Jovan Golušin scored on a 20 yard run middle of the fourth quarter to complete the Vukovi’s comeback; down by 14 points early in the second quarter the Vukovi fought back scoring two touchdowns in the second half to get a 21-14 win.
The Gladiators starter off better, even though Bernhard Kamber was intercepted on his very first pass by Ivan Ristić, but by the second quarter the home team was already leading 14-0 after touchdown passes to Manuel Houtz and David Halliman.
The Vukovi got going after that, with Andrej Tasić first hitting his brother Pavle for a 39 yard touchdown, and then the Vukovi defense stopping the Gladiators inside their own 10 yard line with time running out. The Vukovi were just seven points down in the half despite having only one successful drive.
The Gladiators were penalized frequently in the first half, but the number of flags only increased in the second half leading to the home team’s players spending more time arguing than playing.
Golušin gave his team a boost in the running game from the first play of the second half, but Belgrade was stopped on the goal line after a really long lasting drive. They got the ball back quickly after a bad punt that gave them the ball on the opponents’ 15 yard line, and although they struggled again to get to the end zone, Andrej Tasić scored on 4th down from the 2 yard line early in the fourth quarter.
The offensive player of the game for the Vukovi, Jovan Golušin, scored after that to give his team the lead, and the Gladiators failed to score again for a win in the most important game for the Vukovi in their short history.
Kamber was intercepted again in the second half by Ivan Nedeljković and he also could have had another touchdown to tie the game at 21, but Hannes Kamber was ruled out of bounds. They were penalized twice for arguing with the officials after that essentially losing the game for them.
“The officials are in charge of keeping the discipline during the game. They didn’t call it the same for both teams”, said Bernhard Kamber after the game. “It’s nothing against the Vukovi, they played well. I also think we could have scored more points in the first half.”
“I was embarrassed after the loss in Novi Sad”, says Jovan Golušin. “I’m glad we won here, because it proves we can be number one in this league. I didn’t know what to expect coming into the game, because I was playing injured, so scoring the winning touchdown is not something I had planned”, he added.