Pioneers topple Underdogs to clinch top seed

Tackle football took center stage in Israel over the weekend with a pair of rock-’em, sock-’em end-of-season matches, and the Kraft Family IFL emerged as the consensus overall winner… although the finally first-place Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers and the now 4-3 Big Blue Jerusalem Lions could certainly stake a claim to victory as well.

On Thursday evening in the capital, the Lions outlasted their city rival Blue Sun Jerusalem Music Kings, 26-22, in a delicious derby that wasn’t decided until the second-to-last play of the game, and still kept the Kings’ dim playoff hopes alive.

The next day in Yokne’am, Modi’in came out on top of a back-and-forth 36-32 brawl with the Real Housing Haifa Underdogs to avenge its only loss of the season and leapfrog Haifa into first place at the most opportune time, clinching top seed for the postseason.

The Pioneers, who finished the regular season at 7-1, continued their stunning string of victories following an opening-day loss to the Underdogs on their home field. On Friday, they repaid the favor to Real Housing by doing what they do best, mixing it up with a balanced approach and throwing a variety of packages at a Haifa defense that just couldn’t handle it all. 

Dancing Camel rode superb performances from Tal Brown and Shmuel O’Neil and was able to convert for two points on three of its five scores to edge a suddenly-human Underdogs squad that also had five touchdowns but managed just one two-point conversion, providing the four-point difference in the outcome.

The loss was the second in a row for Real Housing after blowing through the first six contests of the season with relative ease. Heading into the playoffs on a two-game losing streak is never a good thing and the Underdogs have two weeks to regroup before hosting a first-round match against their arch-nemesis, Big Blue.

O’Neil opened the scoring with an 18-yard TD run created by his sharp cuts and deft field-vision. He added a 24-yard scamper into the end zone and finished the day with 83 yards rushing and another 26 on two receptions, plus plowing in a two-point conversion. His backup, Kobi Nimrod, gained just 17 yards on 10 carries but provided excellent back-field blocking and kept the Haifa defenders on their heels acting as a decoy.

Brown, as he has done all season, demonstrated his ability to contribute at virtually every facet of the game. As a quarterback on Friday, he was 1-2 with a 14-yard scoring strike to Ben Gross, who also caught a diving 30-yard bomb from Uri Schiff to set up a Schiff keeper-TD. The awesome Aussie also ran the ball four times for 22 yards, including a two-point conversion and a couple of crucial first downs. On defense, he had an interception in Modi’in’s own end zone that could have led to another Haifa score, and added three tackles.

It isn’t that Haifa is playing so poorly, even gaining a league-wide season-high 13 first downs against Modi’in, however the little things, such as those all-important extra points, just aren’t clicking for the team that had been at the top of the standings until the end of its very last game. For consecutive weeks now, the Underdogs’ running attack has been contained, with Lior Subotnik gaining only 42 yards on 16 carries and the team totaling just 67 yards on the ground. Quarterback Itai Ashkenazi was effective, finishing 18-28 for 165 yards and a TD, but he also threw his first two interceptions of the year, one of which was returned for a back-breaking touchdown by Asaf Katz to make it 36-26 with just 2:37 remaining in the game.

Even a picture-perfect two-minute drill run of a drive by Ashkenazi, in which he was 4-4 to three different receivers for 47 yards culminating in a touchdown strike to Omer Kedmi, would not be enough to give the Underdogs another chance. A desperation onside-kick wobbler was adeptly recovered by Katz and Dancing Camel bled out the clock to seal its sweetest victory to date, with even bigger things yet to come. 

The game was, arguably, the best of the season for the IFL in a juicy matchup between the top two clubs for first place in the year’s penultimate weekend. The on-field action certainly lived up to the pre-game hype and the contest was defined by several more-than-10-play, clock eating drives run by both clubs throughout the game, leading to the wild momentum swings, none of which were bigger than the one entering into halftime.

Up 22-8 at the time, Modi’in was driving deep in Underdogs’ territory with the second-quarter clock winding down. Instead of seizing the opportunity to put away the game with a lead of at least 20 points heading into the break, Schiff threw an untimely interception to Kedmi, who was off to the races for a 55-yard pick-six on the last play of the half keep it a one-score game at 22-14 and seemingly deflate the Pioneers’ bubble. Twice in the second half, at 22-20 and at 28-26, the Underdogs could have tied the game with successful conversions, but both times they were thwarted by the Pioneers’ goal-line defense, which most definitely won the game for the club.

Jason Gosnell and Guy Mordoch were both smothering, and Ron Moscona and Ohad Nave each had several ferocious tackles in the victory. However, the heart-and-soul of the defense and the most passionate and intensely vicious friendly animal of them all, Katz, was at his bone-crunching best. Along with his interception for a TD and onside kick recovery, he took part in an incredible 19 tackles and racked up a sack and a half on his way to earning his second Mike’s Place of the Game award this year.

