Rebels get back to winning ways

Black Swarm fall to 0-7 despite improved showing in Expansion Bowl II

No, ladies and gentleman, 36-8 was NOT the halftime score on Friday in Beersheva, but rather the final result.

And while a 28-point home defeat at the hands of a fellow first-year franchise may not sound like something to go shouting about from the rooftops, the Kraft Family IFL weekend rendezvous between the Black Swarm and Judean Rebels certainly had all the true markings of a real, live football game, even treating the fans to the competitiveness of a second-half defensive battle in which the hosts stood toe-to-toe with their expansion rivals.

Joe Martisius fuelled the victors with three TDs on the ground and another through the air and Chris McKinny caught a league-record 13 balls as the Orangemen played turnover-free ball to improve to 4-4 on the campaign and earn a share of fourth-place along with the Papagaio Jerusalem Kings (3-3).

After consecutive setbacks at home to the top two teams in the IFL, going on the road to face the winless Black Swarm was a welcome trip from the boys from Judea, who now have just two games to go in the regular season. In addition to the M&M attack – &M&M if you include Zack Miller (1TD, 2 2pt.conversions) and Matan Goldberg (1TD) – Yossef Widlan was a beast on defense for the Rebels.  The 25-year-old defensive end racked up 13 tackles, including a strip sack/forced fumble that was recovered by teammate Ramzy Ahmad, directly leading to a touchdown just before the half.

Together with McKinny, Widlan earned his first co-Mike’s Player of the Game honors for a breakout performance that couldn’t have come at a better time, with the playoffs quickly approaching.

After winning the coin toss, Beersheva began with the ball and their first three plays each resulted in seven-yard gains, courtesy of the IFL’s very own Cohen Brothers, Koren and Yair. In just his second full game under center, Koren Cohen rushed for 87 yards, while passing for an additional 26, and exhibited pretty good decision-making ability as the sparkplug of the Swarm’s offense.

After the hosts’ opening drive stalled, Judea put points on board on just its third play from scrimmage when Martisius broke out of the collapsing pocket and sprinted 26 yards along the sideline for an 8-0 lead after Miller punched in his league-leading 14^th conversion.

On the Rebel’s next possession after a quick three-and-out from the Swarm, Big Red sparked another scoring drive with 20-yard dart to McKinny and 24-yard dash up the middle before dancing into the endzone on a one-yard keeper before hitting his favourite target once again for the follow-up two points and a quick 16-0 advantage.

Beersheva was finally able to stymie the visitors on the next opportunity, forcing a turnover-on-downs with some fine downfield coverage and ferocious gang tackling. Deckel Shemesh was a vicious force throughout the game for the Black Swarm, putting in a 13-tackle day and playing relentless and focused defense from whistle to whistle. Nadav Oran (9 tackles) and newcomer Kevin Potter (7 tackles) both stood out for their effort as well in a losing cause.

For the first time since a narrow 20-14 opening-night defeat to a very rusty Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers, the Swarm defenders were able to contain an opponent’s offense with some level of consistency while not missing tackles with wild abandon. Coach Nathan Parvin was pressed into service after one of his troops came up lame and he responded with four take-downs and ½ a sack while acting as a galvanizing on-field presence for his club.

Still, there was only so much progress that could be made in one outing, and Martisius exploited the rookie resistance for his third TD of the game just inside of the two-minute warning.  After Sharon and Ahmad’s combined forced turnover with just 35 seconds remaining on the clock, the Rebels’ signal caller led them to glory once again, finding Goldberg for his seventh TD of the year on the last play of the half. Neither of the late scores were converted and the visitors took a 28-0 lead into the break in a game that decidedly felt closer than that from the sideline.

The Rebels continued their ultra-balanced approach at the start of the third quarter, feeding the running game regularly while also looking for chances to put the ball in the air. For the day, they ran the ball 29 times for 119 yards, while throwing 28 times for 129 yards, although most of the real estate came in the first two stanzas before the Beersheva defense got stingy.

The third period was a scoreless chess match, with neither side getting much done. The highlight of the frame was a gorgeous 19-yard snag in draping coverage by Chen Doron on a nicely thrown toss from Cohen for the Black Swarm’s second-longest completion of the season. However, a couple of bad snaps and some ill-times infractions at the line killed the 13-play drive.

Maritisius seemed upset to be pinned down in the third quarter and, before taking a seat to give backup Mordechai Beasley some action, he completed 5-5 passes as part of a nine-play drive to begin the fourth, which culminated in a score by Miller for the Rebels only points of the second half.

Beersehva would respond to going down 35-0 with their only tally of the game on a Yasha Polyakov 18-yard scamper after he broke a couple of would-be tacklers to find a wide-open path to the endzone. The eight points for the Black Swarm (after Cohen just scrambled over the goalline on the conversion) represented the tying points for second-half scoring, and while such statistical categories are stored nowhere but the memory banks, the emotional significance of the quasi-achievement was not lost on a last-place club grasping for any straws of improvement and respectability.

And there was plenty of both to go around on Friday in what was Beersheva’s most complete game of the season overall. Holding a team for two quarters, turning the ball over only once and playing with gruelling intensity right until the very end of game that was clearly not going to be winnable from half-time are all important building blocks in the construction of a team’s character. Look for the Black Swarm to play the role of spoilers extremely effectively in their final three games, and don’t be surprised to see them pull a fast one on an unprepared opponent who takes them too lightly.

The Rebels, on the other hand, have much bigger fish to fry as they try and muscle their way into the IFL elite without constantly playing this maddening game of peek-a-boo with .500. With all the pieces in place on offense (trust me, scoring is NOT their problem!), the team from the Gush will look to build upon Friday’s strong effort from their weaker unit in only giving up one TD and take a similar aggressive mentality into their remaining contests. With the Ellayan brothers, Yoni Reischel (11 tackles, 1 sack), Max Barenberg (8 tackles, 1 sack) and a whole other slew of emerging defensive playmakers, team sponsor Peretz Rickett hopes that the corner is finally turned and the team is priming itself for a long postseason run.

As for the rest of the Kraft Family IFL, the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions (5-1) and Real Housing Haifa Underdogs (4-3) are set to do battle once again this week, with the Lions hoping to avenge their only loss of the season. The Friday duel between the two powerhouses is still looking for a venue, with the Yoqne’am facility currently under construction, however wherever this one is played, it is sure to be a beauty, as have been all previous clashes between the fierce rivals. On Saturday night in Holon, the first-place Tel Aviv Sabres (6-1) are back in action when they host the Black Swarm, who will be hoping to improve on the 56-2 drubbing they took back when the teams last met in November.