Pioneers capture Israel Bowl II over Big Blue in 2OT thriller; Underdogs edge Kings for 3rd place
Any true football fan could not have dreamed of a more perfect finish to a season than the awesome doubleheader extravaganza that the Kraft Family IFL staged last Friday.
Before a record crowd in Jerusalem, the Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers were crowned champions of the 2008/09 honeymoon season for Israeli tackle football after a thrilling 32-26 double overtime victory over the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions in an Israel Bowl II that somehow managed to top the non-stop excitement of the morning’s 3rd place contest.
In a delicious appetizer bout between the Real Housing Haifa Underdogs and the Blue Sun Music Jerusalem Kings, it was back-and-forth haymakers throughout until an Ori Shterenback 26-yard field goal with six seconds left, the very first in IFL history, gave the Underdogs the win in an outrageous 43-40 affair.
In the afternoon’s main event, the outcome, and second-season title, was totally up in the air until the very last play of the game, a walk-off 60-yard interception return for a touchdown by the unlikeliest of heroes, the Pioneers’ Ohad Nave, who as recently as a month ago was fighting a severe vision problem that was threatening to end his career.
Big Blue, who had fought back from a large fourth-quarter deficit for the second week in a row to force overtime, and had a foiled chance to win in the extra frame on a two-point conversion that slipped out of the hands of star receiver Akiva Rindenow, ended up conceding their belt to a Modi’in club which was more than deserving.
The Pioneers, who ran the table with nine consecutive wins en route to the championship after a loss to open the season, were their usual consistent selves in Friday’s final. With responsible quarterback play and a balanced running attack, Dancing Camel executed a perfect game plan against Big Blue and, after going up 20-8 before the half, hung around in the face of a torrid Jerusalem comeback to walk away with the victory on one of the few mistakes of the day by the Lions’ offense.
Big Blue QB Aryeh Bauman finished 16-29 for 185 yards and four touchdowns through the air, as well as leading the team in rushing with 41 yards and a bruising two-point conversion keeper. However, he also threw four interceptions, and although two of them were meaningless coming on extra-point attempts, one of the picks was as fatal as could be and he, along with his teammates, had to agonizingly watch Nave run the length of the field to seal Jerusalem’s fate.
O’Neil got Modi’in started in the first quarter with a 12-yard TD run to open the scoring. Big Blue responded early in the second with a 51-yard catch-and-run bomb from Bauman to Gai Van Straten, and the Lions took a brief lead at 8-6 on Bauman’s body-sacrificing conversion. After an Ehud Drori 3-yard dart into the end zone swung the pendulum back to the other side, Dancing Camel extended its advantage to two-score just before the half when Brown found a wide open Ben Gross for a 22-yard score and a 20-8 lead at the break.
The Brown-Schiff tandem combined to finish 8-14 for 88 yards through the air, plus tossing a touchdown and an interception. They ran the offense, in seamless transition, with the same efficiency that was exhibited throughout the season and kept the Pioneers afloat even when Big Blue seemed poised to wrest the game away.
Dancing Camel threatened to run away with it early after the break, driving to first-and-goal on the Lions’ 3-yard line. A huge defensive stand punctuated by a Rindenow interception at the goal line seemed to turn the tide in the home-team’s direction, although the gap remained 12 through a scoreless third quarter.
The Bauman-Rindenow connection would strike early in the fourth after a roughing the passer infraction on Modi’in gave second-life to a flailing Big Blue drive. A 17-yard laser in the back of the end zone to make it a six-point game was just a sneak-preview for the 37-yard rainbow that followed three minutes later that the acrobatic and soft-handed receiver made an unbelievable play on to tie the contest at 20 at the 3:40 mark. Two tense, but unproductive, Pioneer possessions sandwiched another unsuccessful Jerusalem attempt to end regulation and, for the second straight year, the Israel Bowl had to be decided in overtime.
The teams were to trade possessions from each other’s 25-yard line in the extra frame and Big Blue won the coin toss and decided to defend first. An Asaf Katz touchdown gave Modi’in first blood in overtime, but Big Blue stormed back to equalize. Bauman went back to his favourite target, and Rindenow would not disappoint, catching his third TD of the day to keep the drama going.
