“Elmshorn Fighting Pirates Dominate Season Opener with 61-14 Victory”

Elmshorn. Intensive training and in-depth theory are one side of the coin American Football. And even a successful dress rehearsal, which, however, with the clear 65:0 victory over the second team of the Lübeck Cougars testifies to a manageable degree of “friction area”, only has limited significance. No, for the premier league footballers Elmshorn Fighting Pirates could only the emergency, the season opener against the Schwarzenbek Wolves, to finally clarify whether the Title ambitions of the new climber are also entitled this year.

American Football: When the weather is moderate, 50 fans come to the Krückau Stadium

Head coach Michael Schernick’s men gave the answer to this question in an impressive manner in front of around 500 fans. Despite the very uncomfortable weather, they made their way to the Krückau Stadium. With lightning starts in both halves, the Pirates of EMTV laid the foundation for a convincing 61:14 (27:7) home win.

But it’s not an opening success that was thrown after the Elmshorn privateers, emphasized Michael Schernick: “The Wolves made life really difficult for us. These opponents were really good and gave us points that we still have to work on, which we are already doing,” said the coach. “The higher we get in the leagues, the more football the opponents can do; that is very clear.”

In a fair game, the Pirates don’t always perform at their best

The advantage of an increase in performance on the opponent’s side is that the opponents increasingly want to be successful with technical solutions. “It was a very fair game,” stressed Michael Schernick. But he immediately followed up with criticism of the maneuvers, which will certainly come up in one of the upcoming training sessions. “From our side, we saw the whole thing a bit too simply. That’s probably why some tried to be successful with 60 or 70 percent instead of 110 percent. We have to stop that, then we’ll also minimize the error rate a little.”

But the points of criticism remained snapshots, the bottom line was the impression of an all-round successful start to the season for the team, which after the inglorious end of the GFL team der Piraten had to start from the bottom as a former second place in order to get football in Elmshorn back on the road to success.

As quarterback, offense coach Josh Hartigan takes responsibility

This goal wants to create a mix of many experienced players from previous seasons and a good dozen new players from their own youth and from other clubs this season. The most obvious change is the occupation of the quarterback position. Since Christopher Jensen is too heavily involved in his job and studies, the role of playmaker was vacant. This most important gap was filled with an in-house solution. Offense coach Josh Hartigan will distribute the leather egg to his ball carriers and pass recipients this season.

Many Fighting Pirates register themselves in the scorer list

This has already been done before. Aside from Hartigan’s own score and Moritz Kremer’s defensive return touchdown, five other Pirates were successful with a try or two. A list in which other Elmshorners want to sign up for the following away game against the Hamburg Ravens.

High-ranking visitors to the Krückau Stadium were also convinced that the prospects are good. Ex-Pirate Daniel Claus (23) has returned to his old homeland with the Raiders after two seasons in Innsbruck. However, the offensive tackle is – still – overqualified for use at the old place of work. “I’m playing with the Sea Devils in the ELF this summer,” says Daniel Claus about his current career. And shows what is possible when you perform well in Elmshorn…

Elmshorn Fighting Pirates – Schwarzenbek Wolves 61:14 (14:0, 13:7, 13:7, 21:0).
Scorer for Elmshorn: Joel Schütz (13), Marten Feyerabend (12), Josh Hartigan (8), Moritz Kremer, Robin Eckert, Samuel Zobinou, Curtis (je 6), Sören Becker (4).
Upcoming Fighting Pirates games, May 20: Hamburg Ravens (A), June 3: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes II (H), June 11: Hamburg Huskies (A), 8th of July: Hamburg Ravens (H).

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, 10:15 p.m