Tel Aviv takes down the Rebels

Sabres stay unbeaten atop standings with tensely-fought triumph at home over Judea

In the midst of an emotionally-charged cage-match between the Mike’s Place Tel Aviv Sabres and Judean Rebels on Saturday night in Holon, a pretty good football game broke out… until the hosts kicked it up a notch and left the boys in orange gasping for air.

By the time the dust finally settled, the Sabres had come out of the fracas with a 66-42 victory and a 3-0 record to retain their first-place perch in the Kraft Family IFL. The Rebels, who fell to 1-2 with the loss into a tie for fifth place with the Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers, were able to endure a number of key injuries for two and a half quarters and remain in striking distance for a while before it became apparent that they just didn’t have the firepower to hang with Tel Aviv on this night.

Once again, Tamir Elterman and Alex Trafton spearheaded the Mike’s Place attack, but the high-flying running back-quarterback combo received plenty of help from a formidable supporting cast starring Roni Srisuren, Yoni Rubin, Even Reshef and a returning Liran Hovav, among others. For the Rebels, the unbreakable Joe Martisius exhibited his usual guile in throwing for 226 yards and 3 TDs while running for 146 and a couple more, but a lost fumble and three interceptions from the fiery signal caller ultimately was too much for his short-handed team to overcome.

In a relatively short period of time, the Sabres have developed the type of self-assured swagger that is typical of winning organizations and it is no coincidence that the team’s scoring total has increased in each of its games to date. All of a sudden, the once-hapless Sabres have become the most intimidating date on other clubs’ schedule, a far cry from where they stood just one month ago coming off a 30-0 preseason shutout loss to the Lions and entering the campaign with some major question marks.

The Rebels, on the other hand, took a step back with the 24-point beating, in more ways than one. The border-line cheap-shots and after-the-whistle shenanigans that have begun to seep into the first-year club’s mentality resulted in a player being ejected and just served to stoke the Sabres’ inner flames a little more, never a good strategy for a team to employ, from both a sportsmanship and tactical perspective. Swift and sweeping changes have been assured by both the the league and the Gush Etzion franchise to ensure that there is never a repeat of some of the dirtiness that was displayed both during and after Saturday's encounter.

And what a back-and-forth, hardnosed contest it got off to in front the boisterous crowd which came from all over the Tel Aviv and Jaffa region to the Hapoel Tel Aviv training complex in Holon.

The Sabres took the game’s opening drive 45 yards for a score on a picture-perfect rainbow from Trafton to Rubin, who somehow hauled it in with a Rebels defender draped all over him. The 26-year-old receiver caught four passes for 94 yards on the night and has emerged as Trafton’s go-to long threat. The pair’s burgeoning chemistry was never more evident than on a third-quarter two-point conversion, when a scrambling Trafton blindly threw up a prayer to an open spot he intuitively knew Rubin would slide to just in the nick of time.

Tel Aviv wasted no time padding the lead when, for the third straight game, head referee Ofri Becker whistled an offensive team for a penalty in its own endzone resulting in an automatic safety and another two points for Mike’s Place. On the ensuing free kick, Elterman pulled a quick move and bolted up the sideline for a 36-yard return for a touchdown. On the play, a vicious, Mack-truck block – totally clean – caught Judea’s Mo English off-guard and literally “snapped his arm-bone in half,” to quote verbatim the totally unruffled attending medic. In true gridiron-warrior style, English – who took back two kicks for scores in the Rebels’ victory two weeks earlier – was transported to the conveniently-located Wolfson Hospital across the street and was casted up and back on his team’s sideline – not in uniform! – by the middle of the second half.

The loss of another key player (star receiver Chris McKinney didn’t dress as well with an undisclosed injury) seem to infuse some life into the Orangemen and – with the help of a Tel Aviv turnover in the red zone – a 14-0 Sabres’ lead was quickly erased. A 27-yard floating pass to a wide-open Peretz Rickett was followed up with a two-yard surge into the endzone by Zack Miller for his second TD of the season. Martisius would close out the scoring in what was a wild shootout of a first quarter with a two-yard plunge of his own to tie up the game for one final time.

