The debut in the Oberliga NRW could not have been better for the Mönchengladbach Wolfpack – in the first game of the season, the hosts gave the Dortmund Giants no chance at 56:13 (21:0/13:13/8:0/14:0).
In front of around 500 spectators – including numerous representatives from politics and administration – and in the meantime heavy rain, the pack dominated on its Oberliga debut over the bottom of the table, who had already played two games before. Before the coin was tossed, Mayor Felix Heinrichs thanked the association for its social commitment in the city and also promised further support for the artificial turf pitch.
On a sporting level, Wolfpack head coach Phil Scales was a little skeptical before the start because his team was not yet well-trained. But his warriors underlined the good form from the preparation, where they won the Wupper Bowl, among other things. The guests hardly ever managed to exploit the few mistakes made by Gladbach’s defence. Only in the second and third quarters were the guests able to keep the game reasonably open. Scales still saw some mistakes in the game that need to be corrected in the next training sessions. Otherwise, the coach was satisfied, because the new players have also been able to integrate well into the team and stimulate competition.
Jan Brunenberg, Jason Scales, Kilian Albrecht, Taylor, Cedrik Engels, Marius Kleber and Sebastian Thiel scored the points for the wolf pack with a touchdown. The latter was also able to accommodate a “two-point conversion”. Kicker Niklas Schützendorf collected all six extra points.
Next weekend, the Gladbachers are going to Minden Wolves, who are considered the favorites for the championship title. “It’s going to be hard work, because the Minden Wolves have seven or eight imported players, some even national players from the USA, England, Ireland and Australia. But I don’t give up a game before kick-off”, Scales looks forward to the encounter with optimism. “Four imports are quite rare for teams from the GFL or GFL 2, but we can’t and don’t want to keep up with so many for a fourth division team,” the head coach continued.
Scales also kept a watchful eye on the substructure. He witnessed the U19s’ narrow 20:18 win over the Krefeld Ravens on Sunday morning. “Since the U19s will end their season much earlier than us, we can use the junior players in the last four games. Coach Sebastian Radeck is doing an excellent job with the juniors,” he explained.
The day was overshadowed a little by the serious injury to young Mönchengladbach quarterback Eric Lenz, who received medical treatment on the field for a few minutes after a collision with an opponent and was then taken to the hospital. Fortunately, there was a slight all-clear from there in the evening, but Lenz remained in the hospital for observation.
2023-05-08 17:14:22
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