Germany beats Spain to advance to European Junior championship finals; Switzerland takes third

Team Germany had no trouble in beating Spain 43-0 Sunday in the final of the European Junior Championship qualifier in Almere, Holland. With the win Germany advances to the IFAF Paris European Junior Championship tournament, July 15-17 in Paris, France.

Germany will join the defending champion Austria, as well as the host nation France and Italy, who qualified by defeating Serbia.

Christian Honig scored a touchdown, kicked two field goals and added four extra points to lead the scoring for Germany. Running backs Jeremiah Böhmann, Giacomo De Pauli and Luis Bendel scored a touchdown each while receiver Maurice Fürbacher hauled in a 13 yard pass from Leo Kober and defensive back Waheed Bick returned an interception for a touchdown.

The Germans took control early and never let up as Spain constantly found themselves struggling to escape their own end of the field. After pulling out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on touchdowns by Böhmann and De Pauli, Germany never looked back. Bick picked off Spain’s quarterback and Honig kicked his two field goals in the second quarter giving Germany a 27-0 halftime lead.

The third quarter was more of the same as Germany added three touchdowns on runs from Bendel and then Honig while Fürbacher caught the touchdown pass with just over a minute left in the quarter to wind up the scoring.

The fourth quarter was scoreless as both teams substituted liberally.

In the game to decide third place, Switzerland fell behind early and trailed the entire game before pulling out a thrilling 21-20 last minute victory over the Dutch Junior Lions.

Running back Marco Licini scored two touchdowns for the Swiss and Lukas Grünenfelder added the winner with a minute and 17 seconds on the clock. Omar Khayal kicked all three extra points which was key.

Dutch quarterback Jim Hollart threw for a touchdown and ran one in himself in a losing cause. Running back Nick Setzekorn scored and Abba Miltenburg hauled in the touchdown pass from Hollart. Demierro Promes kicked two extra points for Holland.

Holland took a 13-0 halftime lead on touchdowns from Faverus and Ugwuozor before Switzerland got untracked in the second half.

Licini scored his first touchdown late in the third quarter on a five yard run to narrow the gap to 13-7. Then the Dutch responded with Setzekorn carrying the ball in from three yards out. The Swiss, now trailing 20-7 then took control of the final eight minutes of the game. Licini capped a long drive with a two yard plunge to bring the Swiss closer, 20-14. Then, with just over a minute left, Grünenfelder scored on an eight yard run and Khayal kicked the game-winning extra point.

Photos: Sergio Brunetti