Rob Zimmerman was part of a strong Berwick Miners defence in their 12-10 win over the Bay City Buccaneers in Croydon on Sunday. 18981A SEMI final showdown is on the cards for the Berwick Miners after the side pulled off a remarkable turnaround in form to run over the top of the Bay City Buccaneers 12-10 in their round 12 Gridiron Victoria contest.
Coming off a 53-6 flogging at the hands of the Crusaders the week before, the Miners came out with a vengeance against the Buccaneers, and the side kicked proceedings off with a touchdown late in the first quarter.
Cameron Neale pulled off a fingertip catch from a 30-yard Sam Walker pass, then ran into the end zone to give the side an early six-point lead.
Dale Warren was the next to score, when he received a pass in the end zone to send the Miners up 12-0.
Late in the third, the Buccaneers sacked quarterback Sam Walker in the end zone to secure two points, then not long after succeeded on a lengthy drive to haul the margin back to two.
But the strong Miners defence was on song all day and the Buccaneers could not find a way through, and Berwick took the win by two points.
Miners coach Darren Shaw said he was impressed with his side’s ability to bounce back after the Crusaders match.
“It was a tough hard slog… I said last week the guys would show their true character bouncing back from a flogging, and they did it well.
“A couple of our consistent players didn’t play very well… but other blokes had a blinder — Ross Oliver had about three sacks,” he said.
“We won, as I said there’s still room for improvement — the offence needs to improve, the defence was good though.
“We concentrated on our passing defence during the week… it was pretty pleasing, that we anticipated they came out passing, so we shut down their passing game.”
Shaw said his side’s final home and away match next week, against the Rangers, was a dead rubber so he would be resting a number of players.
“I’ll be resting everyone that has a niggling injury… even Sam (Walker), I’ll probably give our second quarterback a run.
“We are poised — if we can put our best team on the field, we can certainly beat the Warriors (in their semi final clash). If the guys turn up to play we can certainly beat them.”
The Miners played top side the Monash University Warriors two rounds ago, eventually falling 15-12 in one of the games of the season.
