Finnish Season Underway As Helsinki Roosters Set To Battle Turku Trojans

The season’s first big matchup in Finland takes place this weekend as the defending champion Helsinki Roosters take on arch rivals the Turku Anders Trojans.

This is the first Maple League game of the season for Helsinki who played an exhibition game against the Swarco Raiders in Austria losing 37-21. The Trojans opened their season  on last week overwhelming TAFT 57-15.

The last time these two teams met was in the Finnish semifinals in 2015 and Helsinki won that game handily 33-10.

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Roosters QB Mic Brown throwing against the Trojans in 2015; Trojans defense was on fire against TAFT

The Roosters again have a solid team led by quarterback Mic Brown who has returned. Brown became somewhat historic in 2015 winning both the Polish title and the Finnish crown in the same season. Also returning is running back Jaycen Taylor for his third season with the Roosters.

The Trojans have replaced quarterback Sean Shelton with Finnish national team quarterback Miro Kadmiri and Sebastian Berndtsson who tossed four touchdown passes in the win against TAFT.

Turku has shored up their running attack with the addition of Chris Douglas who rushed for 86 yards last week and a touchdown.

There is no love lost between these two teams. Helsinki beat Turku in 2014 to win the Finnish Maple League title and then ousted them from the playoffs last year. For the Trojans, there would be nothing sweeter than knocking off the defending champions this early in the year.

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