Austria opens defense of Euro title with victory

Austria took a major step towards defending the IFAF U19 European Championships and landing a seventh successive continental title with a 41-14 win on the road in Finland. 

Powered by a stubborn defense, the Finns only trailed by three points at halftime at the ISS Stadion in Vantaa, but dropped passes and interceptions were punished ruthlessly by Austria, who ran out convincing winners to celebrate the debut of new head coach Florian Grein. 

Finland will aim to bounce back with a visit to Sweden on May 10 then when Austria hosts Sweden on the weekend of September 20/21, the destination of the European crown will be in their hands. 

“This is a very pleasing result,” said coach Grein “It’s great that we won so clearly, but on the other hand we also saw that we had a hard time finding our way into the game at the beginning. Our defense was there from the beginning, and with two pick-sixes life is of course easier.” 

A determined Finnish red zone defensive stand after a blocked punt forced Austria to settle for a 22-yard Elija Heiss field goal to open the scoring, but then Moritz Philipp Dörfler intercepted Elias Haapamäki and returned the ball 20 yards for a touchdown to open a 10-0 lead. 

Finland replied early in the second quarter when Haapamäki put the ball up high for tall receiver Ville Kivisaari to snag a 23-yard touchdown reception that reduced to deficit to three points after Noa Nieminen tagged on the extra point. 

Amadou Fall scored on a three-yard run up the middle for Austria, but again Finland replied as after Kivisaari had dropped a catch in the end zone, running back Konsta Mäenpää took the ball to the one yard before punching in the score for the hosts to only trail 17-14. As the clock clicked down to halftime, a high snap on a punt from the Finnish end zone almost resulted in a safety, but Kivisaari was able to make a one-handed grab and punt the ball downfield.  

Tobias Reisenbichler’s touchdown run on third and three opened a 24-14 lead and the running back was named the team’s MVP having led the team with 12 carries for 52 yards and a score. Fall record 92 yards on the ground on 10 carries, while quarterback Kilian Zivco completed 5 of 13 passes for 61 yards.  

Two interceptions put paid to any hopes Finland had of mounting a comeback. When backed up close to his own end zone, Haapamäki threw a pick six to Marvyn Benedict Acenas then Maximilian Böhm came up with an interception on the next drive, giving Austria the ball at the hosts’ 15-yard mark. Finland limited the damage to a Heiss field goal, but the deficit had doubled to 20 points. 

Dean Opara reeled off a 60-yard touchdown run as he found gap and broke on a determined run to the end zone and a 41-14 advantage. Finland was knocking on the door inside the two-minute warning, but Haapamäki overthrew receiver Ami Lindfors and Karl-Stefan Zirinn came up with an interception.  

Finland’s offensive leaders included running back Konsta Mäenpää with 17 carries for 105 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Elias Haapamäki who threw for 167 yards and a touchdown.