Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns improve to 13-0 with win over Stuttgart Scorpions

The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns maintained their unbeaten streak with their 13th win of the year, beating the Stuttgart Scorpions 27-13 in front of 2,200 fans at Optima Sportpark.

The Scorpions did not make it easy though.

As in the previous game between these two in 2017, Stuttgart would not give up without a fight. Despite a spectacular 90 yard return for a touchdown on the game’s opening kickoff by Nathaniel Robataille, the Unicorns were not able to really put an injury-decimated Scorpions team away.

Missing quarterback Connor Sullivan and then losing his replacement, Makoa Comanse-Stevens, finally putting Christoph Münster behind center, the Scorpions still put up a scrappy fight.

Nevertheless, Schwabisch Hall, behind a three touchdown performance by Tyler Rutenbeck, managed to stay  in control of  the game. Following Robataille’s touchdown, Stuttgart fumbled on their opening series and the Unicorns made them pay as Marco Ehrenfried threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Rutenbeck (PAT Tim Stadelmayr) and the Unicorns held an early 13-0 lead.

But Stuttgart battled back with Ronnie Hicks finding a seam and racing 60 yards to narrow the gap to 13-6. However, Ehrenfried connected with Rutenbeck again with less than a minute left in the first half, hitting him for a 53 yard touchdown and the Unicorns took a seemingly comfortable 20-6 lead into the break.

Schwäbisch Hall opened the third quarter with another touchdown as Ehrenfried found Rutenback for his third touchdown on a 13 yard route extending the lead to 27-6.

The Scorpions closed the gap 27-13 with a fourth quarter touchdown by Daniel Jones on a 15 yard run, but that was it.

Unicorns head coach Jordan Neumann was relieved with the win but not happy:

“We made too many mistakes and missed too many blocks. This shows that we still have work ahead of us to be able to start in good shape in the playoffs.”