Bournemouth were given the ball, and quickly went three and out. Things looked ominous for the Raiders, as Rich Manning blocked the Raiders punt, which gave the Eagles the ball on the Raiders 20 yard line However, on a sweep Raiders LB Mark Elliott stripped Melbourne of the ball, and Tim Smith caught it and ran it back 80 yards on a fumble recovery. Brad Smith’s conversion gave the Raiders an early 7-0 lead.  

The Eagles, stung by this blow, came straight back and following a series of quick out patterns and good running from Ryan Melbourne took the lead 8-7 on Broughton’s run, and Melbourne’s 2 PAT. 

The Eagles star DB, Jeff Brown, picked off Smith on successive drives as the Eagles defense continued to give their O good field position. TE James Pimperton scored when all alone on a HB option from Craig Broughton to give the Eagles a 16-7 lead near half-time.  

The Raiders, were mixing things up on offense, and this helped get them back into the game right on half-time, as Tim Smith from QB jinked his way through the Eagles D on a 32 yard run. Tim Smith’s 2 PAT to Winship pulled the score back to 16-15 as half-time was sounded. 

Just when the Raiders thought they were back in the game, they were crushed on the first play after, when Ryan Melbourne scored on a 65 yard sweep when he weaved across the whole width of the pitch to give the Eagles a 24-15 lead. 

Brown made his third interception of the day, and returned it to the Raiders 3 yard line, where James Hossack caught a pass from John Pimperton. Brown then returned a Raiders punt 45 yards deep into Raiders territory from where Melbourne ran in his second TD of the game. 

Eagles third string QB Marcus Gambrill was given some game-time, and passed for a TD near the end when he hit Ryan Melbourne on a crossing pattern to make the score 45-15. 

The Raiders never gave up though, and deservedly put some more points on the board at the end of the game, when Tim Smith scored his third TD of the game on a 33 yard pass from Brad Smith to make the final score 45-21.

Semi-Final A – Leicester Eagles 32-6 Fen Harriers 

In the first semi-final, the Leicester Eagles blew away the Harriers early. Rich Manning  got an early sack for the Eagles, which stopped the Harriers first drive, and then he put the opening points on the board for the Eagles with a rushing TD. 

Alistair Coulthurst then intercepted Harriers       QB Martin Brown, to give the Eagles the chance to immediately extend their lead. They duly did, when Eagles QB Chris Wild found HB Craig Broughton, who ran in their second TD, to put the Eagles 12-0 up. Wild scored a third TD for the Eagles in the first half to put them in a seemingly unassailable 19-0 lead.  

The Harriers got themselves back into the game on the stroke of half-time when Brown hit Paul Gates on a perfectly flighted flag pattern to pull the score back to 19-6. 

The Eagles started the second half as they started the first. The league’s leading rusher, Ryan Melbourne skated in for his first TD of the day, and then converted his own TD to increase the lead to 26-6, and then following Manning’s second sack of the game, Jeff Brown caught a TD from Wild to leave the final score 32-6 and give the Eagles a place in the BSFL Championship game later that day.

 Semi-Final B – Invicta Coyotes 0-6 Bournemouth Raiders (in overtime) 

On paper this game always looked like it would be close, and that was certainly the case. The game remained scoreless throughout regulation, and it took an outrageous trick play to win it for the Raiders. 

This game had everything, some good offensive drives by both sides, but when it came to the crunch both sides’s defense stepped up a gear. Despite the game finishing 0-0 at full-time both teams had plenty of opportunities to win the game. Twice Bournemouth had the ball within the Coyotes 5-yard line, and both times they were picked off. Three times, the Coyotes got into the Raiders red-zone, but on each occasion the Raiders defense held them out. 

Defensive stars for the Coyotes were Jez Jelly, Glenn Lindley and Brian Taylor who all made picks. DE Nedeem Al-Astrabadi recorded two sacks for the Coyotes. For the Raiders LB Daniel Nehorai was outstanding making numerous tackles to keep the Coyotes O (especially HB Gibbon Wright) at bay. Matt Hemsley secured a sack, and DE Rich Lister intercepted Button. 

Late in the second half, the Coyotes picked off Smith, and a short drive gave the Coyotes 1^st and goal from the Raiders 5 with just over two minutes to play. Good pressure from Lister and Vasily Fedotov forced Button to throw into the endzone where Raiders LB Matt Heasman made a diving catch to end the Coyotes hopes on that drive. 

Coyotes had a final drive to win the game, and on one of the last plays in regulation time, Raiders DB Abdulmalik Lawal picked off Button at his own 15 and was seemlingly running in for the winning score when he pulled a thigh muscle and was tackled short.