Bright sunshine, hot temperatures and a full house welcomed the Graz Giants to the Telfer sports center yesterday. An exciting exchange of blows developed with the better end for the home side. This puts the Patriots in third place after seven of ten rounds at 5-2 in the regular season.
The Goldhelme won the coin toss and chose the ball right at the beginning. After a very good kickoff return from running back Raphael Kreuzer, the offense came into play. With the first pass of the game, quarterback Aaron Ellis sent his wide receiver Hugo Landström into the end zone for a 6-0 lead. The PAT was blocked by the Giants.
However, the offense of the guests from Graz had the right answers in their luggage in the following drive and completed a drive worth seeing with a touchdown by Christopher Mangge.
In the following drive, the Patriots were unable to capitalize on this despite a very good field position, and the Giants’ offense came into play again. However, the defense of the Tyrolean Oberland was also in the mood to play and defensive back Ravon Johnsonn picked a pass from Giants quarterback Tyrone Williams and carried it across the field into the opposing end zone – 12:06 lead. This time the PAT by David Ladner was also successful, making it 13:06.
The Giants were able to shorten the break to 13:09 with a field goal shortly before half-time.
The visiting team started the second half with the right ball and was able to take the lead in this match for the first time with a touchdown by Julian Kapellari and a successful PAT.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that quarterback Aaron Ellis took the lead again with his second touchdown pass to Ravon Johnson and the PAT, which was again successful.
After the Patriots’ defense was able to stop the Giants again, there was a long drive across the field which was completed with a touchdown by quarterback Aaron Ellis.
When the clock was running out, the Giants managed to make a cosmetic correction on the scoreboard again in the following drive with a touchdown by Christopher Mangge, but the Patriots could no longer take the win at this point.
Thanks to this success, the hosts were able to successfully defend their third place in the table, and now the Telfs Patriots are going into the last by-week in the regular season. In two weeks the game against the Black Panthers is coming up in Prague.
Nick Kleinhansl, Head Coach Telfs Patriots: “It was another tight game up to the last drive. We fought to the end, made one or two more plays, and that’s what decides games like this. Now let’s move on.”
Doug Adkins, Head Coach Projekt Spielberg Graz Giants: “Both teams played well, we made some critical mistakes, and the Patriots took advantage of that. Their defense was very good, they are a good team overall. Congratulations on the victory.”
Source/Photos: © Telfs Patriots – Sabine Schletterer
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