For the second year in a row, the Mayas from Mexico City have captured Mexico’s Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA), championship beating the Dinos of Saltillo 24-18 in the ‘Tazón México’. This one wasn’t easy as the Mayas had to overcome a 10-0 first half deficit against a tough Dinos squad.
Jesús ‘Palillo’ Martínez stadium was filled almost to capacity to watch the two top teams in the league battle for the second annual LFA championship trophy.
And the two teams did not disappoint combining for 712 yards of offense, 356 each ironically.
Mayas quarterback Marco García threw for 206 yards and a touchdown and running back Omar Cojolum ran for 123 yards and another touchdown. Josué Martínez led all Mayas receivers with six catches for 102 yards and a touchdown. Mauricio Morales added a field goal.
The Dinos two touchdowns were scored by quarterback Alberto García who ran one in from a yard out and Gerardo Álvarez on a pass from García. Oscar Silva Reta kicked a 20 yard field goal. Garcia had 318 yards passing with receiver Alejo Trevino grabbing seven receptions for 137 yards. But the Dinos could only muster 38 yards rushing.
The Dinos, in their “title game” black uniforms, opened the scoring on Silva Reta’s field goal and extended the lead to 10-0 when Garcia scored following linebacker Roberto Razo interception of a Marco Garcia pass.
Garcia finally got the Mayas on the scoreboard with a 60 yard touchdown pass to Martinez and then gave his team the lead scoring from 17 yards out.
After halftime, Morales kicked a field goal for the Mayas and the defense did the rest keeping the Dinos’ offense in check. With six minutes to play in the third, Cojolum escaped from his own 35 yard line to the end zone to give the Mayas a 14 point lead.
The Dinos were unable to move the ball effectively in the third quarter and so needed two touchdowns in the fourth in order to tie the game and send it into overtime.
They were able to only get one. Although they did manage to force the Mayas into giving up a two-point safety with less than two minutes to go giving Garcia time to march his team down the field. He connected with Álvarez with 39 seconds left to close the gap to 24-18.
But that was it and the Mayas started celebrating their second straight LFA championship.
Watch highlights from the game.
