Italy’s GLS Ancona Dolphins Victorious in Debut

Dolphins claim victory in Rome

The GLS Ancona Dolphins opened the 2015 Italian Football League (IFL) season with a win in the house of the Roma Grizzlies beating them 37 to 14. However, the final score does not indicate how close this game really was. In the 3rd quarter the score was only 17 to 14 and the Dolphins only put the game safely away in the last quarter.

Paolo Belvederesi, General Manager of the Dolphins;

“We started very badly. Tight, nervous, we executed very poorly on what we studied in our practice schemes. On offense we suffered strong pressure from Rome’s defensive line especially from the outside. We were committing penalties, had errors in the exchange of the ball and allowed little time for Luke Zahradka to find his receivers.

In the second half, however, we played better, …more loose. Thanks to some adjustments on the field we began to be more consistent. In any end we won going away, but hats off to the Grizzlies because they made us sweat more than we expected. Just think about it, four times their defense forced us to gamble on fourth down and fortunately for us we were able to convert every time, otherwise I do not know how it would have ended.”

The game started with the Dolphins on offense and they opened the scoring with a field goal by Michele Morichi going up 3-0. The Ancona defense then stopped the Grizzlies offense and the Dolphins took over, but quickly committed a turnover as they fumbled the quarterback exchange to the running back and a Roman defensive end recovered and scored. The Grizzlies converted the two-point conversion and suddenly took the lead 8-3.

The next Ancona possession was dominated by running back Ifrain Silot, who capped off the drive with a touchdown followed by Morichi’s extra point, giving the Dolphins a 10-8 lead. The Dolphins opened the 3rd quarter with a screen pass to Silot, who took it all the way to the end zone extending the lead 17-8. The Grizzlies, however, showed tenacity managing to close the gap to 17-14 with a touchdown pass.

For the rest of the game the Ancona defense systematically stymied Roma’s attempts to score forcing them to punt and intercepting the Grizzilies twice, while the Dolphins offense racked up three more touchdowns, including one by American Nic Harris and two on deep passes to Michele Marchini and Mejdi Soltana.

Final score: 37 to 14 for the GLS Dolphins.

Next weekend, the Dolphins host the Aquile Ferrara at the new Palla Ovale stadium in zona Palombare in Ancona. The Aquile debuted with a home loss(28-23) to the Warriors of Bologna. The Ferrara roster features a few familiar faces to the GLS Dolphins, like Stefano Chiappini and Edoardo Garbini.

The Roma Grizzlies will face the Lazio Marines in a crosstown battle in Italy’s capital.

Check out the Italian T.V. highlights of the Dolphins victory below!