However, Jerusalem started with the ball in the second go-round and, four plays later, Bauman’s pass at the goal line was picked off by Nave and the rest is history as Modi’in was awarded the Ofri Becker trophy by IFL Commissioner Ben Friedman in a spirited on-field celebration.
While the Big Blue defense, led by Gani Medad and Kasey Stewart, was phenomenal in holding the Pioneers off the board in the second half, it was the Dancing Camel unit that gets the nod, collectively, as Mike’s Place Players of the Game. Nave will obviously garner most of the attention in the aftermath, but Katz (16 tackles and ½ a sack), Jason Gosnel (9 tackles and a sack) and Ron Moscona (four tackles, three pass break-ups and two interception) were all critical, just as they were all season, to the championship-winning performance.
Between O’Neil, the QBs and the defense, it was definitely a case of ‘win with what got them there’ for a Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers squad that will bask in the glory of their remarkable accomplishment throughout the offseason before, undoubtedly, coming back with a renewed passion next year to defend their crown.
In the morning battle between the Underdogs and Kings, Haifa jumped out to 22-0 lead, and held a 28-6 advantage at the break. In the absence of starting QB Itai Ashkenazi, veteran player/coach Ori Shterenbach took the helm and was more than up to the task, taking home Mike’s Place Player of the Game honors.
In addition to kicking the winning field goal, Shterenbach marshalled his team on six scoring drives, finishing 11-26 for 109 yards and four touchdown passes. Three of those scoring strikes were to Shachar Yeshurun, who caught four balls for 56 strikes in the win, which was the first for the Underdogs after three straight losses and allowed them to end the season on a high note.
The Kings stormed back in the second half behind a ridiculous one-man-show performance from quarterback (and pretty much everything else as well) Joseph Marticius. The fiery leader of Blue Sun Music wouldn’t let his undermanned team give up and brought them all the way back to tie the game at 40 with just 1:36 on the clock. He finished with two TD passes through the air, another three on the ground, plus a kick return for 43 yards for another six, as well as five tackles and an interception. In all, the man they call Yossi accounted for 360 of his teams 401 total nets yards in another hallmark performance for his ever-growing highlight reel.
The only mistake Marticius made was leaving too much time on the clock for Haifa, who took advantage by driving 40 yards on nine plays in the final 90 seconds to set up the winning kick.
Max Rivkin (5 kickoffs for 5 touchbacks, plus stellar secondary defense and an INT) was especially noteworthy on the day for Blue Sun Music, which has to be happy with its impressive showing even in losing cause. While the first-year franchise won just one game in their rookie season, emerging stars such as Eli Boymelgreen (2 receptions for 43 yards plus seven tackles and a 26-yard kick return) and Shaya Rubinstein (an interception, 6 tackles and 2 pass break ups) should help keep the organization moving upwards next season. The Kings were really gelling late in the year, even if the results didn’t reflect that, and making the playoffs was an accomplishment in itself for the expansion club.
While the Underdogs’ season did not exactly turn out as planned, especially considering the team’s 6-0 start, the players have nothing to be ashamed of. In Friday’s finale, Arbel Rom and Meir Halachmi (each with a touchdown and forced turnover) were just two of the major contributors on a roster that is stacked with ripe talent on both sides of the ball.
With veteran presence and leadership from players such as Niv Medlinger (1-1 for 29 yards and a TD as a passer, plus 35 more yards in combined offense) and Igal Schneider (team-high 69 yards rushing in the place of absent Lior Subtonik), to go along with fresh up-and-comers such as Konstantin Stolyarsky and Haim Nanikashvili, the future is still bright for Real Housing, whose window of opportunity has not yet closed and showed that it can still exert its muscle when push comes to shove.
It was the Pioneers, however, who peaked at just the right time this year and rode a hot streak all the way to a title. It's hard to argue that they weren't the best team in the Kraft Family Israeli Football League in 2008/09, and now the players have an Israel Bowl victory to validate all their hard work.
The IFL now turns its attention to a packed off-season schedule, with the three-day Pesach Rookie Camp first up next week at the Baptist Village near Petah Tikva. Within the next two weeks, the league will be announcing its much-anticipated first and second All-IFL team, with many new faces sure to join the esteemed ranks.
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