New Orleans, LA — The slide continues for NOLA GOLD, as they lost to the Miami Sharks on Saturday, April 20th with a final score of 27-42. The GOLD, having lost three straight, are looking to right the ship and return to their winning ways.

Flyhalf Dorian Jones warned GOLD Nation about the danger of Miami this past week, noting “they’re definitely hungry.” This proved true from the first blow of the whistle until the last; the Sharks circled, attacked, and ultimately ravaged NOLA to notch their second win of the season.

The opening phase of the game saw the two sides swap tries through energetic injections of creativity and guile. The Sharks jumped out to a 12-3 lead by the nineteenth minute, but a clever stab kick by Augusto Bohme pierced a gap left in the right side of Miami’s defense; Reece Botha, ever-attentive, jumped on this innovative scoring opportunity to dot down NOLA’s first try of the day. In the twenty-fifth minute, a wall of Golden humanity muscled the ball over the try line for the team’s second score.

That’s when Miami took the initiative and started controlling the game. The Sharks executed their attacking phases in a mechanical fashion reminiscent of Bruce, the legendary aquatic antagonist from the 1975 movie Jaws. They notched one more first-half try to send the teams into the break with a scoreline of 15-22, advantage Miami.

The second half yielded no change. With the GOLD clearly tired from a humid April day in New Orleans, the Sharks smelled blood in the water and capitalized. Miami quickly extended their lead to 29-15 in 47’, and then 36-15 in 49’. While the two teams swapped a pair of tries in the waning minute, for all intents and purposes, the remainder of the fixture was an exercise of liquidation and conversion for this upstart Miami side.

Now at 3-4, it is critical the GOLD find a vein of good form to propel them back into the win column. The first opportunity to do this comes in the form of an away fixture on April 27th against Anthem RC.