The semi-final game to determine whether or not we played in the Silver Bowl (Div. 1 championship) came down to the last 2:05 of the game. So it went like this:
2:05 remaining in the game. The Steelsharks lead by a score of 13-12 AND they just stopped us and have the ball; 1st and ten. We have no (zero; zilch; nada; none) timeouts. It is all over but the crying for the Rangers, right? All they have to do is kneel down with the ball and run out the clock. We send out the defense with the age-old desperate admonition: Strip the ball (if they run a play). Of course, they wouldn't be dumb enough to run a play would they?
OMG! They ran a play! We stuffed them.
2nd down and 11. Clock is running. This time they will surely kneel down, right?
NO! They run a toss play! The runner is contacted first, by Martin Kucher, Markus Bernas strips the ball, and Franz Koloshar recovers the fumble!
Now, with a little more than a minute remaining, all we need is to get Raphael Hackl into field goal range (about 10 yards). But instead, Stefan Postal starts right, cuts back and weaves his way through Shark infested "waters" and scores!!! Rangers 18 / Steel Sharks 13.
After the kick-off, the Qb for the Sharks rolled to his left to pass, then decided to run, then pulled up and heaves a desperation pass back to the middle of the field (this is the cardinal rule to NEVER break; DON'T throw back to the middle of the field unless your are Brett Favre). Defensive lineman Martin Kucher (who was taking an angle to catch Qb as he scrambled) intercepted the ill-fated pass and sealed the win.
Never in my 32 years of coaching and 17 years of playing have I ever personally seen a finish like that. It shows why you coach the defense to strip and score. It shows why you never quit and you play to the finish of every play. It also shows why you know how much time you can run of the clock when the other team has no time outs.
Linebacker Armin Schneider had the quote of the day. "The Steel Sharks' president is also their head coach. After that, he should fire himself".
Well said, Armin.
After the game, a really welcome sight appeared on the field. For 32 years, Susan has attended and sat through heat, rain, sleet, snow at my games (not to mention listening to idiots in the stands who seem to know so much more than any coach and have the loudest way of exposing their diminished IQ). After the game, she walks out to greet me to share the joy of the victory or console me in loss. Today, after a long separation from this practice, I was glad to see her walking across the turf of the only real football field in the entire nation of Austria. Double win!
Since we didn't get our picture taken together when she visited the scrimmage in Salzburg for some unexplained reason, we tried to run the camera battery down taking as many pictures as we could. I posted some at the end of the blog.
So we now meet the Swarco Raiders 2 of Innsbruck in the Silver Bowl. We play at 17:00 on the natural turf of our home stadium in Modling on Saturday, June 11. We won the first meeting with the Raiders by a slim margin of 24-21 earlier this year. They missed a fg in the waning seconds that would have put the game in OT. This will not be a cake walk and we need to spend the two week preparation time to win the game. The actual game will just be payday for the time, sweat, and effort invested to earn the victory.
Below are the pictures we got of the players that we could catch and pull into the picture. I am sorry that I did not catch everyone to have a memory of them. We will get one more game to attempt to get at least one picture of everyone.
The apparition floating above Susan's head is Felix (Felixius Maximus) Schildorfer.
Stefan Postel, Susan, Me, and Mike Graetz
Susan, Me, Drago (Robert Dragotinitus)
Maximillian Boder and Me
Me, the ageless wonder; Franz Koloshar, and Susan
Benny Rabb, Me, Ulrich Hoeger, Susan, Peter Paukner.
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