An injury for the Vukovi’s best player was too much for this team to overcome. The Kragujevac Wild Boars defeated the Vukovi for the second time this season, and that’s a win that guarantees them an appearance in the league final. Quarterback
Andrej Tasić got injured in the team’s first possession, and the Boars took advantage intercepting backup Nemanja Petković twice in the first quarter, jumping to a 14-0 lead they kept throughout the game.
First, defensive lineman Dušan Nikolić intercepted a pass and took it all the way. That stunned the Vukovi even more, as they were already shaken by the loss of their best player. Soon after Marko Košutić intercepted Petković once more, and two plays later Aleksandar Ristić increased the lead. First he ran for more then 40 yards on one play, followed by a one yard touchdown run.
At the same time it was the only lapse for the Vukovi’s defense in this game. Belgrade demonstrated one of their best defensive performances, but it was all for nothing, as the offense was unable to score. The little opportunity they had was wasted by penalties or dropped passes.
Petković improved a little on his first half performance, but not enough to change the score. The Vukovi had a couple of good chances to score, but in the end the Wild Boars had no problems stopping them on their own half.
In the last quarter, the Vukovi failed on three fourth down attempts on the Wild Boars half. Belgrade failed to take advantage of their best chance going four and out in the last quarter, after Miloš Todorović recovered a fumble by Žarko Đorđević inside the Wild Boars 30 yard line. When Srđan Đokić intercepted Petković for the third time a few minutes later it was clear the Vukovi don’t have any solutions nor chances to turn thing around, failing on fourth down once more before the game was over.
“It was do or die for us before this game, losing would end our year”, said Vladimir Lazić from the Wild Boars. Head coach Vujica Samailović was pleased with the win. “Good game, but without the league’s best quarterback. We want to play the Vukovi when they’re at their best. Our defense did it’s job, even though we had problems with linebackers, and the offense was also a bit better. We didn’t score more because the Vukovi played good defense too”, he said.
“We were shocked by the injury, and in the first quarter”, said the quarterback nobody expected to play for the Vukovi, Nemanja Petković. “We recovered a little in the second half, but they knew we had to pass and we couldn’t get it going. We’ll do better in the final”, added Petković.
“It was a good game overall, but both offenses did poorly. Kragujevac was just a little bit better and won it by a close margin”, said the Vukovi’s RT Željko Nešić.