Great year for Exeter Demons

This gave the club fresh a good opportunity to get to grips with a new sport and returners to continue to develop their game, especially given the access we had to video analysis facilities. Despite picking up a couple of injuries over the weekend, the squad felt confident going into the first game of the season at home to Cardiff Cobras.

This was a tough and physical opening game, with some excellent football being played by both sides. The game went down to the wire, but unfortunately the Demons couldn’t manage a score on the last possession of the game, resulting in a tough 14-7 loss. The team bounced back tremendously from the Cobra game, not losing another game until February. The final game before Christmas took us on the road to Bristol to play a strong Cuda side including a future Wisconsin Badgers Quaterback, Clay Rust. Nevertheless, Tommy Dexter scored for the Demons and a brilliant display of discipline and physicality from the defence shut down Clay and the Cuda offense. After a closely fought game the Demons came out on top 10-7 with a huge away win. Coming back after the Christmas break the Demons offense stepped up a gear with a 49-0 win over the Gloucester Gladiators. This game was followed by our annual varsity match against Plymouth Blitz on the crumb. With good play on both sides of the ball we retained the Devon Bowl Trophy with a 30-7 win. However, our two toughest games were yet to come. The first saw us travel to Swansea to play last year’s champions and, despite a valiant effort, we were defeated 25-13.

With playoff hopes still alive if results went in our favour we headed into the final league game of the season needing a win in what history suggested would be one of the toughest games of the season. On a cold, rainy day at Duckes the Demons defence held firm and shut down the UWE Bullets, resulting in a Demons win 18-0. Despite a brilliant performance from the team we unfortunately didn’t progress to the playoffs. However, the shutout over the Bullets capped off our most successful season to date, which saw the Demons go 6-2, and was a perfect send-off for our head coach Damon Kirby who retired after this season.

Other highlights of the season came from our ever growing Super Bowl Party, numerous Thursday night socials and Annual End of Season Dinner and Awards Night, at which third year Jake Wall was awarded Player of the Year. Fellow Linebacker Freddy Weihe was also named by Double Coverage in the Division 2 Team of the Year. With the view for further expansion of the club over the summer we look forward to an even more successful season next year.

For more information about the University of Exeter Student Sports Clubs or becoming a supporter please contact Chris Doody on 01392 725626 or c.doody@exeter.ac.uk