Week 7: Panthers 42 Carinthian Black Lions 35

Our second match-up of the EFAF Cup turned out to be another shoot-out, much like our first in Barcelona. We played the Carinthian Black Lions who play in the first division of Austria, which is probably the top league in Europe. They had some washed up QB (as in more washed up then the rest of us playing out here haha) who was a 3rd or 4th string at UConn a few years ago, a WR/DB that I didn't really notice and a guy from Holy Cross, Frank Herlihy who played LB in college but had moved to TE. We were pretty beat up going into the game with our top 3 Italian linebackers nursing injuries. We had to finagle the depth chart a bit and Corey and I would have to go both ways but we weren't going to fold. They had beaten the Barcelona team pretty handily so we were expecting a battle and that's pretty much what we got.

We let up a score early to fall behind 7-0, but our offense came roaring back scoring 21 in the first half. We established the run early and capped a drive with a Brown-Mazza connection. Our defense settled in and played well for the rest of the half but a botched snap went sailing over Danny's head and was recovered in our endzone. That brought them within one score and then they hit a deep post late in the half to tie it 21 all. The second half was much like the first as we kept making stupid mistakes to let them back in the game. On our opening drive we finally established the run and I was able to rip off a few first down carries. Five or six plays and I was in the endzone. Our D couldn't stop their ground game either though and we gave the points right back on the next possession. Towards the end of the third quarter I tweaked my knee again and was relegated to defense as our offense went 4 wide. The action went back and fourth all game and it got pretty dirty. At one point in the third quarter we couldn't go a single play without a flag. Our D tackle, Colacino, added his fair share picking up 2 personal fouls and a facemask... all of which "weren't [his] fault."  Late in the fourth we pulled away as Corey made an incredible touchdown catch with a guy draped all over him. On the next drive we came up with a huge fourth down stop, at which point Herlihy, the TE from Holy Cross, got ejected for yelling at the ref (after the game he informed us that he holds the franchise record for ejections and team-imposed fines). With a few minutes left we wanted to run the clock out so we drew up a play where I would go in as tailback and lead block for Danny on a QB sweep. He faked to the full back and then booted around. I led up and crushed the unsuspecting DE and Danny took off down the sideline. When all was said and done we pulled out the victory and now will advance to the semi-finals where we'll face another Austrian team.