Saturday, May 2nd, saw the Hornets start their road to the finals for the MRFU Championship Playoff semi-final against their cross town rivals, the Bombers. This game would determine the season series with the Bombers, and the Hornets came out strong ready to play. From the opening kickoff the Hornets marched straight down into the Bombers 22 after the first of many perfectly placed clearing kicks from Donovan "Yessssssssss" Unsworth deep into the bombers half. After the first of many Hornets dominated scrums, a quick thinking Nick Kalist grabbed the pill off of a Bombers turnover in the scrum and charged his way into the try zone to set the tone for the match 12 minutes into the game. Not to be outdone in the forwards Jason "BK" Amarosa decided he wanted to show his wheels and danced his way through the Bombers at the 19 minute mark to score the second try of the day for the Hornets. A quick 5 minutes later saw Joey Smelt extend his try streak to 2 games, with a try close to the posts at the 24 minute mark. The Bombers never threatened to even enter the Hornet half of the field and they couldn't keep up with Hornets' backline foot tennis. The Hornets' back rained kicks into the corners all day against the Bombers pinning them deep. After a questionable stoppage right before half due to a Bombers injury, and with the Hornets thinking it was halftime the Bombers were able to get on the scoreboard. The second half saw the Hornets come out sloppy and the Bombers were able to score another quick try, but that would end the Bombers scoring for the game with all other scoring attempts being missed penalties by the Bomber kicker. This second try lit a fire in the Hornets, and 10 minutes into the second half Brian Saak scored after some great backline work by the Hornets exploiting wide passes and quick ball that the Bombers couldn't keep up. The Hornets kept the intensity up and piled onto the score again with Brad Christ putting another try on the boards at the 60 minute mark. Kickmaster Juice was able to slot 3 of his 5 conversion kicks thru the uprights. The game was controlled by the Hornets forward pack who dominated the scrums and lineouts for the entire game. Leading the scrum attack and taking home Man of the Match was Nate "the Great" Clarey.
Scrums - Hornets = 10/10 (100%) Bombers =5/9 (55%)
Lineouts - Hornets = 6/6 (70%) Bombers = 7/17 (41%)
Penalties - Hornets = 7 Bombers = 12
Score - Hornets 31 (Tries = 12' Nick Kalist, 19' BK, 24' Joey Smelt, 50' Saak, 60' Brad Christ) defeat Bombers 14
After the Hornets smashing defeat of the Bombers they showed up to Forest Park ready to play on Sunday against the #1 seed Royals. This would turn out to be a great Championship game with the #1 Royals playing the #2 Hornets. After a tough first 10 minutes of back and forth the Hornets gave away a penalty to the Royals who put it through uprights to take an early 3-0 lead. Off the ensuing kickoff Brad Christ stole his first of many kickoffs from the Royals and the Hornets were able to respond right back with a Juice penalty after the kickoff to tie the game 3-3; and that was how all of the scoring would go in the first half. The Royals responded by converting another penalty to go up 6-3 and the Hornets came right back to tie it up with their own penalty to make it 6-6. With costly penalties hurting the Hornets 2 more penalty attempts gave the Royals the lead to 12-6. But right before halftime the Hornets answered back with their own penalty to make the score 12-9 going into the break. The Hornets struggled with penalties the whole game, letting the Royals take control with the kicking game. The second half saw all of the try scoring. The Royals came out after halftime and put up 2 quick tries to extend their lead. But the Hornets would not go away so easily. Joey Smelt was able to continue his try streak to 3 games by putting the ball down in the try zone for the Hornets at the 57 minute mark. Put penalties would come back to haunt the Hornets and the Royals were able to slide one more try in before the end of the game. For a final score of Royals 29 - Hornets 14. Man of the Match awarded to the entire team for a great game and finish to one of the Hornets best seasons.
Scrums - Hornets 7/7 (100%) Royals = 4/4 (100%)
Lineouts - Hornets 7/10 (70%) Royals = 5/9 (55%)
Penalties - Hornets = 12 Royals = 19
Score - Royals 29 defeat Hornets 14 (Tries = 57' Joey Smelt)