Hamburg Huskies Host Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in European Football League Action

The Hamburg Huskies will be making their European Football League debut Saturday as they play host to the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes at Hammerpark Stadium in Hamburg.

This is the second game in Group A. The Amsterdam Crusaders defeated Kiel 31-24 in overtime two weeks ago in game 1 of this group.

Last year, the Huskies and Hurricanes met twice in regular season play with Kiel coming away with two easy victories, 32-13 and 52-3. However, these are two far different teams than in 2015.

Hurricanes head coach Marcus Herford was suddenly thrust into the role a week before the Hurricanes played and lost to the Amsterdam Crusaders. Former coach, Dan Disch had departed abruptly for a college job in the US. Needless to say that played into the preparations for the game against the defending Dutch champions, the Crusaders.

Kiel will be entering this game in far better shape and now with a game under their belts.

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Jon Perkins & Xavier Mitchell

 

The Huskies, who welcomed new quarterback Jordan Perry recently are looking to rebound. Hamburg had a dismal end to the 2015 season with their starting quarterback out with a shoulder injury for the final six weeks of the year.

Hamburg has also added running back Jon Perkins (UC Davis, Div. I) who will add to the attack, which relied on four different rushers in 2015.

The Huskies have shored up the defensive line with tackles Robert Smith (320 lb) and Sergio Sa Borges Dju (300 lb) which will make it tough for Kiel’s running attack.

Hurricanes quarterback Logan Schrader has had more time to get familiar with the offense and with wide receiver Xavier Mitchell. This will be a different Kiel team than two weeks ago.

This one is too difficult to predict but it will be an entertaining European Football League Group A matchup. Next game in the round robin portion is May 7 when the Amsterdam Crusaders will host the Huskies.

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.