The Pioneers, now riding a seven-game streak and flying high with confidence after toppling Haifa and grabbing first place and the top seed, now have two weeks off before hosting a first-round playoff match. They are still awaiting the identity of their opponent in that game as the Mike’s Place Tel Aviv Sabres and the Kings are still in contention for the final postseason spot. Thursday night’s 26-22, four-point victory by Big Blue over Blue Sun Music keeps the drama going until next Friday’s final game of the regular season between the Lions and the Sabres. The tie-breaking system is quite intricate, so please stay with me.

The Kings have finished their regular season with a 1-7 record, and Tel Aviv currently sits at 1-6. If Mike’s Place wins in Jerusalem this week, they will move to 2-6 and grab the final spot and a playoff date with the Pioneers in Modi’in. If Big Blue wins on Friday, then both the Sabres and Kings will finish with just one win; the two teams tied 1-1 in their season series and also tied in points scored in the season series (taking into account the IFL’s point differential maximum of 14 for tie-breaker purposes). In the Kings’ six loses to teams other than the Sabres, they have lost by more than 14 points four times and the total of the other two loses was six points, for an IFL-equivalent sum of -62. In the Sabres’ five losses to teams other than the Kings, they have lost by more than 14 three times and the total of the other two losses was eight points, for an IFL-equivalent sum of -50.

It all boils down to this – there are 12 points separating the Sabres and the Kings in terms of point differential in their games against the rest of the league, with Tel Aviv holding the current advantage, -50 to -62. If Big Blue beats the Sabres by more than those 12 points, then the Kings will take over that tie-breaker advantage and qualify for the playoffs. If the Sabres lose by less than 12 points, they are in. If the margin of victory for the Lions is exactly 12 points, the final postseason spot will be decided by everyone’s favorite, a coin toss!

On Thursday night at Kraft Stadium, the Kings came out flying and scored the game’s first points on an emphatic opening drive down the field. Big Mike Labish crashed into the end zone on a four-yard rumble for the touchdown, his first of two on the day. The gargantuan Labish also converted a pair of two-point conversions to account for 16 of his team’s 22 points single-handedly, in what was undoubtedly his best outing of the year.

Even after a quick Matan Lavi 22-yard touchdown run, the Kings refused to fold and stormed back on their ensuing drive for another Big Mike touchdown and a 14-6 advantage, a lead they took into the second quarter.

However, Big Blue was not about to let things get out of hand and the defending champs buckled down on both offense and defense, scoring three straight TDs and a safety before you could blink to turn a tight defensive battle into a 26-14 lead. Akiva Rindenow was once again spectacular at times, catching two balls for 43 yards and getting a key interception and returning it to the Kings goal-line to set up his own TD reception on the next play.

The Kings got to within four points with nine minutes remaining on a 21-yard interception return for a TD by Shaya Rubinstein, but that was as close as the expansion club would get. They had one final opportunity, getting a first-and-goal from Big Blue’s 10 with under a minute left, but the Lions defense was up to the task and held on for the win.

The Lions racked up a season-high 326 total yards and got a stellar effort once again from QB Aryeh Bauman, who threw for one touchdown and ran for two more. His 28-yard scoring dash in the second quarter had him bouncing off of Kings’ defenders like a pin-ball all the way down the field, and his nine-yard TD in the third signified a total return to form for the Big Blue quarterback after a mid-season slump. His 85 passing yards still left some room for improvement, but his overall performance was enough to land Bauman Mike’s Place Player of the Game honors.

Running back Lavi was also a steadying force for the Lions, gaining 77 yards and the touchdown on the ground, and captain Yonah Mishaan was a whirling dervish on both sides of the ball, taking part in eight tackles and totaling two sacks on the game, plus racking up almost 50 yards of offense. Gani Medad was also especially busy on the defensive side of the ball and he was in on 11 tackles in the victory, the second in a row for Big Blue following a two-game losing streak.

The Kings didn’t have productive second half after starting strong and the numbers of their quarterback reflected the mediocre effort. Joseph Marticius finished just 3-12 for 33 yards while tossing two interceptions. More importantly, he was unable to connect even once with star receiver Chaim Gross, primarily due to the breakdown of his offensive line, which gave him little to no time throughout the game. Ariel Back wasn’t much help out of the backfield either, gaining only 29 yards on 16 carries as Blue Sun Music fell to its sixth consecutive defeat in what was very possibly its last game.

Big Blue now faces the Sabres at Kraft Stadium in Jerusalem on Friday in the regular-season finale, with the Kings’ postseason hopes lying in the balance. In a year that has had more twists and turns than a ’80s dance party, it should be exciting until the very end in the Kraft Family IFL, circa 2009…

… and then come the playoffs!