10.04.2010 - SWARCO Raiders with a dominating 34-17 home opening win against Prag
 |
With the performance that you would expect from the reigning Eurobowl Champions, the SWARCO Raiders Tirol presented their fans with a pleasing picture during their first home game in the Austrian Football League Season 2010. In front of 3,200 fans, the Tyrolean topped the Collectpoint Prague Panthers with a score of 34-17. (6:7; 14:3; 6:0; 8:7). |
The biggest standout on the field was clearly Tory Cooper who already made his presence felt in the season opener in Carinthia. The new addition to the Raiders compiled 171 yards and two TD?s on just 17 carries and even caught two passes for 52 yards and an additional touchdown. Quarterback Leon Jackson III completed 15 of 24 passes for 239 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Jackson showed how good he is by foot as well. He had 7 rushes for 40 yards and two touchdowns. The top receiver on the day was Jakob Dieplinger who caught 6 passes for 108 yards. The defense of the Tyroleans allowed a mere 58 yards on 26 carries and forced two fumbles against a strong rushing team that boasts the title of the reigning EFAF-Cup Champions.
'From the get go we wanted to put the pedal to the metal,' explained Cooper after the game. 'We wanted to run the ball a lot and force the big guys for Prag to get gassed. I really had a good time today, probably the most fun I've had since college. This is the best football atmosphere in Europe.'
His head coach, Santos Carrillo, complemented Cooper heavily on his performance, however expects to his team to dramatically improve. 'Tory Cooper is an exceptional Running Back, who had a really great game today,' stated the 38 year old. 'All in all I?m pleased, but I?m definitely not happy. It was an emotional game. It?s not always easy to remain highly concentrated throughout the course of the entire game. We really have to work hard on ourselves; we want to be at our very best against Vienna in two weeks.'
The SWARCO Raiders won the coin toss, but decided to defer to the second half and give their opponents the ball first. Prag wasn't able to get much from the drive and had to settle for a 47-yard field goal. The Tyrolean offense was able to be a bit better. After a penalty that started them at their own 19 yard line, Cooper scampered for a 48 yard run that was his first highlight. Following several other runs by Running Back Florian Grein and Jackson, Cooper was able to find pay dirt as he capped the drive with a 2 yard TD run. The extra point failed and the SWARCO Raiders lead with 5:54 in the first quarter 6-0.
After a kick off return from Tight End Jan Dundacek, the guests began their drive on the 35-yard line of the SWARCO Raiders. They used good field position and scored on running back Ondrej Viseks 5 yard TD run. After the extra point the Panthers took the lead 7-6.
Cooper started the next drive with an 18 yard run. Shortly thereafter Jackson found Dieplinger for a 21 yard completion. Conerback Jirka Hamal however had other plans for this drive and snatched a Jackson pass and returned it to the 23 yard line. The drive appeared to be stopped when Clinton Graham took a hand off to the 33 yard line of the Raiders. A few moments later kicker Gabor Sviatko punched in a field goal to make the score 10-6 with 7 min. to go in the first half.
The SWARCO Raiders began their next drive on the 27 yard line. Cooper carried his team with rushes of 23, 11, and 9 yards before Jackson starting picking apart the Prag defense. The drive was capped by a rushing TD by Jackson from 13 yards out. A failed two point try brought the score to 12-10.
The Prag answer to this was a quiet one as Christoph Schilcher recovered a fumble at the opponent?s 41 yard line. After two rushes and a reception of 30 yards from Jackson, Cooper took control. Dieplinger caught a two point conversion to make the score 20-10.
Thanks to another strong return, the Panthers started their drive in Raider territory. However linebacker Florian Hueter caught a pass from Schrum at the 23 yard line. And with this the score at the half stood at 20-10.
The third quarter began with another TD from the Raiders. Jackson completed a 17 yard pass to tight end Stefan Michalski and Cooper added 18 yards of his own on the ground. With 9:15 seconds to go in the third, Cooper capped off the drive with a 5 yard TD run. The extra point missed wide left and the score stood at 26-10.
After the opening drive of the second half ended at the Tyrolean 17 yard line the offense took the reigns and marched down the field through air with numerous passes being completed down the field. This drive was with an exclamation point with Cooper catching a 22 yard pass for a TD. Defensive tackle Marquay Love caught a pass for a successful two-point conversion making the score 34-10.
With the last play of the game being a 20 yard TD pass to Dundacek, the Panthers were able to cosmetically make the game a little closer with the final score 34-17.