Towers Top Tigers; Copenhagen Wins Historic Sixth Mermaid Bowl

Copenhagen Towers continue DAFF dominance

The Copenhagen Towers have crowned a spectacular season with a historic 26-3 Mermaid Bowl win over the Aarhus Tigers. With the win the Towers became the first team to lift the prestigious trophy for a sixth time.

A fantastic season that featured multiple appearances in the IFAF European Champions League and a 9-1 regular season record in the Danish National League has come to a conclusion. In the biggest game of the year, the defending champions demonstrated that they are indeed back on top of American football in Denmark. Facing the only team to beat the purple this year – the Aarhus Tigers – surely added another dimension of excitement to the game.

But on the turf of AutoC Park in Randers the Towers rose to the occasion, and showed great determination and team effort to earn the historic victory.

“Today our defense played very well. Allowing only three points over the course of three quarters is pretty good.  And the offense did what they were supposed to and got off to a good start. They struggled a bit for a short period but they bounced back to close the game out. We did a lot of good things today,” said proud Head Coach, Peter Herbild.

And the fact that the win came over the Tigers makes the victory even more satisfying.

“It feels very, very good to beat the Tigers. The Tigers have had a great season, that is  very important to remember, but it feels really, really good to win it,” Herbild said.

The Tigers won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball but from the get-go the Tower defense had the answer for Lilhauge and the Tigers offense. After trading possessions a couple of times the Towers found a way to open the score as a defensive pass interference deep in Tigers territory set up a one yard Jannik Lindén touchdown plunge.

Multiple times the Towers successfully flipped the field with some great punting, giving the Tigers bad field position. Suddenly though,  the Tigers managed to put together a good-looking drive, but then Copenhagen’s defense, as they have done many times before, came up huge holding the Tigers to a field goal.

Before heading to half time Copenhagen made it a two-score game as quarterback J.R. Artozqui found Oliver Wenzel down the field. Wenzel could barely reach the deep ball but somehow managed and reeled it in for a touchdown giving the Towers a 13-3 lead.

In the second half both teams came out strong on defense. The third quarter remained scoreless and slowly time began to tick in favor of the purple. With 5.22 left in the game, Copenhagen broke the deadlock – and the goal line – to widen the gap between the two teams. Artozqui fired a six-yard bullet to Oliver Wenzel, who hauled it in for his second touchdown of the day.

On the ensuing possession the Towers defense quickly forced the Tigers offense off the field and after a couple plays running back Mads Hermansen finished the scoring with an eight-yard run off a toss sweep to the left.

The win also spells the perfect conclusion to American quarterback J.R. Artozqui’s time in Copenhagen. After an extremely successful five-year stint – and two consecutive Mermaid Bowl trophies – with the purple, the American – who was also named the Mermaid Bowl MVP – has decided to head back home to California.

Story from Copenhagen Towers website.
Photos:  Michael Quist