With all their effort to surprise the favored Belgrade Vukovi, the Legionaries came up short and were defeated 33-7 to record their 6th loss of the season. The weakened Vukovi won, but not as convincingly as the score might say, as the home team held on for the first half. Quarterback Andrej Tasić missed the match because of injury, but his brother, wideout Pavle Tasić scored twice, and the Vukovi overcame a shaky, but in the end successful start by their backup quarterback.
The Legionaries hung on in the first half and had a minimal deficit of six points, losing 13-7. Until the game was over however, they never scored again, with Vukovi finishing the game and them with two 4th quarter touchdowns.
Nemanja Petković, making his first start had great help from the Vukovi`s running backs. Marko Vujačić, Miloš Jovanović and fullback Dušan Lalić had a good day, running over the home team, especially in the second half.
The Vukovi scored on the third play of their first drive, when Pavle Tasić ran over 70 yards for a score and a 6-0 lead after a bad extra point attempt. After a fumble by the Legionaries quarterback Milan Nikolić, Dušan Lalić got the ball in the end zone from the 1 yard line soon after, for a 13 point lead at that point.
Still, the Legionaries fought back and intercepted Petković, with the points finally coming when Nikolić connected with Nemanja Varga for a touchdown. The Legionaries played the first half better than in their prior matches, but made no other serious threats for the Vukovi, in part because of a great debut playing linebacker from Aleksandar Anđelković.
In the second half, the Vukovi pretty much finished off the game when Petković passed to Tasić for a 53 yard touchdown. The speedy wideout eluded and outran the Legionaries defense on his way to the end zone for a safer 20-7 lead. Before the game was over, the Vukovi confirmed their win with another touchdown run by Lalić, and then one more from Jovanović.
“We expected them to play hard. We were a little nervous because of the long break, and also because several players changed positions”, said the Vukovi`s new linebacker Aleksandar Anđelković. “We had a lot of confidence and I think, in the end, the win came easier than I thought it would”, he added.
Nemanja Petković, starting for the first time, also thinks the Vukovi were rusty: “The mistakes we were making when the season started, which we corrected during the season, we made again today. I`m happy we won, but I`m not happy with how I played.”
Again of the more important players in Mitrovica team, Zoran Lončarević, thinks his team has made progress. “We`ve progressed a lot since the first part of the season. We have a young team, and a lot of room to improve, so I expect us to do better in the following games”, he said.