The visiting 4-0 Hildesheim Invaders broke open a high scoring, see-saw battle late in the fourth quarter to down the 0-3 Berlin Rebels 56-41 and remain undefeated in the German Football League.
The Rebels had taken a 35-28 halftime lead in a back-and-forth first half that delighted the enthusiastic Berlin hometown fans, and closed to within one point, 42-41 early in the fourth quarter only to watch as Hildesheim took advantage of miscues to pull away for the win.
Hildesheim quarterback Casey Therriault completed 24 of 29 passes for 335 yards and six touchdowns while running back Sean Richard rushed for 78 yards and another touchdown. Wide receiver Anthony Dable-Wolfe added another rushing touchdown. Receiver Jaleel Awini hauled in 10 passes for 163 yards and 3 TDs while Nathaniel Morris had nine catches for 117 yards and 1 TD and Dable Wolfe collected four for 48 and 1 TD. Mario Flores caught the other TD pass.
For Berlin, running back Andreas Betza was a one-man wrecking crew scoring four rushing touchdowns while quarterback Terrell Robinson rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown and threw for 208 yards.
The first half was scoring fest if ever there was one. The teams traded touchdowns throughout the first two quarters with only one possession not producing a score.
Betza opened the scoring, getting outside and outrunning the defense to score from 42 yards out. Therriault came right back, moving the ball down to the Berlin five yard line and handing off to Dable-Wolfe on an end around to tie the score at 7-7.
And so it went for the entire first half.
Photo: Christian Gosslar
Like two prizefighters trading punches, the two teams took turns scoring on each other with Berlin pulling even late in the second quarter, 28-28, on Betza’s third touchdown of the game. The Rebels then recovered the onside kick and scored again to take a 35-28 lead.
The third quarter saw the Invaders take control as Therriault engineered two touchdown drives hitting Awini and Morris for consecutive touchdowns to take a 42-35 lead while the defense held Berlin to a single first down.
The Rebels offense finally came untracked again early in the fourth with Betza capping an 80 drive with a one yard touchdown to pull within one, 42-41.
The explosive Invaders offense struck again quickly though as Therriault needed just six plays to increase the lead to 49-41, finding Dable-Wolfe from 12 yards out for the scoring pass.
The dagger was a 30 yard interception return by Corvin Hennig off of a Robinson pass. Therriault wasted no time, starting from the Berlin eight yard line, he handed the ball off to Richard for the insurance touchdown.
The Hildesheim defense did the rest.
Hildesheim head coach Matt LeFever on shutting down the Rebels offense in the second half and the performance of the offense:
“Our defensive coordinator, Winston Huggins, didn’t do anything really special other than bringing everyone closer to the box to counter their powerful run game. Our players just played really well, did a good job wrapping and tackling. Casey did an excellent job on his pre-snap reads and deciphering their defense and the offensive line gave him super protection.”