A division battle between two of the top teams at the time in the RFL.  Everyone expected a good competitive matchup between the Thunderbirds and the Diablos and thats exactly what we got.  But this is not about the teams that played in the game this is about one player; Ronnie Nickens, a young promising rookie that had an unforgettable performance. 

 

The game started off slow but Nickens controlled the pace of the game early with nice, methodical running from start to finish and added a 93 yard and a 34 yard touchdown in just the first quarter.  The Diablos didnt have an answer for him other than to just try to out score him and LC3, which made for one of the best games in RFL history. 

 

He continued this dominance in the 2nd quarter, setting up the pass attack with his unstoppable run game made a perfect offense. Nickens finished the first half with 137 Rush Yards.  The toughest part of Nickens day came in the third quarter where he compiled 40 yards, sounds strange but given the final numbers this was considered a bad quarter for him. 

 

In the 4th he was back at it early with big run after big run using jukes, spin moves and trucking through opponents for a dominant performance and setting up LC3 for another TD tying the game 27-27 in the 4th.  Down 34-27 with 36 secs left in the game LC3 hit TE Skrine on 4th & 11 for a 49 yard TD to tie the game up and send it to OT. In OT Nickens took it one step further and racked up over 100 yards setting the T-Birds up for the game winning FG in OT.  He ended the game with 313 yards and set the RFL Record that still stands to this day.

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Written By: Justin Jones