Hungary: Road to Hungarian Bowl has reached Final Four

The Hungarian Football League has reached the Final Four stage with the Kiev Capitals visiting the Budapest Wolves while the Budapest Cowbells are playing host to the Fehérvár Enthroners, on Sunday.

Budapest Wolves (1st seed) – Kiev Capitals (4th seed), June 22, Budapest

After a solid regular season, the Budapest Wolves are looking to reach the Hungarian Bowl for the second consecutive time. The reigning champion’s offense, defense and special teams have been outstanding so far. National team quarterback Márk Bencsics (107,86) had the best passer rating in the regular season. He is one of the leading figures this season as well, but the return of Dávid Danku made the running game stronger. The defense also put up a solid performance, especially, against the Miskolc Steelers and the Budapest Cowbells helping the Wolves to two narrow but important wins.

The Capitals got an easy road victory (32-0) in the wildcard round against the Győr Sharks and so far they have shown their best performance of the season in that game. On offense, Maksym Cherepivskiy has also done a great job so far having a 93.79 passer rating in four games and being an important factor against the Sharks last week. Nevertheless, the physical defense will face a great challenge against the Wolves on Saturday.

Budapest Cowbells (2nd seed) – Fehérvár Enthroners (3rd seed), June 23, Székesfehérvár

Unfortunately, the Cowbells could not get a field in Budapest, so they have to move their match to Székesfehérvár. Although they might be at a slight disadvantage in a road game, the Cowbells have already beaten the Enthroners on the road once this year. Although it was a close 13-12 victory. The Budapest offense started out well but had its ups and downs in the last two games against the Wolves and the Enthroners. Still, the defense and special teams, filled with plenty of physical and smart players, stepped up and helped save the team at times.

The Enthroners would like to avenge their defeat in the regular season which forced them to play in the wildcard round. Although the Miskolc Steelers almost got away with a win last week, Ryan Tuiasoa helped Fehérvár to make a great comeback. He is a factor that needs to be dealt with. The Enthroners’ defense also had a solid season so far. Their performance can make the Cowbells’ offense struggle again on Sunday.

László Makranczi is a radio reporter, announcer and American Football journalist in Hungary. He lives in Debrecen and works for the Hungarian American Football Federation. Studied at the University of Debrecen, got a master’s degree in American