BUDAPEST – The Budapest Wolves crushed their cross town rivals in the teams’ season opener Sunday afternoon. The Wolves scored 42 points in the first half while allowing a TD on an interception and one on a drive dominated by two defensive meltdowns. Péter Cseperkáló opened the scoring with a 70 yard TD run on just the fourth play of the game. The standout fullback and TB László Csizmazia combined for over 300 yards and 5 touchdowns throughout the game. Cseperkáló even had the stamina to bring his talents to the defensive line later on, something he has been working on for some time now. The Wolves displayed some potent passing game, QB Dávid Récsey connected with both Krisztián Piros and Csanád Király on TD passes. Király could have had two more TD’s but he was stopped on the 1 yard line on two occasions setting up TD runs by Cseperkáló.
The Wolves defense, although seemingly in early season form, dominated the ex-CEFL member Cowboys’ offense, racking up 5 interceptions and a forced fumble. The ex-Wolves WR/QB Bálint Michaletzky was intercepted once shortly before leaving the game with a high ankle sprain in the first quarter. His replacement Tamás Vári connected with defenders almost as frequently as his own receivers throwing for four pick while connecting on one TD. The Cowboys were playing catchup throughout the game trying to lean on their passing game although they did some damage running the ball occasionally.
Gábor Kalovits (Cowboys team president) stated after the game that his team was trying to use this opportunity to mold in some newcomers and junior players into their team . Coach Hlavka (HC, Wolves) after watching the game tape, stated he was disappointed with his team’s sloppiness in the season opener and put his team through some heavy agility drills in Monday’s practice preparing for their international opener this weekend against the Bratislava Monarchs.
Game notes
The Wolves played two different QB’s, Dávid Récsey getting the start and István Kovács replacing him for the second half.
Récsey was intercepted twice, the first was returned for a TD by Mihály Bánfi.
Bánfi was one of the brighter spots in the losing effort filling his stat sheet with tackles, sacks, a forced fumble and the interception return.
The two teams are set to meet again in the newly formed Hungarian Football League in the fall that will probably feature three Hungarian and a couple of foreign teams.