The Dresden Monarchs return to the German American football semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.
The Dresden Monarchs secured a spot in the German Football League semifinals on Sunday. The Monarchs easily handled the Stuttgart Scorpions 55-14 in an impressive performance, led by wide receiver Jan Hilgenfeldt who caught three touchdown passes for the Monarchs. A crowd of 2,650 was on hand at Heinz-Steyer Stadium to watch head coach John Leijten’s squad move on to the semifinals.
Dresden Monarchs head coach John Leijten:
“I am very proud of my team, and how they stayed focused for the entire game.”
Running back David Russell rushed for 181 yards and two touchdowns while quarterback Jake Medlock needed to throw only 10 passes, completing eight for 183 yards for the victory.
Running Back Donald Russell in full flight
The game started brilliantly for Dresden when, after 13 seconds Medlock found Hilgenfeldt on an 82 yard touchdown pass on the very first play from scrimmage shocking Stuttgart.
After forcing Stuttgart to punt, Medlock engineered an eight play, 73 yard touchdown drive capping it with a 27 yards touchdown pass to Hilgenfeldt again and Dresden had a 14-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. With the Stuttgart offense unable to get untracked, Dresden again drove down the field and this time Medlock threw to Bradley Fraser giving the Monarchs a 21-0 lead still in the first quarter.
Then on the ensuing kickoff, Stuttgart’s returner Daniel Balazovic inexplicably fumbled the ball and Dresden recovered it on the Scorpions three yard line leading to a Donald Russell touchdown. The first quarter ended with Dresden holding a shocking 27-0 lead.
When Stuttgart were finally able to mount a drive all the way down to the five yard line they still came away empty handed missing an easy 22 yard field goal. Dresden wasted no time as Russell broke for a 72 yard scamper to the end zone extending the lead to 34-0.
The Scorpions finally found a rhythm and with quarterback Dylan Potts mixing his play calling up drove down the field and scored. But Russell took the kickoff all the way back to give Dresden a 41-7 halftime lead.
The third quarter saw Potts picked off twice by Dresden who capitalized both times as Trevar Deed ran one in and then Hilgenfeldt caught his third touchdown pass of the day to give the Monarchs a 55-7 lead. Stuttgart added the final touchdown on a blocked punt which Tarik Bentoua ran in from 30 yards out to make the final score 55-14.
The Monarchs now move on to face the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns in the semifinals this weekend. The Unicorns easily defeated the Hamburg Huskies 61-13. The game will be a rematch of last year’s semifinal which saw the Unicorns defeat the Monarchs.