Warsaw Eagles win Poland’s PLFA Superfinal

The Warsaw Eagles have won their first Polish Superfinal title since 2008 with a convincing 33-12 win over the Poznan Kozly this past weekend in the Polska Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego championship game.

The Eagles took a 10-0 halftime lead and kept the pressure on the rest of the way for the win.

Game MVP, Warsaw quarterback Chris Jeffrey completed 14 of 22 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 23 times for 72 yards and another touchdown to lead the Eagles. Australian running back Jack Marton rushed for 75 yards and another touchdown while Piotr Pamulak and Alexander Kawiarowsk both caught touchdown passes. Filip Twardowski kicked two field goals and three extra points.

For Poznan, quarterback Patryk Barczak threw for 140 yards and two touchdowns with Mateusz Patalas catching four passes for 116 yards and both touchdowns. Charles McRea carried the ball nine times for 63 yards but was unable to have the impact he had in previous games.

Warsaw took control early  driving deep into Poznan territory but a missed field goal from the 16 yard line gave the ball back. However, on the next possession Barczak was picked off by Patryk Dumicz who returned it to the four yard line. Jeffrey scored on the next play giving Warsaw a 7-0 lead. Twardowski added to the lead with four minutes left in the first half, kicking a 25 yard field goal which capped a 15 play, 75 yard drive.

The Eagles mounted a 65 yard drive to open the second half with Jeffrey connecting with Pamulak from 28 yards out to increase the lead to 16-0 for Warsaw.

Kozly was finally able to find the end zone with just over three minutes left in the third quarter as Barczak hit a racing Patalas who had beaten his defender and he took it 66 yards for a touchdown. With the score 16-6, Poznan were still in the game.

Jeffrey then drove Warsaw from their own 35 yard line down to the Poznan two but could not find the end zone and Twardowski kicked his second field goal giving the Eagles a 19-6  lead heading into the fourth quarter.

However, the Eagles offense was now clicking and the next drive produced a touchdown with Marton punching the ball in from the two-yard line, increasing the lead to 26-12. The Eagles picked off Barczak  again, returning the ball to the Poznan 25 yard line. Jeffrey then engineered a brilliant scoring drive which ate up almost four minutes and resulted in a Jeffrey to Kawiarowsk touchdown pass, giving Warsaw a 33-6 lead with four minutes left.

Barczak threw the final scoring pass of the game to Patalas with 20 seconds left, closing the gap to 33-12 but that was too little too late and the Eagles were soon celebrating.

Jeffrey was named MVP of the XIII SuperFinal with Patalas earning offensive player of the game honors and Eagles defender Patryk Dumicz defensive player of the game honors.