The Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (8-1) will welcome the undefeated Braunschweig New Yorker Lions (8-0) to Kilia Stadion in Kiel, Germany Saturday July 29 in a huge German Football League North battle.
These two teams met a month ago when the Lions prevailed 44-26. It was a game where Braunschweig took control in the first half building up a 31-3 lead in the third quarter before Kiel’s offense could get untracked.
Nevertheless, the Hurricanes will be playing in front of a big home crowd in a stadium where they haven’t lost in two seasons. In fact, in the last three years, they have only lost once playing at home and that was to…guess who? Yep, the Lions back in 2015. Last year they played to a 10-10 tie in Kiel.
Kiel enters the game with the top scoring offense averaging 45.9 points and 460 yards per game. However, they will be facing the second stingiest defense as Braunschweig gives up no more than 10.4 points a game. And the Lions offense, while not scoring more a game than Kiel, is explosive and scores in bunches.
Lions quarterback Casey Therriault leads the league in passing efficiency. He has thrown for 2,060 yards on 71.2% passing and tossed 24 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. His counterpart for Kiel, Jared Stegman has thrown for 2,286 yards and 40 touchdowns (five ints).
Hurricanes running back Chris McClendon leads the league in rushing with 1,280 yards and 13 touchdowns. He is on pace to break the 2,000 yard mark averaging 160 yards a game. David McCants is the third leading rusher in Germany with 825 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The game will see the two top receivers in the league in Nik Romer from the Lions who leads with an average of 108.4 receiving yards a game, hotly pursued by Kiel’s Xavier Mitchell who is averaging 105.1. Romer has 12 touchdown receptions while Mitchell has 13.
Casey Therriault needs to have his head on a swivel to keep an eye out for Hurricanes defensive end Okan Guzel who has eight sacks on the year. Stegman has to watch out for Lions linebacker Jacob Schridde who is one of the anchors of the tough Braunschweig defense.
