By Danny Weber, Fourth Down Fiasco
The Vienna Vikings did not know what to expect from the visiting Helvetic Mercenaries after a whirlwind week for the Swiss who were coming off of their first win and had undergone upheaval in the coaching staff. On top of that, they had to travel to the capital of Austria to face one of the top teams in the ELF.
Still, despite a spirited effort from the visiting Swiss squad, which included an extraordinary 22 point fourth quarter, Vienna survived the late onslaught to come away with a 49-40 win.
The Mercenaries opened the scoring though with a 48 yard field goal following an interception of an errant throw by Vikings quarterback Ben Holmes. After the field goal, the Vienna offense did not look back scoring on their next four possessions, all by different Vikings. Vienna scored 28 unanswered points before the Mercenaries finally found the end zone, two seconds before halftime narrowing to lead to 28-10.
Photo: Hannes Jirgal
Helvetic brought it within 10 (28-18) to start the second half by double dipping and scoring on the first possession of the second half, a 15 point swing before the Vikings could even touch the ball again. However, that did not seem to faze Vienna as they scored the last 14 points of the 3rd quarter, one off of a kickoff return by former Helvetic Mercenary Ken Hike Jr and the second by Reece Horn who finished with three touchdowns on the night. The fourth quarter is where things got interesting. The Mercenaries started their comeback scoring 22 points, helped by Milan Spiller scoring two huge touchdowns, one for 56 yards and the other for 42! In the end, the rally fell just short as the Vikings remain undefeated beating the Mercenaries 49-40, in a game no one expect to be this close.
Carlton Aiken Jr finished the game 29/44 481 total yards and accounted for five touchdowns. Here’s what he had to say about his performance and the game overall,
“Obviously, still not the outcome we wanted! We had opportunities to win the game or score points earlier in the game and we didn’t capitalize on those moments. If we played a full 4 quarters we would have won the game. However, there are positives that we can take away from this. Offensively we showed what we have been capable of all season. This was hands down our best performance. It’s frustrating because a lot of the earlier games this season we should have won if we had prepared like we did for this game. We hired Michal Kolek, my former head coach in Poland to be the new OC and he made an immediate impact. He put together the best game plan we’ve had all season and that’s what we have been missing. So I’m excited for the rest of the season, this is the standard now! If we did it vs arguably the best team in the league we can do it vs anyone.”
Photo: Hannes Jirgal
Ben Holmes finished the game 22/33 291 passing yards and four touchdowns. Here’s what he had to say about the game,
“I thought it was a great effort by our offense, great protection up front. I don’t think I was hit all game. Our wideouts made great plays when the ball came their way. Karri shows week in and week out why he’s a top 5 RB in this league! The game as a whole seemed like it would never end lol, hats off to Helvetics offense they came to play. Our goal each week is to be 1-0 and we did just that. It’s never easy to win a football game no matter who you play, so tip of the cap to them and now we are on to Berlin”