The team we played called Rajaritarit is in Lappeenranta, which is 40 kilometers from the Russian border. Rajaritarit means "border knights" in English. The bus ride over was pretty long, 4 and a half hours north east. The field was really nice, one of the nicest we've played on all year. The weather was awesome too. It was high 70's and the sun was shining.
Rajaritarit was in 4th place before yesterday's game and had been playing pretty well. We were definitley not looking past this team. I was more nervous for this game because both of our offensive coordinators were not going to be there, so I was calling the plays. Our head coach tell me if he wanted run, pass, or play-action and then I would call the specific play. It worked pretty well. On the first drive, we really had no problems and scored on Thomas' run from 3 yards out. Our other running back got hurt last week, Teemu, so we had 3 running backs carrying the load this game.
The defense got off to a real fast start when Scott forced a fumble and then recovered it. In the very next play, I hit our big TE Klaus for a TD down the middle from 32 yards out. Extra point was no good, so Trojans lead 13-0.
They got a field goal on their next drive and our offense stuttered on our next two drives. I threw a pass over the middle and it slipped out of our receivers hands, straight up in the air, and a linebacker was underneath it for the interception. That crap always happens to me. If I throw a ball and it gets tipped, it always gets picked off. Sorry, I had to vent.
The defense held, but on offense we had to punt. Except something went wrong and our punter tried to run it and didn't get the first down. I really dont know what happened but he got tackled on our own 10 yard line. On the next play Rajaritarit scored to make it 13-9, Trojans.
Then we started our charge and would never look back. On the next drive, I ended up hitting Satola from 7 yards out. Timi, one of our running backs, played awesome and had several good runs on the drive. He ended up with 89 yards on 10 carries for the game. He rushed in the 2 point conversion and we went up 21-9. Our defense forced them to punt again and we started the two minute drill. After 3 plays I hit Antti from 24 yards out and we made it 27-9 (kick failed), just before halftime.
They had the ball after half, and our defense held them to 3 plays and out. Our next drive ended on a crazy play. We had a sweet play-action, that left Satola wide open so he caught it and ran down to the 10 yardline and as he was being dragged down, he flipped it behind him to Juha. Then he ran it into the endzone. It was pretty crazy. Its one of those plays that if it works its a good play, but if it doesn't work then it was stupid. In this situation, it was a good play. On the two point play, I threw it to Scott who was playing fullback and made it, 35-9 Trojans.
Their offense had an American QB and an American receiver and they were both pretty good. So at this point they were trying to go to him on almost every play. The QB was also trying to scramble a lot to make something happen. The American receiver ended up with 7 catches for 68 yards and a TD. Anyway, on their next drive our defense forced a turnover on downs.
Our offense was backed up to our own 25, when I hit Klaus right down the middle of the field. He took it 71 yards and got tackled by their safety on the 4 yard line. That is what you call 'running out of steam,' but that is a big boy to be running that far. On the next play, I hit Scott out of the back field and he scored his first TD of the season and his first TD since high school. That put us up 42-9 heading into the 4th quarter.
Nothing too exciting happened in the 4th quarter except that our defense stopped them every time, which they had been doing all game, and our 3rd running back of the day, Jari, scored a TD. Jari owns the gym where me and Scott work out. He had been playing in a league in Norway and this was only the second game with us this season, but Scott and I have talked to him a lot since we see him in the gym almost everyday.
Overall, we played a pretty good game. Our offense finally buried somebody and we only had two bad drives the whole game. The penalties were a lot better this game too. Our defense continued to dominate.
I ended up with 283 yards on 15-24 with 5 TDs. Scott had 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 7 tackles and 3.5 were tackles for loss, and a receiving TD.
I talked with the American players on the other team after the game. They were cool and we talked about the differences in our Finnish cities and about some of the teams in the league. The QB is from Colorado. The WR was from Illinois Wesleyan University and played in Italy last year.
Next week, we play the Wolverines at home who haven't won a game in two years. Right now we are 6-0 and still in first place. The Roosters and Crocs who were tied for 2nd place played yesterday and the Roosters won 40-34 in overtime. The top 4 teams make it into the playoffs and the way it looks right now, 1. Trojans, 2. Roosters, 3. Crocs, 4. probably Butchers. However, there are still 4 games left so anything can happen.
Week 6 coming soon.....
(Raj's site, click on Rajaritarit - Trojans, then Kuvia)