The Budapest Wolves organized a fantastic game on Sunday in Budapest, with a helicopter brining one of the game balls and flame throwers near the sidelines, but it were the Novi Sad Dukes that torched the home team for four touchdowns in the first half, enough for a 26 – 21 lead at halftime. The Wolves showed why they were the favorite in the game though, forcing four turnovers and shutting out Dukes in the second half which was enough for a 42 – 26 win.
With that, the Novi Sad Dukes are no longer an undefeated team in SELAF and the Wolves are left with the honor of being the only remaining undefeated team, although they have played just three games to Dukes’ five in 2007.
Both teams scored at will in the first half, with Čaba Juhas running in for a touchdown on the first drive, and Krisztián Piros replying with a long TD catch. Piros did it twice in fact, because it was the same player that evened the score at 14 after Rastko Jokić caught a touchdown from Juhas.
Alen Rizvić got Dukes up one again taking a pitch on an option play from Juhas, but the missed extra point setup the Wolves’ first lead of the game. Vasyl Yordan ran for 12 yards and a 21-20 lead.
Still, Juhas finished his stellar first half with one more touchdown throw to Boris Kuzmanović capping a first half in which he ran for a touchdown, passed for two and more yards than in some games during the last two years.
He did not do so well in the 2nd half when everything went right for the Wolves as suddenly they were stopping Dukes on every play and also intercepting Juhas twice in the 3rd quarter. Both times they punished the turnover with a touchdown run, one from István Demeter with a two point conversion from Yordan, and one from Péter Cseperkáló. Later on, Juhas threw one more interception, and Tamás Mihalovits recovered a fumble by Jovan Kleut while the Wolves finished the game off with two field goals by Gábor Sviatkó.
“All eleven guys on offense played a good game, especially in the first half, so it wasn’t just me. For the second half, I have to give credit to their coaches and players, since pretty much every throw we had in the first half was covered, and I simply didn’t have a lot of room to throw the ball to”, said Juhas.
“We thought they would come out hard, so they didn’t surprise us that much. But they rely a lot on their quarterback, and we expected to get on a roll at some point of the game when he got tired. Our team is not so one dimensional, I caught two touchdowns because I was open, but we were running well, and passing well in general”, said Krisztián Piros whose two touchdowns in the first quarter kept Budapest in the game.