For the second straight year, the Novi Sad Dukes ended their Serbian league season trophey-less. They again fell to their CEFL nemesis, the Vukovi Belgrade, this time in the semifinal game, but perhaps even the worse part is that they lost their starting quarterback Čaba Juhas due to injury.
Juhas broke his collar bone in the 33-29 loss, putting in doubt even his play in the fall part of the CEFL season. With the fall season starting in just a month and a half, his participation is highly questionable. The Dukes appear close to clinching the playoff spot, especially because they won games without their quarterback last year, and they’re hoping at least for a playoff return.
That this is the replay of the previous year is true in his case as well — the quarterback injured his throwing shoulder in the summer of 2007 and came back only for the semifinal playoff game in Budapest, that the Dukes lost.
The Vukovi dropped a 5-point lead from halftime in the second half, as the Dukes led 29-20, before the already slightly banged up Juhas left the game for good. Belgrade reduced the margin to 2 points with only a few minutes of the clock, and mere seconds after that, the Dukes fumbled a snap, that was recovered by the Vukovi’s Vukašin Dorčić for the winning touchdown.
Novi Sad lost in the Serbian league finals last year in Belgrade, in a game in which they had the lead most of the time as well. This time though, they were slight favorites, due to already beating the Vukovi in the regular season and their unbeaten run of 11 games in two leagues.
The Vukovi will play the former CEFL, or SELAF at the time, champions, the Wild Boars, for the Serbian title on Sunday in Kragujevac. The Wild Boars parted ways with the CEFL after last year, and a terrible 0-7 season, but they’ve bounced back in 2008, with currently just one loss.