The Badalona Dracs blocked an extra point in overtime to finally defeat Madrid’s Osos Rivas 39-38 Saturday, February 29 in a clash of titans in the Spanish League of American Football’s fifth round of play.
In Spain, overtime touchdowns are recorded as single points.
Osos had scored in overtime on a run by wide receiver David Giron but for the second time in a row, the Dracs special teams came up big for the win.
Badalona quarterback Anthony Gardner was superb tossing six touchdown passes and was named the Game MVP. Marquese Surrell caught two of those touchdown passes with Stefan Borkovic, Guillem García, Jagoba López and Javier Fernández catching one each.
For Osos, Kevin Burke also had an outstanding game, throwing three touchdown passes while scoring two more and a two-point conversion himself on the ground. Mario Flores caught two scoring passes and David Giron one.
Badalona struck first as Gardner found his newest receiver Borkovic to give the Dracs a 7-0 lead.
Burke responded with touchdown passes to Giron and Flores to give Osos a 14-7 lead still in the first quarter.
Surrell scored his first touchdown of the game, pulling down a Gardner pass to narrow the gap to 14-13, but Fernando Navas Peiró kicked a field goal to extend the lead to 17-13 in the second quarter.
Gardner connected with Guillem García and Badalona regained the lead, going ahead 19-17 at the break.
The third quarter saw Gardner add to the lead as he found Surrell for the second time boosting the score to 26-17. Flores answered for Rivas to make it a two-point ball game, 26-24.
But Jagoba López caught another Gardner touchdown pass and the Dracs went up 32-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
Burke tied the game up early in the stanza punching the ball in and then adding the two-point conversion to tie the game at 32-32.
Neither team could gain much momentum until Gardner found Javier Fernández in the end zone with a minute left to give Badalona what looked like the winning touchdown.
But trailing 38-32, Burke scored again to tie the game, but the extra point was blocked and the teams went into overtime.
The Dracs scored first as Gardner connected with Niko Lester and Garcia kicked the extra point.
Giron scored the necessary touchdown for Osos but for the second time in the game, Badalona’s special teams rose up, blocking the extra point and preserving the win.
With the win, Badalona remains unbeaten in Spain with a 5-0 record while Osos drops to 3-2.
In other action, Las Rozas Black Demons blanked the Murcia Cobras 28-0, the Fuengirola Potros overwhelmed the Coslada Camioneros 35-6 and the L’Hospitalet Pioners defeated the Gijon Mariners 30-19.
Photos: Osos Rivas