Austria: New leaders in passing & receiving at midseason
As the Austrian Football League has past the midseason mark, there is a new leader in both passing and receiving, and the same team has produced both, the Ljubljana Silverhawks. Not surprisingly the next two top quarterbacks in the league are from the two top teams, the Swarco Raiders and the Dacia Vienna Vikings.
However, the other leaders in each category play for teams battling for playoff spots or survival and are also keys to their teams.
Passing
Ljubljana Silverhawks QB Anthony Gardner has climbed two spots and moved past Vikings quarterback Kevin Burke, to claim top spot in passing yardage after throwing for 422 yards in a loss to the Vikings last weekend. His 1,492 yards leads the league. Burke, who also had a strong outing is second with 1,452 yards and 15 TDs. His counterpart with Swarco, Sean Shelton, is as usual near the top of the stats standings in yardage and leads in TD passes thrown with 16 in four games. Danube Dragons QB Dylan Potts is now in fourth with 1,084 yards and 15 TDs. yards followed by Mödling Rangers Taurice Scott with 990 yards and 12 TDs.
Receiving
Matic Tomse of the Ljubljana Silverhawks now sits comfortably alone as the leading receiver in the Austrian League after catching nine passes for 228 yards and 2 TDs in a loss to the Dacia Vienna Vikings. His 597 yards is by far the best in the league. The Mödling Rangers offense relies on the passing of Scott and the receiving of Roman Namdar who has 431 yards and nine TDs in five games, or almost two TDs per game. . Graz Giants receiver Armando Ponce de Leon has moved up to third with 388 yards followed closely by the Silverhawks Eugen Sumic with 383 yards. Patrik Slusny of the Danube Dragons rounds out the tightly grouped Top 5 with 377 yards and six TDs.
Rushing
Danube Dragons RB Dylan Potts has rushed for 635 yards following his 186 yards in a win against the Rangers and has accounted for a third of his team’s 201 points with his 60 points off of 10 TDs. Not far behind him though is Blue Devils RB Colby Goodwyn with his 571 yards. Goodwyn had 208 yards rushing against the Traun Steelsharks. Felix Stadler is one of the few bright lights for the winless Traun Steelsharks 512 yards rushing following his 242 yard performance against the Blue Devils. Sandro Platzgummer has also scored nine touchdowns for the Raiders and his 350 yards rushing keeps the pressure off of quarterback Sean Shelton. Finally, Taurice Scott has moved into fifth in rushing with 33 yards and two TDs. He is the only QB to make it on both passing and rushing lists.
Tackles
Linebacker Jayden Dobbs continues to make plays for the 0-5 Cineplexx Blue Devils and now has 42.5 tackles total meaning he is recording almost eight tackles per game. Swarco’s Fabian Seeber has moved into second spot with 32.5 after recording seven tackles last week. Thomas Schnurrer from the Projekt Spielberg Graz Giants also had seven in that game and has notched 31.5 tackles in total which is good for third while Raiders linebacker Simon Hoser is now fourth with 29. Matthias Rebl of the Danube Dragons has edged into fifth with 27 total.
