It is tough to pick out stars in this one. For Germany, with tailback Danny Washington struggling to get on track (16 carries for a mere 37 yards), the load fell to quarterback Marco Ehrenfried and he delivered passing for 268 yards (20 of 34, 3 ints.) and three touchdowns with his top receiver Jan Hilgenfeldt catching five passes for 124 yards while also kicking a field goal and all the PATs. Of course, Andreas Hoffbauer, Austria’s unrelenting tailback and workhorse led the charge for his team, carrying the ball 24 times for 118 yards and a touchdown.
The game opened slowly as both teams seemed tentative, slowly feeling each other out like two heavyweight boxers.
After trading four punts and making a total of two first downs between them, the game suddenly opened up, as Germany’s special teams took advantage of an Austrian miscue. Austria’s punter muffed a punt from the Austrian eight yard line and the German returner took it back to Austria’s 26 yard line. German quarterback Marco Ehrenfried wasted no time and found Niklas Römer in the end zone, giving Germany a 7-0 lead with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing series, Austrian receiver Thomas Haider was stripped of the ball at his own 20 and German defensive lineman Maximilian Wild scooped it up and rumbled into the end zone, making the score now 14-0 Germany with 1:38 left in the quarter.
On the next series, Germany’s special teams stepped up again as another bad Austrian punt from deep in their own zone gave Germany the ball at Austria’s 29 yard line early in the second. But Germany could not capitalize this time as normally sure-handed Niklas Römer fumbled and Austria recovered at their own six.
Christoph Gross went right to work at the 8:53 mark hitting receiver Laurinho Walch for a 41 yard gain to move out of the shadows of their own goal posts. Gross then mounted a 13-play, six and a half minute drive finishing with a Christopher Kappel 38 yard field goal to close the gap to 14-3 Germany.
On the next series, Austrian corner Andreas Lunzer picked off an errant Ehrenfried pass and Austria started at the German 29 yard line. Three plays later Gross threw a 19 yard touchdown pass to Walch and the score going into the second half was 14-9 Germany.
Neither team could find a rhythm as Gross was intercepted by Mark Scherenberg at the German 46 with seven minutes left in the quarter. Marco Ehrenfried seemed to find his arm again though, and took Germany to Austria’s 30 before his pass into the end zone was picked off by Benjamin Bubik and Austria took over at their own 20.
This time Gross made no mistakes, guiding Austria on an 11-play, six minute drive and at the 10:42 mark Phillip Margreiter capped it off with a one yard touchdown run. Gross then scored on a two-point conversion attempt making the score now 17-14 Austria with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
Austria had now scored 17 unanswered points and the crowd sensed a momentum change. Germany’s next series ended in Ehrenfried’s third interception of the night and Austria took over at their own 45 yard line with eight and a half minutes to go. They could not sustain the drive and after a feeble 29 yard punt, Germany, starting on their own 25, engineered a 67 yard drive, including a wonderful 47 yard pass to Hilgenfeldt, culminating in a Hilgenfeldt 25 yard field goal to tie the score at 17-17 with four minutes left.
Neither team could move the ball after that and the game went into overtime. With each team having to start from the other’s 25 yard line, Germany was first and made it count as Dominic Hanselmann caught an 11 yard touchdown pass from Ehrenfried to make it 24-17 Germany. Austria was up next and on an amazing reverse wide receiver Stafani tossed the ball to a wide open quarterback Gross in the end zone to tie it again at 24-24.
In the second overtime, Austria was up next, but could not move the ball and had to settle for a field goal. Germany had a chance to settle it, and Ehrenfried went to work hitting his favorite receiver Hilgenfeldt for a 19 yard gain From the Austrian four yard line Germany attempted to punch it in but at this point the referees, inexplicably, after a solid performance all game, decided to take the game into their own hands calling Austria for two unsportsmanlike penalties giving Germany the ball six times from within the two yard line. Finally, Marco Ehrenfried found Niklas Römer for a six-yard touchdown and Germany was again European champions.
It was a game for the ages, only marred by two penalty calls, leaving people throughout the world wondering, rather than rejoicing in the fantastic show put on by both teams.
Germany, thus defends their European American Football Championship from 2010 in dramatic fashion. Austria, now a power in Europe, should be proud of their performance as a team and as hosts of a marvelous tournament. The six teams in the tournament played 15 games in the space of eight days and gave the wonderful Austrian crowds a tournament to be remembered.
