The Ingolstadt Dukes (3-8) and Munich Cowboys (2-9-1) will open a home and home series Saturday, August 24 in Ingolstadt as the German Football League heads into the final three weekends of the season.
Ingolstadt is coming off back-to-back wins over the Kirchdorf Wildcats. They won the second game 37-27 after blanking Kirchdorf 24-0 in the first encounter.
Going into those games, 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 225 yards and three touchdowns in the win against Kirchdorf while rushing for 44. He now has 1,492 yards passing and 16 touchdowns in seven games. His chief target Normen Schumm who has 638 yards receiving on 45 catches while Anthony Mella has caught 42 passes for 598 yards 10 touchdown passes from Benedetto. The running game has begun to improve the Dukes are averaging 100.8 yards a game with Benedetto the leading rusher with 291 yards.
Munich is coming off seven straight losses after suffering back-to-back lopsided shut outs at the hands of the Marburg Mercenaries, 52-0 and Frankfurt Universe, 46-0. The Cowboys had suffered a 48-14 defeat at the hands of the Schwabiasch Hall Unicorns the week before. Before that, they dropped a 31-24 decision to the Stuttgart Scorpions after losing 19-18 to the Kirchdorf Wildcats which had followed a very tough 21-19 loss to the Scorpions the week before that. The week before they were beaten 41-29 by the Marburg Mercenaries following back-to-back wins over the Allgäu Comets, downing them 21-18 and 31-16.
However, Cowboys QB Brady Bolles may be done for the year after breaking a finger on his throwing hand. Manuel Engelmann will step up this week after Jari Koperski struggled through two games after being pressed into service. Head coach Garren Holley is experiencing a nightmare season of injuries with his team. If he can pull out a win in one of these two games against the Dukes, the Cowboys will avoid a relegation series.
