The Gdynia Seahawks used a strong first half and then held on to defeat the Tychy Falcons 32-27 in Gdynia Sunday in second round action in Poland’s Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego.
Gdynia opened the game with a stunning kick off return touchdown as Seahawks receiver Jakub Mazan returned the ball 90 yards for a major.
Gdynia quarterback Philip Juhlin threw two touchdown passes, one to Mazan and the other to Mateusz Miotke and burly defensive lineman Arkadiusz Cieślok bulled his way into the end zone twice for touchdowns.
For the Falcons, Keith Ray threw three touchdown passes and ran another touchdown in himself. Grzegorz Dominik hauled in two touchdown passes while Tomasz Nowak added one and Ray ran the final score in himself.
After getting stunned on the opening kickoff return touchdown, Ray and the Falcons offense settled down and Ray’s touchdown toss to Dominik gave them a 7-6 lead. That was as close as they would come in the first half as Gdynia’s offense began to assert itself.
Photo: Zosia Roszkowska
First Juhlin found Mazan in the corner of the end zone for a 15 yard touchdown pass. Then Cieślok scored his first of two, as he barged into the end zone to increase the lead to 18-7. Then Juhlin found Miotke on a corner route for a 29 yard touchdown and the Seahawks went into the break leading 26-7.
Tychy came out on fire in the second half as Dominik caught his second touchdown pass of the day on a 32 yard deep route and the gap was narrowed to 26-13. With the defense keeping the Seahawks in check, Ray connected with Nowak on a 63 yard bomb and suddenly the Falcons were threatening again, behind only 26-20.
However, Juhlin marched his team down to the Tychy five yard line and then handed the ball off to Cieślok who plunged in to extend the lead to 32-20.
Ray engineered another touchdown drive late in the game, taking the ball in himself, to close the gap to 32-27. But the Seahaawks ran out the clock to celebrate their second win of the season.
The Seahawks will not see action again until April 14 when they face the Warsaw Mets while Tychy heads to Bialystok next week to play the defending champion Bialystok Lowlanders.