Quarterfinal: Nordmen dominate the Trojans 41-12 and advance to the Semifinals

The Nordmen end the Trojans’ season in dominating fashion. With the big win, the Warriors of the Four Winds advance to the semifinals, in a rather odd manner. The Nordmen will face the Spartans away, despite being the higher seeded team

The game couldn’t start better, Nordmen receiving the ball returning the opening kick for a touchdown by Kaarle ” King Charles” Silander.The Nordmen defense kept going where they left off shutting the Trojans offense after a long drive with a interception by Aurélien Germay. The offense got to the field for a very short time, first offensive snap was picked off and the Nordmen defense was back on the field inside their own 10 yard line. A play later Trojans open scoring making it 6-6 for the visiting team. The Nordmen offense came back to the field getting the ball moving, but struggling. The second drive ended by another interception. The Trojans couldn’t capitalize on this and went 3 & out, with a bad snap on the punt the Nordmen got the ball in the redzone. After starting with struggles, QB Lucas Martinez ran the ball to the end zone making it 12-6. After this Nordmen defense shut the visiting team down giving them nothing. Nordmen offense kept struggling with passes. Late in the 1st quarter WR/RB Miika Virkki showed great speed and agility with a massive 55 yard touchdown run, growing the home teams lead 18-6 Virkki also ran the 2pt conversion making it 20-6 early in the game.

After these events the game was in control for the Nordmen with the Trojans somewhat moving the ball, but not enough. The game was well in hand for the home team after the 1st quarter. The Rovaniemi defense was absolutely dominating, forcing the away team off of the field with either downs or turnovers. The remaining turnovers having been forced by S Tapio Aaltonen (interception) and a sack fumble forced by LB Olli Raito recovered by DL Teemu Nätynki. The defense showed their force and was on top of their game.

Offensively, a lot more points were made as QB Martinez ran for his second TD of the game, following a DROPKICK extra point that was good. DE Adrian Rodriguez made team history, probably even some kind of Finnish history by successfully kicking a dropkick in a game! RB Aleksi Vaarala scored his first touchdown of his career and Petri “The Pulverizer” Korhonen showed up to the offense for his first offensive touchdown followed by a 2pt run by RB Vaarala.

As you can see, a lot of success from many different players; something rather odd and as you rarely see stuff like dropkicks or a D-lineman scoring on offense. The Nordmen pulled out all the stops to dominate the Trojans; not to mention that the MVP of the game was awarded to the entire offensive line of the Nordmen. They kept on pounding after a rough start this season and continued to prove every week that they are a unit to fear.

The Nordmen advance to the semifinals next weekend. In a very weird story the Nordmen, who are the #2 seed in Group A will face the 4th seeded Pirkkala Spartans away. A twist that has risen quite a few eyebrows, as it is rather unheard of that the higher seeds travels to the lower seed in playoffs. The road to the Iron Bowl continues Saturday the 13th at Pirkkala