LIVE STREAM: Murcia, Badalona lead way into Week 2 of Spain’s American football season

AFI | American Football | 01/21/2017

Photo credit: Mohendano Sandra

The Spanish League of American Football heads into its second weekend of action in 2017 with three interesting match-ups.

The defending champion Badalona Dracs will host the surprising Reus Imperials while the Valencia Giants and the Valencia Firebats will tangle in a traditional derby. Finally, in the first game Saturday the newly-promoted Murcia Cobras will play host to last year’s newcomers the Barbera Rookies.

Saturday January 21: Murcia Cobras – Barbera Rookies

Last week, the Cobras surprised the Valencia Giants in the opening game of the season 27-13 behind the running of Kevin Gramage who had three touchdowns. With a new offensive line led by Jonathan Rijo, Mazimillian Malander and Gus Johnson, all three of whom can play both ways, Murcia could well pose problems for the other teams in the league in their debut year.

The Rookies, despite their opening weekend loss to the defending champion Dracs (35-14) showed they could surprise people this season. They dominated Badalona in the first half taking a 14-0 lead before succumbing. Quarterback Sebastian Frausto and 6’7″ receiver Cory Soto will threaten the Murcia defense.

Watch live! Saturday January 21, 5a (11a EST, 5p CET)

Sunday January 22: Badalona Dracs – Reus Imperials

Although Badalona found themselves trailing by two touchdowns in their opener against the Rookies last week, they finally took the game over and imposed their will beating Barbera 33-18. This week’s opponent could present some problems based on their performance last week. The Imperials downed the Valencia Firebats in masterful fashion and proved that they will not be punching bags this year as they were last season.

Despite losing badly to the Dracs in 2016, (62-18, 67-6 and 49-3) Reus are vastly improved. Quarterback Brady Huber threw four touchdown passes in last weekend’s stunning win while running back/receiver Nate Stephens added four touchdowns. Meanwhile, Badalona’s Hunter Lee (three touchdowns last week) and Joey Herrick (1 TD) have proven that the Dracs intend to defend their title this season.

Watch live! Sunday January 22 11a (5a EST, 11a CET)

Sunday January 22: Valencia Giants – Valencia Firebats

This is a traditional cross town rivalry as the two teams from Valencia face each other for the first time in 2017. Both are coming off of disappointing losses last week as the Giants dropped a 27-13 decision to the Murcia Cobras while the Firebats were stunned by the Reus Imperials 33-18.

Both will be trying to regroup this Sunday. Players to watch for the Giants include new quarterback TJ Tutone who threw for one touchdown last week and scored another. Receiver TJ Murphy Jr. caught the lone touchdown pass. The Firebats meanwhile are led by young QB Agustín Gaitán who threw a touchdown pass in his debut last week. However, the player to watch for the 2016 runners up is running back Ben Sasu who scored two touchdowns against the Imperials in week 1 but at times was unstoppable.

The Giants suffered two lopsided losses to the Firebats in 2016 but handed their rivals their only loss of the 2015 season when the Firebats marched to the Spanish title.