The Frankfurt Galaxy Upset the London Warriors
The Frankfurt Galaxy extended their undefeated season to 15 wins with a come-from-behind 34-31 victory over the visiting London Warriors in front of 5,400 roaring fans at Frankfurter Volksbank Stadium in Frankfurt Sunday.
The game, dubbed the “European Battle of Champions”, lived up to its hype as it was Frankfurt’s aerial attack versus the punishing ground game of the Warriors. Galaxy quarterback Emanuel Lewis ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third while running back Evan Harrington notched two scores for the win.
The Warriors opened the scoring as quarterback Nick Jacquet connected on a 20 yard pass-and-run to his number one receiver Luc Benjamin Mbemba giving the visitors a 7-0 lead. But Frankfurt responded as quarterback Emanuel Lewis drove his team down the field capping the drive with a 10 run into the end zone tying the game.
Evan Harrington scored 2 TDs
The British champions regained the lead on the legs of Dwayne Watson who bulled his way into the end zone to put London up 14-7 after the extra point by Ian Jacquet.
Emanuel Lewis was not to be outdone, engineering a long drive finishing it with a four yard touchdown run evening the game at 14-14.
With less than a minute left in the first half Mbemba caught his second touchdown of the game from 20 yards out and the Warriors were back up 21-14 with 35 seconds left in the half. But the fireworks had only begun as Lewis seemed unstoppable as he threw a 33 yard touchdown pass to Laurhino Walch to tie the game with seconds to spare.
But a great kickoff return and poise in the pocket by Jacquet gave the Londoners another chance and Ian Jacquet made no mistake kicking a 31 yard field goal giving the Warriors a 24-21 halftime lead as time expired.
The Galaxy seemed to gain momentum in the second half and time and again stopped the Warriors offense while running back Evan Harrington began making an impact scoring two touchdowns one in each quarter putting Frankfurt up 34-24 late in the fourth period.
Laurinho Walch hauls in a TD pass from Emanuel Lewis
London managed to close the gap to 34-31 on Watson’s second touchdown of the afternoon but it was too little too late as Frankfurt sent a boisterous crowd home happy.
Warriors head coach Jeff Brown, a former NFL Europe player, looked forward to a rematch:
“It was incredibly fun to play in front of this fantastic crowd”, he said, adding ” The fans here are amazing. Just like the old days.
