The Kiel Baltic Hurricanes are on a roll in Germany’s North division beating the previously undefeated and Europe #2 Berlin Rebels Saturday 21-16 in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 2,600 fans at Kilia Stadium.
The Hurricanes took a 14-7 halftime lead, increased it to 21-7 midway through the third quarter and then held on as Berlin mounted a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, to outlast the Rebels.
In fact, Kiel only managed one first down in the second half and was outgained 169 yards to 30 during the final half but managed to pull out the win.
Kiel quarterback Logan Schrader was held to only 95 yard passing, 90 of it in the first half, but still threw two touchdown passes to Paul Häberlein and Thiadric Hansen while running back Chris McClendon added a rushing touchdown for the win. Benedict Englmann kicked all three extra points.
Kiel QB Logan Schrader under pressure as cheering crowd looks on in Kiel. Photos: Marc Seefeldt, Stefan Stuhr
Kiel scored on their opening drive looking impressive as Schrader found Häberlein for a 38 yard score. Berlin matched them on their first possession with quarterback Terell Robinson carrying the ball in to tie the game at 7-7.
Neither team could gain an advantage again until Schrader hit Hansen from one yard out with five minutes left in the half to take the lead 14-7.
McClendon broke the game open in the third with a 43 yard run putting them in scoring position on the Berlin two and finished it off on the next play extending the lead to 21-7.
The Rebels finally came back with Robinson engineering two long drives reaching the Kiel four yard line on the first one. Although they turned the ball over on downs at the Kiel four, Berlin’s defense forced a Kiel safety and then the offense took over again. This time Robinson found Dominik Helmbold for a 10 yard touchdown to narrow the lead to 21-16 with 40 seconds on the clock.
The onside kick failed though and Schrader took a knee to end the game.
This was the second fine performance by the Hurricanes against a top five team as Kiel played the Braunschweig New Yorker Lions to a draw in June. With this, the German North division is even tighter with the top four teams only having one loss each, to each other.