The Wolves defeated the Thunder in convincing fashion in their fall season opener. The Wolves started the game slowly, only scoring three points in two visits to the Zagreb red zone early in the first quarter, but changed gears in the second half resulting in a 31 point victory margin.
The Wolves, second in the North group with 3-3 losses and victories hosted the South group’s fourth seed, the winless Thunder at BVSC Stadium in Budapest. The Hungarian players might have already been focusing on the rematch with their cross town rival Cowboys next weekend. The first half was surprisingly close (10:7); Csaba Majoros kicked a FG in the first, then Krisztian Piros pulled in his first TD of the night in the second. On their next drive the Wolves were forced to punt and long snapper Gábor Batar managed to snap over the 2 meter tall Majoros, resulting in a ball recovered by Vladimir Varjacic and a Zagreb touchdown.
The home team came out firing after intermission. The presence of new defensive additions Csaba Roznjik and Eric Peterson took its toll on the Zagreb offense. Peterson teaming up with SS Béla Krausz hurried and sacked Thunder’s quarterback several times, resulting in two fumbles. In the meantime the 35 year old veteran Roznjik intercepted the ball three times earning him game MVP honors.
Krisztian Piros caught his second and third TD’s on passes from Attila Lendvai with a TD run in between by standout FB Khoury Noure. The Zagreb side received their third sideline warning after Piros’s third TD, arguing the catch was out of bounds. TE/K Majoros injured his knee early in the third forcing the Wolves to go for two after each TD in the second half. The 38:7 final result was set by Wolves rookie TB Miklós Lukács on a spectacular outside run in garbage time.