Statement Of Power As Portugal Breaks For Christmas
The final weekend of play in Portugal before the Christmas break offered up a statement of power and two tight contests. The Lisbon Devils made it clear they intend to defend their title while the Cacais Crusaders and Maia Renegades kept their playoff hopes alive.
This season the league will be played between all teams in the regular phase (10 teams ) and then we will have the playoffs where the top 6 teams after the regular season advance.
In Lisbon
In Lisbon the Devils manhandled the visiting Black Knights showing no mercy in blanking them 55-0. Entering the game, both teams were coming off shutout wins so a good game was expected.
However, the Devils started too strong with Pedro Almeida returning the first kickoff of the game for a touchdown. After that the Black Knights responded with a great offensive drive that got them near the end zone but the Devils defense come away with a huge stop. After that the Devils offense just ran the ball and started spreading the field with passes. The Black Knights tried to get back in the game mostly on the ground but the Devils defense come away with another shutout.
The touchdowns were scored by Willian La’Prado (3 rushing touchdowns), Jerónimo Martins (2 rushing touchdowns), Collin Franklin (1 receiving touchdown) and Bruno Cardoso (1 receiving touchdown). Quarterback Joey Bradley finished with 2 passing touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Devils kicker Sergio Moreno finished the day kicking 7 of 8 extra points.
In Braga
In Braga, the Cascais Crusaders and Braga Warriors faced after both teams were coming off losses (and against the same team, the Porto Mutts). The Crusaders prevailed 32-27 in a game that was not decided until the very end.
The game started in favor of the home team who scored first. But the Crusaders responded immediately and that really set the tone for the whole game. The game had several lead changes with one team scoring and the other responding and jumping into the lead.
In the final quarter, with the Warriors leading by seven, the Crusaders came away with two very important drives that changed the game and gave them the lead and subsequently gave them the win in the game. The final result was 32-27 for the Crusaders team.
For the Warriors, quarterback Tiago Ranhada scored two rushing touchdowns and threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver Guilherme Coutinho. Crusaders quarterback Manuel Farano threw for three touchdowns (Duarte Cruz, Vinicios Moreira and Juzz Tiny) while Juzz Tiny added two rushing touchdowns with one of them being the winning one.
In Paredes
In Paredes, the Renegades paid a visit to the Lumberjacks in a highly anticipated match between two teams with playoff aspirations and came away with a 21-6 win.
The Renegades scored first when Awal Umaru returned the ball after a blocked punt. The extra point was good. The Lumberjacks responded quickly with Daniel Santos scoring for the home team. They missed the extra point however.
The game was hotly contested and it took until the second half for more points to be scored with the Renegades adding two touchdowns. Michael Campbell scored one touchdown on the ground while Brian Gessel threw for the Renegades third touchdown.
Final standings before Christmas break in Portugal
Now the Portuguese League will be on hold for the next two weeks with games returning on the weekend of 6,7 and 8 January. The first game in 2017 will be held in Lisboa with the Lisboa Devils and Lisboa Navigators clashing in a Friday Night Game between the only two teams holding the title until this date.
On that same weekend the Porto Mutts will be heading down to Algarve to face the Algarve Sharks and the Cascais Crusaders will host the Algarve Pirates in Cascais.
