The Copenhagen Towers dominated the Aarhus Tigers from start to finish demolishing them 62-12 in the Danish semifinals Sunday at Gentofte Park in Copenhagen.
The game was not supposed to play out this way. Copenhagen had struggled to defeat the Tigers in early August, finally winning 14-8. This game was expected to follow the same pattern.
The Towers had other plans.
Behind the outstaning ground game led by Dayton Winn, the Towers jumped out to a 20-0 first quarter lead, extending it to 40-12 at the break and then cruised to the win.
Winn returned the opening kickoff all the way to the Aarhus 15 yard line and danced into the end zone on the first play from scrimmage to give Copenhagen a 7-0 lead and set the tone for the game.
With an offensive line dominating the line of scrimmage, Winn scored twice more in the first quarter on runs of 12 and 56 yards with the Tigers defense unable to respond.
While the Tigers offense sputtered, Copenhagen continued to press the advantage as quarterback Patrick Hargett first connected with Aske Klixbüll for a 34 yard gain and then handed off to running back Michel Konate who bulled his way in from the three yard line to increase the lead to 26-0.
The Towers defense forced Aarhus to turn the ball over on their own one yard line on the next possession and Hargett wasted no time hitting Philip Nielsen for the touchdown and then scoring on a two-point conversion to make the score 34-0.
Aarhus quarterback Troels Andersen finally got his team untracked after the Tigers took over on Copenhagen’s 40 yard line following a bad kick. On fourth down, Andersen found Mads Christiansen for a 38 yard touchdown strike, reducing the lead to 34-6.
Copenhagen put a damper on any celebrations on the next series with Winn breaking for a 40 yard gain and then Harget connecting with Nielsen for his second touchdown of the game and the lead was 40-6.
Andersen was finally able to put together a drive relying on running back Lasse Lykke and with almost no time left in the half, Jesper Hansen hauled in a five yard pass for a touchdown.
In the second half, Aarhus put up little resistance as the Towers offense continued to dominate. Hargett connected with Klixbüll for a touchdown and then backup quarterback Kasper Skyum also found Klixbüll, this time for a 10 yard touchdown catch and the lead at the end of the third was 54-12.
Konate added a 30 yard touchdown run in the fourth while Andersen was picked off in the Towers end zone to end the game.
The Towers move on to face the Søllerød Gold Diggers in Mermaid Bowl XXIX on October 7. The Gold Diggers defeated the Triangle Razorbacks 17-15 in the other semifinal.