Every sport has its stories of revenge. In Mexico’s professional American football league —Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA)— the Mayas and Raptors were definitely bent on revenge over the Eagles and Fundidores, respectively. They had both lost to those teams earlier in the season. And both games proved to be fitting finales in the fifth week of action in the LFA.
Mayas (4-1) 27 – Eagles 24 (3-2)
The opening game on Sunday at Jesus ‘Palillo’ Martínez was the one between the reigning champions the Mayas and the Eagles. Both squads met at the beginning of the season with a victory for the Eagles. This had shocked Maya’s fans but the best team won this day as the Mayas looked like they were taking this game seriously. The Eagles knew that it was a tough game, but if they took the victory home it was going to mean lot for their postseason aspirations.
The duel let the defenses to do their jobs very well. Both teams stopped the offenses, but it was Mayas who scored first to open the game. Marco García, Mayas quarterback, was able to lead his team to the end zone easily, but also Eagles defense managed to push Marco to run and throw risky passes with short space to move around.
In Aaron Williams, Marco has found an excellent wide receiver with sure hands. He has been a key element for Mayas, not only in making points, but also in moving the chains quickly. Among running back Omar Cojolum, the team was able to defeat Eagles and take their revenge from the game of week one.
With Eagles, they had problems to find their best quarterback. Raúl Mateos jumped into the field for the first quarters, but he lost a lot of yards and balls that gave Mayas a great position in the field. Joaquin Juárez took his place after those mistakes and he demonstrated why he has entered in several times to replace Mateos and fix his mistakes.
Unfortunately, Juárez was incapable of upsetting the Mayas and it was close that the game went into overtime, but the Mayas defense stopped him while he was trying to get into a field goal range in order to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to play. The game ended with a final score of 27-24 and this gives the Mayas the perfect opportunity to reach the top of the their group.
Raptors (3-2) 14 – Fundidores (1-4) 10
The rematch of LFA’s third week between Fundidores and Raptors took place now in Mexico City. In that game, the Fundidores defeated the green and white team 22-21 in what was their first and only victory at this point of the campaign and also it was the first loss for the Raptors this year.
For this weekend, the Fundidores flew again to the center of the country in order to pay their visit to Raptors. The squad from Monterrey needed the victory if they wanted to keep their postseason dream alive, but it was a difficult game against their group rivals. With the Dinos’ victory last weekend in the opening game of week five, both teams were forced to win in order to keep up with the Dinos’.
In the first half, the locals were surpassed by the black and yellow players who demonstrated that they were going for the victory this time. In spite of Mexico’s City altitude, Monterrey’s players did not have any problems in the beginning and were able to score rapidly in seeking their second win of the season.
Fundidores quarterback Roberto Vega was confident and threw accurate passes to his teammates. For an instance, it was clear that the Fundidores made the trip to defeat the Raptors, but for this second chapter, their performance went down. Vega was sacked in several times and his offensive line was outdone by the Raptors’ defensive players.
With the score 10-7 for the Fundidores, Raptors quarterback Bruno Márquez led his team to the end zone with a pass to Enrique Barraza to win the game 14-10. Their third victory of the season has come in a very important moment in order to keep up with the Dinos and who they will probably face in the game for the conference title.
