Swarco Raiders capture 1st ever Superfinal, defeat Copenhagen Towers in dominant display

The Swarco Raiders capped a perfect Central European Football League campaign by defeating the Northern European Football League champions, Denmark’s Copenhagen Towers, 45-20 in the Superfinal in front of a sold-out crowd at Copenhagen’s Gentofte Sportspark stadium.

Raiders quarterback Sean Shelton threw three touchdown passes and ran two in himself while Patrick Donahue caught two touchdown passes and scored a third on a spectacular 90 yard interception return. Sandro Patzgummer also scored on a touchdown reception while Thomas Pichlmann kicked six PATs and a field goal.

For the Towers, quarterback Randy Schroeder threw one touchdown pass while backup Kasper Skyum threw two touchdown passes. Wide receivers Philip Thue, Jesper Hansen and Aske Troen caught touchdown passes while Troen Troen kicked two extra points.

The Raiders asserted their dominance in the first quarter as Shelton wasted no time on the very first drive marching his team to the Copenhagen 29 yard line before finishing by scampering in himself to open the scoring, 7-0.

With the Towers offense unable to move past midfield, Shelton again engineered a field-long drive which he also capped, this time with a nine yard touchdown run. Swarco’s defense continued to keep the Copenhagen offense in check but a third touchdown was nullified by a holding call so the Raiders settled for a 27 yard field goal from Pichlmann midway through the second quarter.

With the Raiders leading 17-0, Schroeder was finally able to get the Towers offense untracked, leading them into Raiders territory. He then connected with Thue on a 10 yard touchdown pass to narrow the lead to 17-7 at the break.

Swarco wide receiver Patrick Donahue displayed his full talents in the third quarter, first hauling in a 24 yard touchdown pass from Shelton. And then he picked off a Schroeder pass on his own 10 yard line and raced 90 yards for a game-changing touchdown. With the score now 31-13 for the Raiders, the Towers made a change at quarterback with Skyum replacing Schroeder. They were rewarded with a Skyum to Hansen 20 yard touchdown pass closing the gap to 31-13.

The Raiders continued to impose their will as Shelton ended another drive with a 13 yard touchdown pass to Platzgummer early in the fourth quarter, extending the lead to 38-13. Donahue added his third touchdown of the game midway through the final period on an 11 yard pass from Shelton.

With Swarco leading 45-13, Skyum found Troen from 25 yards out to finalize the scoring.

The Superfinal was the culmination of a tournament which included the national champions from nine different countries: Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Turkey and Russia as well as the Austrian runners up. Needless to say, Raiders head coach Shuan Fatah was happy:

“I could not be more pleased. This was a historic victory for the Swarco Raiders organization with so many national champions in the tournament. I am extremely proud of my team.”