The unbeaten (2-0) Thonon Black Panthers hit the road again Saturday March 2 as they head to Grenoble, France to take on the 2-1 Grenoble Centaures in the third week of play in the French League of American Football.
Led by quarterback Clark Evans, the Black Panthers, back-to-back finalists for the French title in 2017 and 2018, have looked solid in the two games they have played. Evans has thrown for 374 yards and seven touchdowns in wins over the Aix-en-Provence Argonautes (51-0) and Marseillie Blue Stars (20-18). So far his leading receiver has been Leo Sarteel with 122 yards in receptions and three touchdowns. Although Thonon’s running backs racked up 296 yards rushing in the opening game win over the Argonautes, they were held to just 60 last week in Marseille.
Grenoble has looked solid as well in their first three games. They dumped the Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons 35-6 and whipped the Argonautes 47-0 but in between dropped a 45-26 loss to the Montpellier Hurricanes. Quarterback Sonny Weishaupt has had a good start to the season completing 51 of 91 passes for 598 yards and eight touchdowns against only one interception. His favorite target is wide receiver Florian Larose who has 18 catches for 196 yards and fivetouchdowns. Running back Manu Andre leads all rushers for the Centaures and has rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns in the two games on 33 carries. In last week’s win, Andre did not play while Andreas Betza rushed for 81 yards and two touchdowns. However, Betza has now left the team and signed in Germany with the Berlin Rebels so he has been replaced by Jannis Fiedler, formerly of the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.
This could be the game of the week in France with two good starting quarterbacks.