Lisboa Navigators, Cascais Crusaders Will Battle in Portugal’s LPFA VII Title Game

Last weekend, there was the semifinals matches for Portugal’s top American football of the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Americano (LPFA).

In Olaias, during Portuguese Capital Classic, Lisboa Navigators defeated the Lisboa Devils 34-29. While in Vila Nova de Gaia, the Porto Mutts fell to the Cascais Crusaders by 35-24.

Lisboa Navigators v. Lisboa Devils

At Vitória Clube field in Lisbon, the Navigators stayed unbeaten. In a balanced confrontation from start to finish, the Devils came to surprise the current Portuguese champions and took the lead on two occasions. The first half ended with 14-7 in favor of the Devils.

After the break, the Navs scored three touchdowns in a row to take the lead 26-14. With three minutes left in the game, the Devils reduced the Navigators lead with another TD. The Navigators responded with a TD in the two minute warning, and the Devils scored another touchdown with 50 seconds left in end of the match. In an attempt to regain possession to give hope to the red and black side of Lisbon, the Devils failed to recover the onside kick giving the victory to the Navigators. Final score: 34-29.

Highlights: Lisboa Navigators v. Lisboa Devils

Porto Mutts v. Cascais Crusaders

At Canidelo Field, in Vila Nova de Gaia, the Porto Mutts hosted the Lisbon Crusaders. Porto opened the scoring in the first quarter with a touchdown by Nuno Simões. Then, the Crusaders tied it with a TD by Duarte Cruz. However, the Mutts regained the lead in the second quarter with two more touchdowns from António Neves and Saulo Diniz to put them up 21-7 at halftime.

In the second half, the Crusaders closed the gap with two consecutive touchdowns by Jesuíno. The turning point came in the last period with a field goal made Henrique Patrício. The Mutts returned to the lead with a field goal by Hélio Reis. Nevertheless, the visitor’s offensive team took advantage scoring two more touchdowns by Hugo Ferreira and Wilson Rocha. Final score: 35-24.

Mutts S Nelson Fernandes  tries to explain the result.

“Obviously, we are not satisfied with the result, since the objective set for this season was to reach the final and win the league. However, we are pleased with the commitment of ‘hard work’ that the team showed during the game. It was a hard-fought match, which was ultimately decided by 2 or 3 plays, what happens when two great teams face themselves.”

Crusaders WR Paulo Terrinca was pleased with the victory.

“The game started with a supremacy of both defenses to stop the extremely aggressively offenses, with great penetration into the line of scrimmage on both sides. Halftime was a point to the mental recovery in the match. Not because we were playing badly, but we should found our focus to run perfectly what we had trained, or were going to finish the season there, before an opponent who would not give us more chances to win. We have raised our level of execution and we started to find some weaker points on their defense.”

Crusaders 4th quarter TD

LPFA VII Final

Now defined, the Lisboa Navigators and Cascais Crusaders will battle for the title of LPFA VII.

The final is scheduled for June 6th, at Taveiro Municipal Stadium, in Coimbra.

For this edition, the Associação Portuguesa de Futebol Americano (APFA) announced that the match between Navigators and Crusaders will be with the ball Wilson NCAA 1005 Traditional. After approval of the association’s of the members, this will be the official ball of the LPFA 2016 season.