Bern Grizzlies Win Swiss Bowl XXXI In Dramatic Fashion

The Bern Grizzlies rallied from a two touchdown deficit to down the defending champion Calanda Broncos 42-35 Saturday and win Swiss Bowl XXXI in Basel, Switzerland with a crowd of 1,000 people looking on. With the win, Bern claimed the Swiss title for the first time since 2007 and the fifth time in their history.

The Grizzlies had entered the game feeling optimistic after spanking the Basel Gladiators in the semifinals two weeks ago. They had lost the final two regular season games of the year to both the Gladiators and Broncos so this victory was sweet revenge.

Grizzlies quarterback Jacob Caron ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more earning game MVP honors. Running back Moritz Stein added two more touchdowns on the ground for the win.

Calanda quarterback Josh Dean tossed four touchdown passes and ran one in himself but to no avail as Bern kept clawing back.

The win did not come easily for Bern as they had to battle from behind the entire game and only took the lead late in the contest. Calanda had taken 14-0 and 21-7 leads in the first half before the Grizzlies climbed back into the game late in the second quarter to close the gap to 28-20.

A pass from Caron to Bernhard Kohli early in the fourth quarter gave Bern the lead finally 34-28 as the defense had held Calanda scoreless in the third stanza.

Dean, who has had a superb season, responded connecting with Adrian Sünderhauf to restore the lead to the Broncos, 35-34.

But then Stein finished the scoring off with a one yard run to give the Grizzlies their first Swiss championship in 10 years. Interestingly, Bern is the only team to have won the Swiss title in each decade of the Swiss league’s history

Photo credit: Sergio Brunetti, stockpix.it