Poland: Tychy Falcons earn stifling shutout win over Warsaw Mets

The Tychy Falcons evened their season record at 1-1 after eking out a 16-0 win over the host Warsaw Mets Sunday in a defensive battle as Poland’s Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego wound up its second round of play

The Falcons scored touchdowns in the first and fourth quarters with a third quarter field goal to blank a struggling Warsaw Mets team.

Quarterback Niklas Gorny threw for 86 yards while rushing for another 19 and a touchdown. Running back Adrian Binek scored the other touchdown late in the game on a one yard plunge after rushing for 31 yards total in the game. Jan Szwej rushed for 42 yards, most of that in the first quarter. Wide receiver Rashad Still grew increasingly dangerous for Tychy as the game wore on and had 61 yards receiving.

For the Mets, quarterback TJ Richardson was a constant threat rushing for 74 yards but he was only able to complete seven passes for 39 yards. Starting running back Witold Szpotanski had 10 carries for 18 yards against a Falcons defense that kept him bottled up.

In all, Tychy generated 178 yards of offense compared to the Mets‘ 138. It was that kind of a game.

The game took a strange turn for the Falcons after Gorny marched his team sharply down the field on the opening possession, driving them from the 37 to Warsaw’s 17 yard line in six plays and then taking the ball in himself for a 6-0 lead.

After that, it turned into a defensive stalemate.

From then until early in the third quarter, neither team could advance past midfield with most drives ending well inside the 50.

Gorny was finally able to mount a sustained drive on the Falcons first possession of the second half with Rashad Still hauling down a key 26 yard pass to move down to Warsaw’s 10 yard line. Three plays later the Tychy kicker put the ball through the uprights and the Falcons increased the lead to 9-0.

Again Richardson and the Mets offense stalled, this time reaching their own 45. Two possessions later, a Warsaw punt landed inside Mets territory and Gorny marched a seemingly revitalized Falcons offense down to the one yard line in 10 plays. He mixed up his passes with Still as the main target and Mateusz Patalas as the safety valve. Binek added a key 18 yard run and then finished off the drive running the ball in from the one to give Tychy a 15-0 lead. The PAT was good and with the clock ticking down, the lead seemed secure at 16-0.

The Mets had two more chances to move the ball but proved ineffective while Gorny seemingly scored again on a 55 yard run, but the touchdown was called back for a hold.

The Falcons next game is on the road against the Silesia Rebels, Saturday September 19 while Warsaw has a bye week and hosts the Bialystok Lowlanders on September 26.

Watch all the action on AFI.tv.