AFI’s Recap of American football’s busiest weekend of the year in Europe

In the busiest weekend of the year so far, there were 14 games played throughout Europe.

The German Football League opened the season for the first time in two years with six games, while the Austrian Football League had a full slate of games and the Danish National League, Polish Football League and Hungarian Football League also were in action.

In Austria, the Swarco Raiders won their third straight game in beating the SsangYong Danube Dragons 24-7 Saturday in Innsbruck to remain in second place in the standings with three games left in the regular season.

The Dacia Vienna Vikings made an emphatic statement Saturday by defeating the Projekt Spielberg Graz Giants 43-14 to stay unbeaten in the Austrian Football League with only two games to go before the playoffs start.

The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns opened the German Football League season with a lopsided 58-14 opening round win over the newly-promoted Ravensburg Razorbacks.

The Potsdam Royals were simply too good for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in German Football League North opening weekend action, taking a commanding 35-7 lead at the half and scoring three more times in the second half for an easy 55-6 win.

The Saarland Hurricanes scored four touchdowns in the first half and then held on to down the Stuttgart Scorpions 35-6 in the German Football League’s South division.

In the first of the “clock tournament” games in Italy’s Division 1, the Firenze Guelfi defeated the Bologna Warriors 35-14 to improve to 3-4 and remain in contention of a playoff berth.

The Warsaw Mets earned their first win of the year in beating the winless Warsaw Eagles 28-6 in the Polish Football League. With the victory, the Mets remain in contention for a playoff berth.

The Søllerød Gold Diggers opened their Danish National League season by handing the AaB 89ers their second straight loss, beating them 28-6 in Aalborg.

After falling behind 34-31 late in the third quarter, the Cologne Crocodiles rallied, outscoring the Dresden Monarchs 17-7 over the final 12 minutes and four seconds of play to down Dresden 48-41 in the opening round of play in Germany.

In a battle of the cellar-dwellers in the Austrian Football League, the Prague Black Panthers scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter to break a 14-14 tie and down the Modling Rangers 21-14 for their second straight one touchdown win over the Rangers.

The Munich Cowboys wasted no time against the Frankfurt Universe in German Football League opening round play, racing out to a 58-0 halftime lead and then cruising for an easy 72-0 win against the former powerhouses in the GFL.

The Fehervar Enthroners were dominant for all four quarters in the Hungarian Football League, blanking the Budapest Wolves 26-0 to take a firm grip on first place in the standings.

After spotting the Marburg Mercenaries a 7-0 lead early in the game, the Allgäu Comets scored 31 straight points to easily defeat the Mercenaries 31-7 in the final game of the weekend in the German Football League.