It took a late-game touchdown by Schwäbisch Hall veteran running back Danny Washington for the Unicorns to finally come from behind and defeat the upstart Frankfurt Universe 26-21 on the opening day of the German Football League.
The Unicorns knew they were facing a far tougher “new” team to the league in Frankfurt and the Universe lived up all the pregame hype. It was a battle from the opening whistle.
With the support of a cheering home crowd of 2,400 fans at Optima Sportpark, Schwäbisch Hall took an early 14-0 lead on touchdown passes from Marco Ehrenfried to Tyler Rutenbeck (30 yards) and Patrick Donahue (46 yards) as the Unicorns capitalized on Frankfurt turnovers.
The Universe roared back in the second quarter though as the Unicorns committed a couple of costly penalties themselves. Frankfurt took advantage as quarterback Marcus McDade overcame his early-game jitters and found his rhythm connecting with George Robinson (six yards) and Nathaniel Robitaille (30 yards) for two majors before the break to close the gap to 14-13 (blocked PAT).
Frankfurt took control in the third quarter with the defense getting stops and the offense gathering momentum. McDade threw his third touchdown pass of the day, this one a 10 yarder to Robinson, giving the Universe the lead for the first time in the game 21-14.
Turnovers again proved deadly for Frankfurt as Unicorns linebacker Henry Ly pounced on a Universe fumble at the Frankfurt five-yard line. Patrick Donahue took the ball in on the next play making it a one-point game, 21-20 (missed PAT) Universe.
Another Frankfurt miscue gave the Unicorns the ball deep in Universe territory late in the contest and Danny Washington made no mistake scoring the winning touchdown from one yard out with two minutes to play to seal the victory 26-21.
Unicorns head coach Siegfried Gehrke:
“Frankfurt was as we expected a tough opponent and I congratulate them on this achievement. It was a great game and we are just thankful that we came away with the win.”