Rhein Fire stage dramatic comeback to defeat Stuttgart Surge in OT

Trailing 23-13 with less than four minutes left in the European League of Football semifinal against the Stuttgart Surge, the Rhein Fire dug deep, scoring a touchdown and kicking a field goal to tie the game to force overtime. Quarterback Jadrian Clark then connected with Florian Eichhorn in overtime to give the Fire a 29-23 win and send his team back to the ELF Championship Game for the second year in a row.

In a steady downpour, Clark threw for 185 yards and three touchdowns while running back Glen Toonga rushed for 136 yards. Surge quarterback Reilly Hennessey threw for 160 yards and two scores but was picked off three times. Running back Nicolas Khandar rushed for 87 yards.

The Surge opened the scoring with quarterback Reilly Hennessey finding Florian Lengauer for a 13 yard touchdown to take a 6-0 lead. Rhein responded as Clark connected with Justin Schlesinger for a 40 yard score to give the Fire a 7-6 lead.

Stuttgart came right back on the next drive with Hennessey hitting Yannick Mayer for a 43 yard touchdown to put his team back on top 13-7, still in the first quarter.

Early in the second, Clark maneuvered his team into field goal range and Sebastien Van Santen booted a 32 yarder to narrow the gap to 13-10. Then with less than four minutes left in the first half, Surge defensive back Chad Walrond picked off an errant Clark pass and returned to all the way to boost the lead for Stuttgart to 20-10.

With a minute remaining in the first half, Clark marched the Fire down to the Stuttgart six yard line and Van Santen kicked his second field goal, this one a 23 yarder, to reduce the lead to 20-13.

The impressive defensive play of both teams continued in the second half with the heavy rainfall hampering both offenses. Neither team managed to score until early in the fourth when Surge kicker Lenny Krieg capped a 39 yard drive with a 22 yard field goal to extend the Stuttgart lead to 23-13.

With nine minutes left, Clark marched his team on a 16 play, 65 yard drive, finishing it with a 10 yard touchdown pass to Tim Sauerland to close the cap to 23-20. Then the Fire defense did its job, intercepting Hennessey with two minutes left. Clark drove his team down to the Surge 25 yard line and Van Santen made no mistake kicked a 42 yard field goal to tie the game.

In overtime, Hennessey was picked off again by the ball hawking Fire defense. Clark then completed the comeback with the touchdown pass to Eichhorn.

The Fire return to the title game for the second consecutive year where they will face the Vienna Vikings who defeated the Paris Musketeers 47-31 in the other semifinal.