There was no surprise in Belgrade, as the Vukovi Belgrade blew out Zagreb 77-3, setting a points record in CEFL. All was clear from the get go, after Belgrade’s safety Ivan Nedeljković intercepted a pass on the very first play and the Vukovi led by 7 after only a few minutes of play.
The Vukovi slowly built a 14 point lead in the first quarter, leading to backup quarterback Nemanja Petković coming into the game sooner than expected. With him in the game, the home team added another 28 points, three on long touchdown passes, one each to Jordan Green, Aleksandar Anđelković and Pavle Tasić.
In the first quarter, at quarterback, Green ran for a 29 yard touchdown run and had a 6 yard throw to Anđelković. Uroš Milić scored his first rushing touchdown of the year diving from the 2 yard line to increase the lead to 21 points.
It wasn’t all offense for Belgrade though, as Zagreb struggled to even get a first down all game. Once they would find some room to run and aided by Belgrade’s penalties would get near midfield, they would turn the ball over – they did so twice on fumbles that were recovered by the Vukovi.
If one can find a chink in the armor for Belgrade’s team, it’s the numerous penalties, especially on defense. On one drive they were flagged twice for 15 yard penalties, that eventually led to Zagreb’s only score, but that was just one of many instances of personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Linebacker Dušan Lalić will miss at least a game because of ejection for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, one of which came in the final minutes of the game.
The credit for the field goal still should go to Zagreb’s kicker Marko Tošić, who hit a 50 yarder for his team’s only points in the game. Belgrade scored all of its second half points on runs by their new running back Željko Kostić, and two by practically CEFL veterans Lazar Nikolić and Nikola Ralenac. Petković passed for his fourth touchdown of the game and linebacker Dimitrije Cvijović finally finished the scoring with a 60 yard fumble return for a touchdown.
In all, the Vukovi had a great start of the season in front of around a thousand people in the stands.
“Very good, even easier than I thought it would be; I expected a little better opponent”, says Željko Kostić, new running back for the Vukovi this year. “I think the offense and defense played equally well, they both dominated. But maybe the offense played a little bit better.”
“For us, it was a very good experience. The field was good and the whole atmosphere was too good. We played what we’re capable of playing at this time – a lot of errors, we’re lacking in experience, but we liked playing here a lot”, said Zagreb’s coach Siniša Štefanović.