For the fourth year in a row, the Wroclaw Panthers and Gdynia Seahawks will square off today to decide who will wear the crown as the best team in Poland in 2017 in SuperFinał XII in Łódź.
Wroclaw is the defending champion after capturing their first title in 2016 over the Seahawks. Gdynia had won the two years previous after entering both games as underdogs.
And they will be underdogs again this year.
The Panthers rolled through the regular season with an unblemished 6-0 record and then overwhelmed both the Warsaw Eagles and Bialystok Lowlanders in the playoffs. Earlier in the season Wroclaw had no trouble beating Gdynia 35-7.
However, this is a different Seahawks team than it was in the opening game of the year when they lost two straight games including the opener to Wroclaw.
Quarterback Joey Bradley joined Gdynia fresh from winning the Portuguese championship with the Lisbon Devils and suddenly the offense started to click. The Seahawks have not lost a game since winning five straight, averaging 47.4 points a game. Bradley’s favorite targets are Jakub Mazan, who led the league in receiving yards with 677 and scored nine touchdowns, and young Paweł Henicz. Rookie running back Jan Domagala has been sensational in only his second year of football. He rushed for 584 yards averaging 9.1 yards a carry.
Panthers quarterback Tim Morovick has been outstanding all season throwing for 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns in seven games, including the playoffs. He was tops in the league in overall offense with 1,615 yards passing and rushing.
Patryk Matkowski is Morovick’s favorite target and in the semifinal win over Warsaw he hauled in three of Morovick’s scoring tosses. Running back Adam Skakowski has scored nine rushing touchdowns in seven games for the Panthers.
Seahawks quarterback Joey Bradley:
“It should be a great game. I’m excited for the atmosphere and to be playing against a top team in Europe. I know not too many people outside of our organization think we have a chance, but that’s fine with us. Obviously, it’ll be a challenge, but if we execute like we can, I like our chances.”
The Panthers lead the all-time series between the teams 6-4, a mark that includes a 56-13 thrashing last season in SuperFinal XI. The Seahawks defeated the Panthers in the championship game twice prior to that game, winning 42-31 in 2014’s title game and 28-21 in 2015.
The game is being televised nationally in Poland and can be viewed here at a price of 5.48 Euros.