Germany: Kiel Baltic Hurricanes keep pace in GFL North, beat Hildesheim Invaders
The Kiel Baltic Hurricanes are keeping pace in the German Football League’s North division after defeating the newest team in the conference, the Hildesheim Invaders 38-14 at Eintrachtstadion.
The Hurricanes, the highest scoring team in Germany, averaging 45.9 points and 460 yards a game, had beaten Hildesheim earlier in the year,
Jared Stegman completed 17 of 24 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns while the league’s leading rusher, running back Chris McClendon rushed for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Xavier Mitchell led all receivers with 10 catches for 11 yards. Lukas Rehder (2) and Friedrich Nikel (1) caught the touchdown passes.
Invaders quarterback Nelson Hughes had a tough day throwing for only 103 yards but rushed for another 41 and a touchdown. Running back Philip Gamble also struggled gaining 41 yards on 15 carries but scored an early touchdown.
Kiel did not come out of the gate roaring but finally scored on their second possession with McClendon finding the end zone from three yards out after Xavier Mitchell had taken a screen pass 19 yards to put Kiel into scoring position.
Kiel defensive end Moritz Meis honing in on Hildesheim RB Philip Gamble Photo: KBH
The Invaders responded though with an 11 play, 63 yard drive engineered by Hughes. Gamble finished it off with a three yard touchdown early in the second quarter.
That was as close as it would get however.
The Hurricanes scored twice more in the second quarter as Stegman found his rhythm throwing to Rehder to take the lead 14-7 and then handing off the McClendon for a one yard touchdown extending the lead to 21-7 at halftime.
Neither offense could move early in the third until Stegman found Nikel from three yards out to increase the lead to 28-7.
That seemed to light a fire under the Invaders and on the next series with less than a minute to go Hughes moved his team 69 yards in two plays, scrambling for a 52 yard touchdown to close the gap to 28-14.
However, the Hurricanes kept Hildesheim bottled up in the fourth while adding a field goal and then another touchdown on a Stegman to Rehder 25 yard pass.
With the win Kiel remains solidly in second in the German North while the Invaders dropped to 1-7 and well out of playoff range.
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