Thursday, June 16, 2011

A trip to Stockholm gives the Crusaders their biggest win of the year

This past Saturday Europe’s 4th best team, the Carlstad Crusaders, took their show to the road. Special guests for the affair were Finley and Christie Cranor, loving parents of our Quarterback Eli. For the first time they would play away from Tingvalla stadium in 2011 since the European Tournament. The opponent, the Northside Bulls from upper Stockholm. We left cloudy Karlstad early in the morning and arrived to a Stockholm full of sun and heat. This was obviously going to be a factor in the game since we had not had so much as a practice in heat over 80 degrees. We came out hot and stayed hot, now I’m not referring to the weather, in a 76-8 win over the number 4 team in Sweden. The league’s most dynamic offense continued its assault on Super Series teams and raised their average point per game total to 51 after our first 4 wins. The Defense on the other hand lowered its points given up per game to 14.

Individual stars from this encounter were Fredrik Eklund, scoring 3 times on just 6 catches received. Fredrik Isaksson in relief at quarterback led the Crusaders to 34 points in the second half including a 44 yard touchdown launch on a 4th down play. Christian Forsman brought himself back to the top of the season total in rushing with 171 yards on the ground and added 3 touchdowns of his own to spice things up a bit. Obviously the offensive line did a number on the STU guys to account for the 522 yards of total offense that were amassed.

Defensively the Crusader pass rush, like in the Stockholm game, forced errant passes leading to 3 interceptions and destroyed the entire running game of the Bulls which finished the game with 24 yards on 18 carries, just 1.3 yards per carry. Anders Hjerspeth snagged his second interception on the season and I hauled in my 7th takeaway with my 4th interception of the Super Series. Viktor Jansson came up with a huge forced fumble from his safety position in the 3rd quarter, but it was nullified by an early whistle by the striped fellows. Let’s hope that situation doesn’t occur during a close game. The real hero of the defense was Johan Bjorn, Aka Kenta the Silent Assassin. His 60 yard interception return to the score zone before halftime from his middle linebacker position was the first touchdown he’s scored in his successful 7 year Super Series career.

The story of the Crusaders at this point in the year is definitely the dominance of the line play. The running game of the opponents is not only bad, it’s not evident at this point. This makes pass defense even more simple. Offensively the running game coordinated by Eli and Chris is a steam roller, offering us two of the top 3 rushers in the entire league. One more game before summer break, then we have a 6 week hiatus to regroup and refresh before playing through the league for the second time which for us will include 4 trips to the big city of Stockholm to show the city boys how it gets done out here in the country.