The Dresden Monarchs (6-1) head to Braunschweig Sunday, August 11 to face the surging New Yorker Lions (5-3) in the final matchup of the German Football League’s 13th round of play.
In the first meeting between these two earlier this season, the Monarchs came away 21-7 winners in Dresden.
This is a much different Lions team. Since that game which was their third straight loss to open the season, Braunschweig has gone on a tear, winning five in a row.
Last week, they defeated the Berlin Rebels 28-14 and prior to that they beat the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes 29-15. They downed the Paderborn Dolphins 35-7 which followed their first win June 8 when they beat the Kirchdorf Wildcats 24-3 and win #2 against the Saarland Hurricanes 37-20. They had lost to the Dolphins 10-7 , 28-14 to the Hurricanes and then 21-7 to the Monarchs.
The Monarchs opened the season by trouncing the Paderborn Dolphins 38-7 and then beat the Braunschweig New Yorker Lions 21-7 and the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes 22-11. They then downed the Berlin Adler 44-32 before being brought down to earth by the Potsdam Royals, 40-19 after holding a 7-6 lead at the half. However, they rebounded from that loss by beating Kiel again, this time 25-3. Last week, they made a statement in defeating the Hildesheim Invaders 45-16.
For Braunschweig, quarterback Donovan Ismo has started the last five games, all wins. He has thrown for 729 yards and six touchdowns. Lamar Jordan started the first game against Kiel throwing for only 131 yards. He was replaced in the matchup with Paderborn by wide receiver Leon Dirmeier. David Shafir started at quarterback in the loss to Dresden before Ismo stepped in. The leading receiver for the Lions so far has been Luc Meacham who has 16 catches for 298 yards and three scores although he did not play in the win against Kiel.
Dresden quarterback Brock Domann is the third leading passer in the GFL after throwing for 2,075 yards and 16 touchdowns and his favorite target is Ricky Smalling who has 46 catches for 768 yards and seven touchdowns while Jordi Torrededia has 34 receptions for 477 yards and four touchdowns and Max Gracie-Ainscough has 26 receptions for 332 yards and five scores. However, the Monarchs rushing game is lacking. The team is 11th in the league in overall yardage having rushed for a total of 726 yards in seven games, averaging 103.7 yards a game.
This is a statement game for both teams. The Lions need to solidify their fourth place position in the GFL North standings and improve it. The Monarchs need a win to secure home field advantage in the playoffs.