The 2-8 Kirchdorf Wildcats head to Ingolstadt, Germany to face the 2-8 Ingolstadt Dukes Saturday, August 10 in a desperate battle to avoid the basement of the division and relegation playoffs as the German Football League continues.
This will be the second game in a home and home series between these two teams.
Ingolstadt won the first game last week, blanking the Wildcats 24-0 and earning their second win of the year.
Going into that game, Ingolstadt had come off a 40-33 loss to the Marburg Mercenaries after celebrating their first win of the season the week before, a 31-21 decision over the Allgäu Comets.
Ingolstadt were soundly beaten by the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns 51-0 just before the break and the week before 63-13 by the Frankfurt Universe. They dropped the tough 28-26 decision to the Comets just prior to that. They had lost 43-13 the week before that to the surging Mercenaries after losing 37-13 to the Universe the week prior to that. They had dropped 24-0 decision to the the Unicorns to open their 2019 season. But they then suffered a disappointing 37-30 loss to the Stuttgart Scorpions.
The Dukes have had solid quarterbacking for the last six games with Cory Benedetto behind center. Last week, he threw for 244 yards and three touchdowns in the win against Kirchdorf while rushing for 72. The week before against Marburg he threw for 344 yards and four touchdowns.He had a solid outing in the win over the Comets throwing for 206 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 82 and another. This gives him 1,267 yards and 13 touchdowns in six games. His chief target Normen Schumm who has 558 yards receiving on 37 catches while Anthony Mella has caught 35 passes for 502 yards nine touchdown passes from Benedetto. The running game has begun to improve the Dukes are averaging 89.8 yards a game with Benedetto the leading rusher with 247 yards.
Kirchdorf is coming off three straight losses. Before losing last week to the Dukes, they dropped a 38-17 decision to the Frankfurt Universe after losing to Marburg 41-28 the week before. They had celebrated their second win of the season after they edged the Munich Cowboys 19-18 just before the break in the GFL schedule. They had been pounded 56-0 by the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns the week before after having notched their first win of the season in beating the Allgau Comets 27-25. They had suffered through four straight losses and a tie leading up to that game. Before dropping a 31-29 decision to the Stuttgart Scorpions five weeks ago, the Wildcats had played the Munich Cowboys to a 27-27 tie, dropped a 34-7 decision to Stuttgart and then were walloped 52-14 by the Unicorns. A month ago, they lost to Marburg in a shootout, 55-49.
Wildcats HC Christoph Riener added Rex Dausin (Colorado State) who comes to the team straight from leading the Bialystok Lowlanders to the Polish title game. He threw for 280 yards last week in the loss but threw three interceptions and could not find the end zone. His key target, Madison Mangum caught 10 passes for 113 yards
The Wildcats running game has tailed off and averages 86 yards a game. Running back Alex Braunsperger who has rushed for 486 yards and 7 TDs, only had 36 yards last week. They will need a running game to have any chance at all beating the Dukes on the road.
