again as both clubs continue to prepare for their 2015 USAFL Nationals campaign. 

This day was also significant for the LA Dragons and the USAFL with former AFL champion Corey McKernan making his USAFL debut as an LA Dragons. McKernan is no stranger to the Dragons football club with his company, CM Ultimate Events, being a supporter and sponsor of the club for the past three years. 
Like many LA-OC derby’s before it, this game was set up as another great hit-out with both teams having a solid Western Regionals tournament with OC taking the honors for the weekend. Both clubs went into the game hungry for a win and to continue to build momentum towards Nationals. Both LA and OC had a few key players missing but still fielded two strong teams. 

It was sweltering hot day in LA and in true derby fashion both sides came out the gate hard and fast. There was certainly no lack of good close checking footy early and this was well complimented by some terrific passages of play by both teams.  OC took advantage of kicking with the wind and adapted quickly and looked more settled. Heffernan was dominate early in the quarter and gathered several key possessions through the middle. With players coming back from injury, LA seemed slow to start and took a while to find their feet. But the Dragons worked hard into the wind and as the quarter pushed on LA found their rhythm and the team structure began to fall in place. LA closed out a tight fought first quarter getting ahead narrowly by a goal. 
 
The second quarter began as the first finished.  LA bounced out quickly with early clean possessions from the middle, but OC playing an extra man down back, combined with some solid defensive work, repelled several LA forward entries and that combined with LA missing some easy early goals denied LA the opportunity to open the game up. Justin Hall, Paul Loakim and Corey McKernan were live wires in the forward line and LA regrouped and steadied, coming back hard and kicking successive unanswered goals, while restricting OC to only a couple of points for the quarter.
 
The third quarter honors went to LA and was lead by their midfield and a best on ground performance by ruck-man Donald Lee. Throughout the match, Lee was very well supported by the work rate of Cam Burgess, captain Matty Hitch and wingman David Dollar. The ruck knowledge of McKernan and his work with Lee really started to shine through. Lee got well on top in the around the ground ruck duals, tapping cleanly and feeding the LA mid-field at center breaks and key stoppage. LAs mid-field increased the game tempo, working over-time on and off the ball. That effort was rewarded with LA pulling ahead of OC by 7 goals.
 
In the last quarter, heat and fatigue began to play it’s part. To OC’s credit they were not going to let LA have it all their own way and battled hard.  Chris Browne continued to have an influence for OC and they drew first blood for the quarter. The LA defense in Chris Baggot, rookie Gabe Martin-DelCampo, and Dan Dynon worked hard to neutralize the early OC assault.  But the LAs half back and mid-field stepped it up again and with some quick defense to attack transitions, LA continued to push the ball deep into their forward half and closed the game out scoring the last two goals for the game. When the final siren blew LA came away with the win in what was a good fast game of footy.

Final score:
LA Dragons 10.14 (74) defeated OC Bombers 2.4 (16)