Poland: Tychy Falcons hold on to beat the Silesia Rebels Katowice despite losing QB

The Tychy Falcons kept their unbeaten record (3-0) intact Sunday in the Polish Football League despite losing the services of starting quarterback Jules St. Ge in the second quarter, defeating the Silesia Rebels Katowice 27-12.

With the win, the Falcons moved into first place in the standings.

The Rebels were their own worst enemies on this day, handing Tychy a touchdown on the opening kickoff after fumbling reverse. Falcons defensive back LaParish Lewis scooped up the ball and pranced into the endzone to give Tychy a 6-0 lead with the game only seconds old.

The Rebels started off slow and looked as if they would struggle to move the ball against a strong Falcon defense until a 55-yard strike from QB Jon Mullin (#2) to receiver Pawel Wojciechowski (#14) put them deep in the red zone. But the Falcon defense proceeded to tighten up and forced a turnover on downs after the Rebels went for it on fourth.

Due to the mistake on the opening kickoff  when quarterback Jules St. Ge and the Falcons offense saw the field they were already up 6 – 0, but this did nothing to impede the drive to push the field. And on the second play of the drive, St. Ge rolled out to the right and launched the ball 55 yards down field to receiver Thomasz Nowak (#5) who leapt into the air and snagged the ball in double coverage. A questionable call would call it incomplete, but regardless, this would be the intent St. Ge showed until his early departure in the second quarter due to injury.

St. Ge would go on to scramble almost the entirety of the field before punching it in for the score. This was a drive that would also see Rebels starting safety Devion Young (#6) suffer a knee injury on a tackle. Young would stay in the game, but with a noticeable limp and with obvious difficulty covering sideline to sideline.

Three drives of aerial ping-pong due to dropped passes and inaccuracy followed until St. Ge sustained an ankle injury on a scramble forcing DB Lewis to go in as wildcat QB. Lewis weaved his way through the Rebel defense with ease play after play until going in for his second score of the game to put the Falcons up 20 – 0 going in at halftime.

Tychy received the ball first in the second-half and Lewis continued at wildcat. The elusive Lewis had a number of break-away runs but a flag-happy reffing crew were not about to let the little things slide. This forced Lewis and the Falcons to attempt a 30-yard field-goal that went higher than it did longer keeping the score 20 – 0.

The ensuing drive saw some great running from both Rebel QB Mullins and running back Bartek Slomka (#25) to put the team in great field position. A 25-yard dart to receiver Ihor Lysenko (#89) to finish it off finally got Silesia on the scoreboard.

The Falcons were happy to run the clock down on their next drive, confident that their defense would hold. The Rebels got the ball back deep in their own half. Not able to get anything going through the air Mullins took it on himself to scramble the entirety of the field – apart from a 20-yard completion to Lysenko – and run it in for the score closing the gap on a QB’less Falcon team.

As the game started to wind down, Tychy could feel the Rebels closing in until a 45-yard run from running back Jan Szwej (#19) put the Falcons back in great field position. Smelling the endzone, Lewis ran it in himself from the 1-yard line taking the Falcons back into a two-score lead.

Silesia would put back-up QB Pawel Tomaszewski (#81) in the following drive to wave the proverbial white flag in a 27 – 12 defeat.

Tychy will feel good about themselves after claiming a convincing win without their starting QB as they go into next week’s matchup against a winless Warsaw Mets team – but a St. Ge’s injury will be of great concern. And the Rebels will go up against a strong Lowlanders team in what should be an even matchup.