The Ritterhude Badgers will continue to hunt for points in the Football Oberliga Nord next season. After the 28:0 (16:0) win against the Göttingen Generals, it is clear that the team led by head coach Simon Gelhaus can no longer slip to last place in the South division. “Staying in the league was the first goal, now we want to attack for third place,” said Gelhaus, already focusing on the two remaining games of the season against Hanover and Osnabrück.
His team got off to a furious start against the bottom team, who had no points. A large gain in ground enabled an early field goal. The traveling fans didn’t have to wait too long for the first touchdown either. Alexander Jagielski completed a run into the Göttingen end zone in the second quarter, and the point after touchdown (PAT) also found its target, meaning the Badgers already had a comfortable lead of 10:0. And this was extended decisively before the break.
Hannes Gaschke picked up a pass just before the Generals’ end zone, and the ball was carried into the end zone in the turn that followed. However, since the two-point conversion was unsuccessful, the score remained at 16:0 at halftime. In order to prevent the opponents from getting the feeling that they might be able to get back into the game, Ritterhude stepped on the gas again after the restart. Quarterback Ryan Stephens again looked for and found Hannes Gaschke with a pass, but this time he picked up the ball in the Göttingen end zone, thus scoring the next touchdown.
However, the Badgers again failed to complete the two-point conversion. This was exactly what happened after the last touchdown of the game, which Christian Heinke scored after an interception at the end of the third quarter. The two-point conversion failed again, which led Simon Gelhaus to the following conclusion: “Even though we made a few minor mistakes that could have cost us a game against Hannover and Osnabrück, overall I am very satisfied with our performance.”
Ready for the last home game
The Badgers head coach was particularly pleased that his defense was able to keep the score at zero: “That is definitely a statement and we want to build on that this week.” Next Sunday, August 25, the Ritterhude team will host their table neighbors, the Hannover Stampeders, for the last home game of the Oberliga season. If the Badgers really want to climb to third place, they would best beat Hannover by a clear margin. In the first leg, however, the Black and Yellows suffered a 15:26 defeat.
But after the game in Göttingen, all of that was irrelevant. Instead, the joy of staying in the league prevailed. And there was something else that made the head coach happy: “It was also important that we were able to give the new players who joined us during the summer break a bit of playing time. There will be games in which we will need them, and then it might not be quite so exciting.”
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