If there was any doubt about the Helsinki Roosters superiority in Finland’s Maple League, they destroyed it Monday night with an overwhelming 88-12 victory over the winless Seinäjoki Crocodiles.
88 points??!!
There is barely enough time in a 48 minute game to score that many points. In fact, Helsinki actually scored eight touchdowns in 24 minutes in the first half, taking a 60-7 lead into the break.
Admittedly, the Crocodiles had been allowing a league-worst 34 points a game.
But still. The Roosters scored 13 touchdowns on them. In fact, it got so bad, that Seinäjoki stopped punting the ball midway through the second quarter after trailing 46-7. What was the point? The Roosters were going to score as soon as they had the ball anyway. No matter where they were on the field.
Brandon Connette threw for 443 yards and eight touchdowns in the first half and then handed the duties over to Miro Kadmiry who proceeded to complete 12 of 17 passes for 119 yards and another three touchdowns. Wide receiver Kimi Linnainmaa caught seven passes for 180 yards and four touchdowns while Adam Connette caught 10 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. In addition to his quarterbacking duties, Kadmiry played receiver with six receptions for 99 yards and a touchdown. Other touchdown scorers included Alexander Kuronen, Mourad Daifi, Henri Jussila, Niki Liljestrand, and Tommi Pinta. Brandon Connette score two, two-point conversions.
Beleaguered Crocodiles quarterback Jonathan Baker, who arrived from France in the last week after quarterbacking the Saint-Ouen Cougars, and leading the French league in passing, completed 13 of 35 passes for 143 yards and three touchdowns. To be fair, by the time he was able to get into any kind of sync with his receivers, Seinäjoki was already trailing by almost 60 points. Not the ideal situation to get acclimatized. Christian Powell who rushed for 144 yards, scored on a 14 yard touchdown catch while Patrick Wilson and Jonathan Moorhouse added one each for the Crocodiles.
Seinäjoki was actually keeping pace with the Roosters in the first quarter with Baker engineering a 55 yard scoring drive capped by Powell’s touchdown making the score 16-7 late in the quarter. But the Roosters answered within a minute. Curtis Slater returned the ensuing kickoff 53 yards deep into Crocodiles territory. Then Connette hit Linnainmaa for a 32 yard touchdown.
That’s when the wheels fell off for Seinäjoki.
Helsinki scored at will after that adding five touchdowns in the second quarter. The longest drive took just over three minutes, the shortest 24 seconds. The final drive, five plays and 48 yards to end the half took 1:07. Jussila caught a six yard touchdown pass from Connette to give Helsinki a 60-7 lead.
The onslaught continued in the third quarter and it wasn’t until the Roosters led 76-7 that Seinäjoki would score again. Baker found Powell again on a 24 yard touchdown pass.
Kadmiry looked more and more comfortable and threw two more touchdown passes, one to Adam Connette and the other to Liljestrand. In between, Baker managed to connect with Wilson.
With the win, Helsinki improved to 5-0 in Finland’s Maple League while the Crocodiles remain in the cellar at 0-4.