Austria’s Swarco Raiders (Europe #4) exploded for four touchdowns in the second quarter and rolled to a 63-21 victory over the Polish defending champion Wroclaw Panthers (Europe #6) Saturday at Tivoli Stadium in Innsbruck, Austria in Central European Football League action.
This was the second CEFL win for the Raiders in 2018 and qualifies them for the CEFL final, the CEFL Bowl.
Raiders RB Tobias Bonatti scored 2 TDs Photo: Goran Milosavljevic
Raiders quarterback Sean Shelton was superb completing 22 of 30 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 38 yards and another two touchdowns. Wide receiver Patrick Donahue had a monster day with seven receptions for 224 yards and three touchdowns. Adrian Platzgummer also caught a touchdown pass while running back Tobias Bonatti had 38 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Running back Philipp Margreiter also scored for Swarco. Thomas Pichlmann kicked nine extra points.
Swarco QB Sean Shelton threw for 358 yards and 4 TDs Photo: Goran Milosavljevic
For Wroclaw, Timothy Morovick threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another with wide receiver Tomasz Dziedzic catching both touchdown passes on 153 yards in receiving. Dawid Panczyszyn kicked all three extra points.
After the Raiders took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on touchdowns from Platzgummer and Shelton, Wroclaw clawed its way back into the game early in the second. Morovick scored to narrow the lead to 14-7. Then the floodgates opened as Donahue scored two in a row and Shelton added a third to give Swarco a 35-7 lead midway through the quarter. Dziedzic caught his first of two but Bonatti bulled his way into the end zone to give the Raiders a 42-14 lead at the half. This was a far cry from last year’s game between these two, with the Panthers leading at halftime.
Panthers QB Tim Morovick threw 2 TD passes and scored another on his own Photo: Goran Milosavljevic
The third quarter did not improve much for the reigning Polish titleholders although Dziedzic scored his second to narrow the lead to 42-21. But Bonatti and Donahue went right back to work extending the lead at the end of three quarters to 56-21. With the Raiders substituting liberally, Philipp Margreiter scored the final touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter.
Raiders head coach Shuan Fatah:
“It was great to be on the sideline, we knew we had to get out like a train and we did. It was one of those legendary Tivoli games again, everything went our way, the perfect storm in the first half. With 42 points in the first half, we had a good cushion. The Panthers were in for a long ride, we knew that from last year and wanted to take advantage of it. We succeeded for the entire game. “
Wroclaw Panthers head coach Nick Johansen:
“It was a tough game. We knew we had to keep up with the speed of the Raiders to achieve something. The Raiders dominated the whole game and we had no answers.”
Photos: Goran Milosavljevic