The fifth place Limhamn Griffins will travel to Uppsala on Thursday evening to face the Uppsala 86ers, who are fourth, in a do or die matchup as Sweden’s Superserien winds up the 2017 regular season.
The game will determine the final team to qualify for the Swedish playoffs.
The 3-6 86ers were finalists in 2016 but have struggled in 2017 due in part to key injuries to quarterback Kieran McDonagh. Unable to throw the ball since getting hurt early in the season, McDonagh has seen spot duty while the coaching staff has tried a rotation of players. Ultimately the team has found Gustav Bowall who has improved at quarterback and who will start as McDonagh will see duty in a running capacity.
Uppsala enters the game averaging 19 points a game on offense while giving up 31. Limhamn has also had problems on offense but quarterback Christian Lisby has steadily improved and is the fourth leading passer in Sweden having thrown for 1,124 yards. 86ers running back Victor St. Pierre Laviolette has been a bright spot though and leads the league in rushing with 639 yards. His 91 yards in the first meeting between these two teams, a 33-15 victory in late April, was a key.
Defensively, Uppsala relies heavily on the play of linebacker Joshua Akena, the second leading tackler in the league while Jalani Philips has been the anchor to Limhamn’s defense and is fifth in total tackles.
Both teams are coming off tough losses. Uppsala dropped a tight game to the Stockholm Mean Machines while the Griffins were beaten by the Orebro Black Knights.
Uppsala needs to win, or lose by 17 points or less. Limhamn needs to win by 18 points or more to move on to the playoffs.
The stakes are high tonight in Uppsala.
Limhamn head coach Greg Gibson:
“We know what’s at stake today and are ready for the challenge. It was a short week to prepare and recover, but we feel confident that we’ll play well. The challenge for us will be to put up points on their defense. They have some really quality players in the front seven that will pose a huge problem for our offense, especially our offensive line. If we limit the turnovers and make a play or two on special teams and convert on third down, we’ll put ourselves in position to win the game.”
Kickoff is 6:30 pm (12:30 EDT) and the game is being broadcast live on CMore in Sweden (PPV) and shown in a tape delay at 10:20 pm on TV4.
Watch the game live (Pay per View) by clicking here. Click on the button that says “Prova 2 veckor gratis – Try it for 2 weeks for free” . Then fill in your email address, name and password and click Skapa konto, Open account. Add your credit card number. You have two weeks free viewing. After that, if you don’t cancel it costs 99 Swedish kronor, or about $11 per month.