Week 3 In Poland Filled With Lopsided Wins

The Polish League of American Football saw lopsided victories in week 3 as the Lowlanders have begun to assert themselves while the Warsaw Eagles and Wroclaw Panthers rebounded from disappointing losses earlier in the young season.

Warsaw Eagles 54, Husaria Szczecin 6 (in Warsaw)

The Warsaw Eagles offense got a big boost on Saturday with the debut of quarterback Gregory Watson, who led the team from the capital to a 54-6 blowout win in the home opener against Husaria Szczecin. Watson threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, all in the first half, as the Eagles had the game put away by halftime.

Cody Smith started the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown reception, and the Eagles quickly got the ball back after recovering an onside pooch kick. Andre Whyte cashed in with a short touchdown run to make it 14-0. Two Watson touchdowns runs and a Jakub Kłoskowski touchdown reception gave Warsaw a 34-0 lead at halftime.

Three big plays highlighted second-half action for the Eagles. Whyte capped off a big game with a 54-yard scoring scamper in the third quarter, and his compatriot, Charles McCrea, then scored on a short interception return. Backup quarterback Karol Żak also threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Adrian Grudzień.

Warsaw used the onside kick strategy that seems currently in vogue in the PLFA throughout the game, but Husaria was never able to capitalize when they recovered kickoffs on the Warsaw side of the field. Eagles defenders hounded Szczecin quarterback Dylan Rauch in the backfield all game long, keeping Husaria off the board until a one-yard Rauch plunge ended the shutout early in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT:
Eagles (1-1): at Kozły Poznań (0-2), May 3
Husaria (1-2): at Gdynia Seahawks (2-0), April 24

Primacol Białystok Lowlanders 35, Kozły Poznań 0 (in Poznań)

The visiting Primacol Białystok Lowlanders put on a show on both sides of the football and five different players found the end zone in a 35-0 whitewashing of Kozły Poznań. The win was the second straight for the Lowlanders, who now hold a share of second place in the Topliga. Kozły, meanwhile, dropped to 0-2, and are the only team in the first division without a win in 2016.

Białystok dominated the first half with four touchdowns en route to a 28-0 halftime lead. They scored in a variety of ways, starting with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Jabari Harris to Ronald Long. Krzysztof Czaplejewicz followed that with a 10-yard touchdown run, and Adam Matowicki picked up a fumble at the Kozły 2-yard line and scored from there to make it 21-0.

The Lowlanders‘ other points came on a touchdown reception by Bartłomiej Trubaj and a Damian Kołpak touchdown run. The score by Trubaj was the eighth touchdown pass of the season for Harris, who leads the league in that category. Three of those eight touchdowns have gone to Long, who has scored in each of Białystok’s three games so far this season.

UP NEXT:
Kozły (0-2): vs. Warsaw Eagles (1-1), May 3
Lowlanders (2-1): vs. Husaria Szczecin (1-2), May 14

Wrocław Panthers 63, Warsaw Sharks 6 (in Warsaw)

Bartosz Dziedzic threw five touchdown passes on Sunday, including four in the first half alone, to lead the Wrocław Panthers to a 63-6 rout of the home Warsaw Sharks. The Panthers returned a pair of punts for scores in the second half, on their way to a 2-1 record and a share of second place in the Topliga standings.

Rickey Stevens scored first for the Panthers, finding the end zone on a third-down play in which it looked like two Sharks defenders had him bottled up for a loss and a defensive stand. Stevens scored again in the third quarter to give him 5 touchdown runs for the season, a number that makes him the Topliga leader.

Wrocław also sports the league’s leading scoring receiver, Tomasz Dziedzic, who hauled in his third and fourth touchdowns of the young season. The Sharks got a glimmer of hope in the second quarter on an electrifying 75-yard run by quarterback Giorgio Bryant, but their offense was undone by dropped passes throughout the game.

UP NEXT:
Sharks (1-2): vs. Gdynia Seahawks (2-0), May 7
Panthers (2-1): at Warsaw Eagles (1-1), May 7

 

TOPLIGA WEEK 4 SCHEDULE:
Sunday, April 24, 1:00 PM: Gdynia Seahawks (2-0) vs. Husaria Szczecin (1-2)

Photo credits: Piotr Korczyński Photography, Paweł Maul Fotografia