24.03.2010 - Start to Season for SWARCO Raiders against Carinthian Black Lions
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This Sunday, March 28th, it will finally be time! The long awaited start to the National League will kick-off with a road game in Villach. At 15:00 the men surrounding head coach Santos Carrillo will be taking on the dangerous outsider Carinthian Black Lions in Villacher Lind-Stadium. |
'The Black Lions have with DJ Hernandez a very talented quarterback, who can make life difficult for the entire defense on his own. He's already giving me headaches because he is very good and has a rather talented offense around him. In general I'm keeping my excitement about this game in Villach at bay, because we know what happened the last two seasons with the Black Lions knocking off the Vikings and the Giants in Carinthia. We don't want to continue this trend.', states head coach Santos Carrillo who is aware of the difficult scenario.
Recovered star running back Florian Grein (played the second half of the season last year with a torn ligament in his knee and was successfully operated on in the off-season by team doctor Dr. Christian Hoser) knows that they have to be highly concentrated heading into the first game of the season due to the fact that one knows little about your opponent in the first game. We?re focusing on our strengths so that we can play our game as mistake free as possible.'
Florian Grein has found his way well into his new roll as 'RB-Duo' along with US Running back Tory Cooper: 'Tory and I split the load and this will make us more difficult to anticipate. It should be difficult for our opponents to prepare for our many offensive variations, due to the fact that we also have a strong pass game. Our run game is somewhat like a NFL - and College-System who have successfully integrated duo running backs. Through this each of us gets less ball contact per game, which will lead to high levels of intensity.'
Black Lions want to set back the Tiroleans
In the Villacher Tag newspaper from March 19th, 'David and Goliath' were mentioned and that the Carinthian Black Lions want to accomplish the impossible and set back the reigning Eurobowl Champ SWARCO Raiders Tirol.' It continues with a quote from the Black Lions team president Manfred Mocher: ?Our chances stand at around 10-90 and we want to take advantage of this procentage.' If the chances for the Carinthians stand at more than 10% that it will be a highly contested game and a tasty appetizer for football fans. The gameday in Lind Stadium is waiting for the winners of some prizes: the giveaway of a four day stay in a Turkish all-inclusive club and a trip to the A-EM in Frankfurt.
AFL (Austrian Football League) Week 1 in overview:
Sat 27.03. 14:00 Prague Panthers - Turek Graz Giants
Sat 27.03. 17:00 Danube Dragons - Salzburg Bulls
Sun 28.03. 15:00 Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna - Generali St. Pölten Invaders
Sun 28.03. 15:00 Carinthian Black Lions - SWARCO Raiders Tirol
Photo: Schellhorn