Elterman would provide the only scoring highlights of the second period, with a six-yard prance into the house and a two-point conversion all to himself. The deceptively-fast ball of energy has become a certifiable touchdown machine of late. He caught one and ran for two, as well as his return score, for a total of four on Saturday to bring his season tally to seven, while averaging over 93 yards rushing and 2 game-breaking plays a game. If Elterman can keep up this pace, Sabres’ opponent will be hard-pressed to find ways to contain this multi-faceted talent.

Srisuren would take over in the second half, gashing his way through the Rebels defense for touchdown runs of 12 and 28 yards as part of a career-high 72-yard performance. Bouncing off potential tacklers like a pinball, the robust 25-year-old back couldn’t be brought down with his low center of gravity and startling elusiveness. He is just another piece of the ever-growing puzzle that is the vastly-improved 2009/10 Tel Aviv Sabres and was rewarded for his hard work with co-Mike’s Place Player of the Game recognition.

While, looking at the statsheet, the game seemed to be decided by the quick-strike ability of the Sabres offense and the 382 total net yards the team compiled, a slightly more subtle, but no less important, aspect to the game was perhaps the most decisive. Trafton kicked off a total of 10 times, nine of them which were booted well out of the endzone for unreturnable touchbacks, an impressive display of footpower. The Rebels, on average, began their possessions from their own 17-yard line, while the Sabres began theirs, on average, from the Rebels’ 24-yard line. That means that Tel Aviv had 19 less yards – essentially a third of a field – to navigate than their opponents. I’ve heard of teams playing on unequal playing fields, but this was the epitome of the cliché in action as the victors would take full advantage of that free real estate in racking up a record-tying nine TDs.

Martisius would valiantly try to keep his club in the match in the third quarter, and somehow kept making would-be tacklers miss time and again. He found a hole and powered 26 yards for a score himself to make it 28-22 and then threw a 17-yard strike to Mordechai Beasley in quick response to another Tel Aviv TD to keep it a one-score game at 36-28. However, with a depleted arsenal and a hungry Sabres squad primed to keep the momentum going a full pace, the game slowly slipped out of the Rebels' reach.

While the men from Judea put up a worthy fight, they didn't capitalize on enough of their chances, and there was no fourth-quarter magic for Martisius and Co. to conjure up. A stunning on-the-run slinging sidearm bullet from Trafton to Nir Rabinovich put the finishing touches on a masterpiece 183-yard, 3 TD, no pick resume-building performance for the 6-foot-4 QB as he took home his second co-Mike’s Place Player of the Game award in just three games in the league.

With the result already decided, the Rebels tacked on two more meaningless touchdowns to make the final margin respectable, one to Matan Goldberg (5 receptions for 104 yards and a score) and one to Stephen Kornbluth. For the Sabres, two-time All-IFLer Hovav made a triumphant return to the field, recording an interception and two snaking lengthy kick returns. Reshef, as well, was a dervish on defense, taking part in 12 tackles and racking up a pair of solo sacks as the first-place club now has a week off before it’s next game on the road in Jerusalem against the Papagaio Jerusalem Kings (1-1).

The Kraft Family IFL attention now turns to its pre-holiday week of jam-packed action. Kicking things off is a Thursday night clash in the capital between the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions (2-0) and the expansion Beersheva Black Swarm (0-4) at 8:30 at Kraft Stadium. The Pioneers host the Real Housing Haifa Underdogs (2-1) on Friday morning at 10:30, while Saturday night features the highly-anticipated Channuka Bowl bout between the Rebels and Kings back at Kraft, where a pre-game first-night menorah-lighting ceremony will be held and the beer, latkes and sufganiot will be flowing/