Papagaio grills Black Swarm in J-town

Kings jump up to third by thrashing Beersheva in record-breaking fashion

Kings always feel more comfortable in their own palatial residences, a point (or heaps of points, as it were) the Kraft Family IFL’s Papagaio Jerusalem Kings certainly banged home with their 70-26 trouncing of the expansion Beersheva Black Swarm on Thursday night in the capital.

Fully emerged star running back Jon Rubin led the offensive explosion with an IFL-record 222 yards rushing and five trips to the endzone, while Marshall Mullinax spearheaded a dominant second-half defensive effort for Papagaio as the second-year franchise earned its first victory of the young tackle football season.

After a close first-half which saw the score get as close as 32-26 with under a minute left in the second quarter, the Kings pulled far away with 38 unanswered points to set a new league record for production and cruise to the easy conquest. The win brought Jerusalem back to .500 and propelled them into a club-high third place in the standings on point differential, with four teams tied at 1-1 after the first three weeks.

Beersheva, which fell to 0-2 on its inaugural campaign, suffered much more than just a one-game setback in the not-as-blowout-as-the-final-score-reflects defeat. The team’s quarterback and all-around talent Sagar Patel sustained a broken leg on a seemingly routine tackle midway through the first quarter. On the very same play, lineman David Russell also went down with a season-ending knee injury. While the pigskin maxim of ‘next man up’ is deeply entrenched in the mindset of anyone who has played the game, the losses of Patel and Russell will hit the Swarm especially hard and it will take an all-around battening of the hatches going forward if the club is to scrape together some victories.

For a while, at least, on Thursday night, it looked as if the team from the South would be able to hang with the hosts, getting on the board first with a five-play opening drive which culminated in an electrifying 31-yard TD run by Yair Cohen.

Early on, a personal battle in the trenches developed between opposing running backs Rubin and Cohen that played out throughout the contest. While Cohen’s 180-yard, three touchdown performance fell a bit short of his counterpart’s staggering totals, the wiry and nimble sprinter definitely got himself noticed by all the league scouts in attendance at Kraft Stadium as a threat to look out for in the coming weeks.

Rubin, meanwhile, seems to be running in a league entirely of his own. In true Payton-esque style, the bruising yet agile back refuses to shy away from contact, barreling over would-be tacklers with reckless abandon. A true power runner, the 23-year-old from Miami has ran roughshod over all three opponents he’s faced, with defenses appearing powerless to stop him from breaking lose at anytime for large chunks of yardage. The numbers over two regular season games – 354 yards rushing and 7 TDs with a preposterous 9.5 yards per carry – say enough, but it is the sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat excitement Rubin inspires that makes him more than worth the price of admission. To borrow an old favorite from ESPN that is perfectly apt when speaking about the IFL’s latest star, “you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him,” (and even that has yet to be proven!) Suffice it to say that Jon Rubin was more than deserving of his second consecutive Mike’s Place Player of the Game award.

Getting back to Thursday’s action, the Kings weren’t in the least bit bothered playing from behind and quickly scored a TD of their own on their first possession, when Ronen Danino hooked up with tight end David Jesselson in the endzone. The Danino-Jesselson connection was Papagaio’s bread-and-butter from anywhere within the 10, producing two touchdowns and two conversions on the night.

Danino himself also had a superb and super-efficient outing, hitting on an exceptional 77% of his passing attempts for 76 yards and three TDs. He also carried the ball four times for eight yards – each time on a two-point conversion following a Kings’ score. His rapid development as a signal caller is a big part of the club’s early success, but the 27-year-old QB will have to cut down on his fumbles (five through two games) if he going to be counted on in pressure situations.

Even after the crucial injuries to their heart-and-soul, the Black Swarm players rallied around the wounded and retook a 12-8 lead, albeit briefly, on Cohen’s second touchdown of the night. It was under a minute, however, before Leib Bolel put Papagaio up for good with a one-yard plunge into the house to close out the first quarter scoring. Bolel was used to perfection in his role as the secondary back next to Rubin, getting 12 touches for 50 yards and his TD, plus providing the perfect decoy for his dominant running mate.

It was a feat in and of itself for Beersheva to hold Rubin off the scoresheet in the opening frame. He would more than make up for it in the second, powering into the endzone three times to dampen the effect of two Black Swarm TDs in the quarter, Cohen’s third and the team’s lone score through the air on a 24-yard pass from Tal Assor to Amos Shazar. Assor did his best to back up the fallen Patel at quarterback, scrambling for 47 yards and holding his club in the game for a little, but the first-year field general was overmatched by a smothering Jerusalem defense that was hungry for a character-defining first victory.

Mullinax was clearly the on-field leader, recording a pair of interceptions and recovering a fumble, as well as taking part in 12 tackles for the game. However, it was a remarkable effort from the entire unit, with Yitzchak Katzburg (11 tackles) and Shumi (5 tackles with a broken finger) also standing out with their inspired play. Even Leibish “Big Mike” Gondelman got in on the turnover parade, pouncing (the first documented pounce for a man that size since 1972) on a loose ball for a fumble recovery and nearly flattening Assor for a sack at one point late in the game.

Also putting in notable performances were Kings’ kicker Max Rivkin (440 yards and four touchbacks on 10 boots) and Ari Kalker (3 catches for 24 yards and a touchdown). For Beersheva, even in the lopsided defeat, Shahar Villeval (10 tackles) and Yasha Plolyakov (seven tackles and a fumble recovery) were distinguished in their defensive intensity.

However, it was the Kings’ night all-around, with the 281 yards in team rushing and 414 total net yards both  (very briefly) setting IFL records in addition to the 70 points scored. Coach David Goldstein’s boys now have a three-week break to bask in the glory of victory and prepare for what should be a real bloodbath against the hated Judean Rebels in a December 12^th Hannuka Bowl matchup.

The Swarm get right back on the horse this Friday, when they host the Mike’s Place Tel Aviv Sabres (1-0) in the first regular season game down south. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Neot Lon Soccer Fields. The following night, on Saturday at 8:30 p.m., fans in Modi’in will be treated to a mouth-watering Israel Bowl rematch between the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions (1-0) and the Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers (1-1).