The Portuguese League of American Football – LPFA – is heading into the home stretch and after 10 weeks of play only a couple of teams have been eliminated from playoff contention. This past Sunday, the Maia Renegades upset the league leaders in the North division the Porto Mutts to take over first place while in the South the Paredes Lumberjacks took care of business against the lowly Lisbon Navigators. Finally the Algarve Sharks blanked their crosstown rivals the Algarve Pirates in the other South division battles.
Maia Renegades 13 – Porto Mutts 7
Photo: Carlos Valença/PhotoSports
The highlight game of the weekend was between the two top teams in the North, the Maia Renegades and Porto Mutts. The game was hard fought with both teams going at each other and keeping the score close the entire game. The Mutts scored first with Ricardo Pinho and with Hélio Reis scoring the extra point. In the second quarter the “do it all” Awal Umaru scored for is team and tied the score.
Photo: Carlos Valença/PhotoSports
It was not until the last quarter of the game that the Renegades took the lead as Bruno Pinto scored but the Renegades missed the extra point. Both teams had touchdowns called back on penalties and in a game that could have gone either way, the Renegades came out with a 13-7 win.
Paredes Lumberjacks – 20 – Lisbon Navigators 7
In Paredes, the Lisbon Navigators and Paredes Lumberjacks, two teams with plenty of history between them, played in a last effort to try to reach the playoffs. The Navigators scored first with a touchdown pass to Bruce Furtado. The extra point was made. But then Cody Davis took over scoring three touchdowns pacing the Lumberjacks to the win. The entire game was dominated by both defenses but the Lumberjacks really come out on top and won for the first time in their history against the Navigators. The final score was 20-7.
Algarve Sharks 48 – Algarve Pirates 0
Preston Baily celebrates for Sharks. Photo: Pirates/Divulgação
The final game was played in Algarve in a battle between the two southeast teams of Portugal. The Pirates played host to the Sharks and the game was pretty much played in only one direction with the Sharks dominating the entire game. Quarterback Jonh Holloway threw four touchdowns with Jorge Mendes catching two while Preston Bailey and João Teixeira had one each. Running back Guilherme Vieites scored one rushing touchdown. On defense, linebacker Filipe da Silva had a pick six and on special teams after a blocked punt Davi Martins returned it to the house for a final score of 48-0.
Three more games are scheduled this weekend in the LPFA:
Saturday, January 28 at 2:30pm the Lisbon Navigators will host the Braga Warriors
Saturday, January 28 at 3:00pm the Porto Mutts will host the Lisboa Devils
Sunday, January 29 at 3:00 pm the Black Knights will host the Cacais Crusaders