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Dukes crush the Silverhawks

Goran Košutić

Dejan Danailov

The last match of the regular season had everything except suspense, as the home Dukes won 56-0. The Silverhawks once again lacked many players in their away game, but even under those circumstances the margin was unexpectedly high. The score after the first quarter was 21-0, and Dukes just increased their lead until the match was over, enough for the most convincing win so far.

The Silverhawks went to their opponents half just twice, but never seriously challenged Dukes defense. On the other side, everything Dukes did was successful, starting with their defense that had 3 interceptions, recovered a fumble for a touchdown, to their offense that scored six times, and even their special teams that had several good returns, including an 80 yard punt return by Miloš Nikšić.

Marko Đanić opened the scoring with a 50 yard touchdown run. Miloš Nikšić returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown after the Silverhawks` second straight failed drive, and Marko Đanić scored again, this time on a 24 yard run following first of two interceptions by Đorđe Radovanović.

Dejan Danailov

In the second half quarterback Čaba Juhas also added three touchdown passes, after which he was replaced. Backup running back Aleksandar Grbić scored his first touchdown of the season, as did Vladislav Petković who recovered a fumble, returning it for a score.

“An expected win for us”, said Vladislav Petković after the game. “We knew they wouldn`t be with their best players. Everyone played exceptionally well, like in the Legionaries match.”

“In a game that had no relevance when it comes to the standings, we wanted to try out all the playes we have. We played very motivated, because we wanted to get even for the loss in Ljubljana”, added defensive coach Andrej Sekulović.

The Silverhawks` coach Matt Penko said his players had a bad approach to the game. “Novi Sad is a very disciplined team. We came here too tired and with a bad approach. It was our last game, we had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, so we weren`t 100% in the game.”