Game Recap: SWARCO Raiders 52, Danube 35

Jakob Dieplinger cruises into the endzone for one of his two touchdowns. (Schellhorn)

SWARCO Raiders (52) at Danube Dragons (35)

J. Twice looking deep over the middle. (Schellhorn)

After a long and very involved pre-game show, the Danube Dragons ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, but after that the show belonged entirely to the visiting team. The SWARCO Raiders scored on every full offensive series in the first half, showing great execution and balance. On the first series of the game quarterback Jason Johnson threw to Andreas Pröller to get the silver and black on the board, 7-6. Soon after that Johnson connected with Pröller for the 2nd time to put the SWARCO Raiders up by eight, 14-6. The frustration soon got the best of the Dragons, as safety Wolfgang Irbinger kicked SWARCO Raiders running back, Florian Grein while he was on the ground after being tackled, resulting in Irbinger’s ejection from the game. This didn’t faze Grein, however, he immediately took it to the house for Innsbruck’s 3rd TD of the game, 21-6. Danube answered on a deep post pattern from quarterback Ryan Rufener to import receiver Brian Stein to keep the Dragons within 9 points, 21-12. Following that the SWARCO Raiders got sneaky when Johnson lateralled to Matt Epperson who hit Andy Pröller for a big gain to set up a touchdown by Grein to make it, 28-12. Finishing off the 1st half, receiver Jakob Dieplinger scored on a long run to take the SWARCO Raiders into halftime with the lead, 35-20.

Running back Flo Grein. (Schellhorn)

Jakob's second TD was a little more dramatic. He finished the day with 8 catches for 133 yards. (Schellhorn)

The second half began where the first half left off. Johnson found Pröller from 3 yards out to make it 44-20 and later hit Dieplinger again for Johnson’s fourth touchdown pass of the contest. Despite giving up a few big plays the SWARCO Raiders’ defense contributed by creating numerous turnovers. Defensive back Markus Krause recovered a fumble and linebacker Phillip Margreiter stepped in front of a slant for an acrobatic interception. Robert Balazinec finished out the SWARCO Raiders scoring with a short field goal to make the score 52-27 early in the 4th quarter. Head Coach Santos Carillo said that he thinks the SWARCO Raiders’ defense did a decent job of containing the run but that there is still a lot to improve upon. Defensive end Mario Rinner echoed his coach’s sentiments by saying “we are a young defense but everyone did their job today and it’s good to see leaders emerging.”

Big hit by the SWARCO Raiders defense.

Matt Epperson slices through the defense.

The Innsbruck club played a much more disciplined game this week, limiting penalties and careless mistakes. Quarterback Jason Johnson, who was given the game ball by Head Coach Carillo, thinks the SWARCO Raiders are on the right track. “I was very happy with the way we improved from week one, especially with the way we were able to keep the Dragons off-balance by mixing the run and pass. We will need to make a similar improvement for next week when we play the Vienna Vikings, but it definitely feels good to get this first victory.”

3 TDs for Andreas Pröller this week.

The first official win for Head Coach Santos Carrillo.

FINAL STATS:

Jason Johnson - 21 for 28, 256 yards, 4 TD.

Jakob Deiplinger - 8 catches for 133 yards, 2 TD.
Florian Grein - 20 rushes for 117 yards, 2 TD.

Andreas Pröeller - 7 catches for 61 yards, 3 TD.

NEXT GAME:

The SWARCO Raiders travel to the Vienna Vikings on Monday, April 13th for a Easter Monday holiday matchup. As always, you can catch all the live action on raiders.at.

GAME RECAP by CHRISTIE JOHNSON.

The winning QB gets the pretty girl!

NOTE: All the pictures (except this last one of Christie and I) were taken by SWARCO Raiders official team photographer Florian Schellhorn, and are copyright to him. You can contact him and view his full photo galleries at www.footballpics.info. GREAT JOB FLO!!!

~ J. Twice