LIVE STREAM & PREVIEW: Braunschweig New Yorker Lions v. Kiel Baltic Hurricanes
The feature photo depicts Kiel’s Blake Bolles’ stats for 2015 and Casey Therriault’s stats for the first seven games of 2014.
What better way to jump start the last third of the German season than watching the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes and Braunschweig New Yorker Lions, two of the top five teams in Europe, face each other for the first time since the opening game of 2015.
In that contest, the Lions took a a 24-7 halftime lead only to watch the Hurricanes under new head coach Stephen Parker guide his team back into the contest scoring three second half touchdowns. The Lions prevailed 38-28 though and have won all but one game in both the German regular season and the Big6 since then.
Kiel has not lost a game since and their quarterback Blake Bolles has proven that coach Parker’s decision to bring him with him from from Munich was wise. Bolles leads Germany in total yardage thrown with 2,385 and in yards per game (341 yards/game). Not surprisingly, his favorite receiver, Tyler Davis, is tops in the league with 1,022 in receiving yardage and 17 touchdowns, also number one in Germany.
All star Austrian running back Andreas Hofbauer is averaging just over 100 yards per game rushing, good for third in the GFL.
Head coach Troy Tomlin’s Braunschweig New Yorker Lions, despite switching quarterbacks twice, are still among the league leaders in offense averaging almost 37 points a game and 419 yards. Starting quarterback Casey Therriault is beginning to find the form which helped the Lions win the German Bowl in 2014. In his two starts he has thrown for 543 yards and seven touchdowns completing an amazing 41 of 56 passes. Anthony Dable has been on the receiving end of 34 passes for 641 yards and five touchdowns so far this year.
Lions running back David McCants is enjoying another fine season and is sitting fourth in rushing in Germany, right behind Hofbauer with 685 yards rushing in seven games and nine touchdowns.
Defensively there is not much separating the two teams with the Lions allowing 13.6 points a game and Kiel right behind giving up only 17.4, good for fifth and sixth in the GFL. Kiel’s Tyler Davis makes it tough on opposing quarterbacks so Therriault has to keep an eye on him. Davis has picked off five passes for Kiel so far in 2015. Kiel linebacker Ryan Newell is third in the league with 54 tackles and four sacks.
Lions defensive lineman Mamadou Sy is a force to be reckoned with and is making life miserable for opposing quarterbacks recording seven sacks so far this year. And defensive back Tissi Robinson has returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the six games he has played.
Kick off. Saturday August 1, 3:30 PM (9:30 AM EDT).
