Week 8 in the Italian Football League (IFL) saw the Panthers Parma continue to climb the league table with a dominant win over the Frogs Legnano, Rhinos Milano go toe-to-toe with Stainless Steel Warriors Emilia and Skorpions Varese clinch their third win of the season over the Ducks Lazio.
Milano Rhinos 19 – Emilia Stainless Steel Warriors 18
The first game of the weekend saw the Warriors take a trip over to Milan in the hope of obtaining their first win of the season. But unfortunately for the Warriors, a 18–6 lead going into the fourth was squandered thanks to some excellent play from Italian quarterback Raven Ines who finished the game with 203 yards and two touchdowns.
Parma Panthers 45 – Legnano Frogs 19
With the Frogs improving on a weekly basis, many thought that they and Eystin Salum would be able to punch above their weight and give the Panthers some close competition. But with the Frogs defense hemorrhaging scores throughout, the contest was far from close.
Running back Ryan Minniti proved to be the X factor in the win for the Panthers as he gashed the Frogs defense for 120 yards and a touchdown on just 10 carries. Minniti was just one aspect of this demolition though as the Panthers as a whole totalled 261 yards on the ground with Italian quarterback Tommaso Monardi capping off drives with his arm.
Monardi finished the game with 160 yards and four touchdowns.
Varese Skorpions 41 – Lazio Ducks 34
The final game of the weekend, on paper, looked to be the most closely fought, and the contest didn’t disappoint. The game was a scoring frenzy that became concentrated in the second and fourth quarter for both sides.
The Ducks opened the scoring in the first quarter with its lone touchdown, but in the second, the Skorpions managed to punch in four touchdowns in row thanks to some superb quarterbacking from Calvin Brownholtz who has really come into his own in the back end of the season.
With the scoreboard heavily in the favor of the Skorpions come the fourth quarter, Ducks’ quarterback Austin Albericci went on a tear of his own and punched in three scores to claw some of the points back. But the hole the Skorpions offense had left was too deep for the Ducks to fill.
Both teams’ quarterbacks had outstanding games with Brownholtz finishing the game with 282 yards and four touchdowns and Albericci with 352 yards and five touchdowns.