UACH Águilas Down Águilas Blancas; Tigres, Potros Salvajes & UNAM CU Pumas Reach Semis

| American Football | 11/14/2016

Mexico’s ONEFA –  Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Futbol Americano (National Student Organization of American Football) – wrapped up quarterfinal action this weekend as the UACH Águilas downed the IPN Águilas Blancas 45-38 in front of 15,000 wildly cheering fans in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The ONEFA is the league in Mexico made up of mostly the public university American football teams in the nation. In 2015, the Auténticos Tigres took the title defeating the UNAM Pumas CU 16-7.

UACH quarterback Randall Mendoza threw five touchdown passes and Jonathan Román returned the second half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown as UACH survived a scare to beat Águilas Blancas 45-38.

Diego Pérez Arvizu scored three touchdowns for Águilas Blancas.

The UACH Águilas  took a 16-10 halftime lead and added two more scores, one on Román’s spectacular return to extend the lead to 31-10 midway through the third quarter. The teams traded two touchdowns and with UACH leading 45-24 the Águilas Blancas came storming back as Santo Tomás scored twice to close the gap to 45-38 with less than a minute to go.

The UACH managed to ride out the clock and will move on to face the UNAM CU Pumas in the semifinals.

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Jonathan Román returned the 2nd half kickoff 98 yards for a key TD. Photo: extradeportivo.mx / Divulgación: extradeportivo.mx

In the other three games, the Auténticos Tigres overwhelmed the UNAM Pumas 62-7, the UAEM Potros Salvajes downed the UACH Toros Salvajes 36-21 and the UNAM Pumas beat the UADEC Lobos 35-7.

The Tigres will now face the Potros Salvajes in one semifinal while the UACH Águilas will take on the UNAM CU Pumas in the other.

ONEFA playoff structure

The structure of the playoffs in the ONEFA is a little challenging even for some experts. The playoff teams are drawn from two conferences, the Green and the White conferences. The Green conference teams are more heavily weighted with the top two teams ranked #1 and #2 overall. The first two teams from the White conference are ranked #5 and 6 in the ranking.

So three teams from the Green conference and one from the White have moved on to the semifinals.

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.