Silverbacks notch historic win over Pios in IFL

The Lions will play the Judean Rebels on Thursday night in the annual Jerusalem derby Hanukka Bowl.

The Lions will play the Judean Rebels on Thursday night in the annual Jerusalem derby Hanukka Bowl. (photo credit: DANIELLA DOLGIN)
The Lions will play the Judean Rebels on Thursday night in the annual Jerusalem derby Hanukka Bowl.
(photo credit: DANIELLA DOLGIN)
For the second straight week, the Tel Aviv Pioneers ended up on the losing side of the history books, as they lost to the Mazkeret Batya Silverbacks for the first time ever, in a 14-6 result on Friday.
Meanwhile, on Thursday night at the Kraft Family Sports Campus in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Lions dominated the Haifa Underdogs 37-0.
For Jerusalem, reigning league MVP David Abell completed 13-of-23 passes for 153 yards and three touchdowns, also leading his team on the ground with seven carries for 69 yards and a score.
Mordy Charnowitz and Tzvi Sklar each registered five tackles, as the Lions defense impressively held the Underdogs to negative total yardage.
The Lions will play the Judean Rebels on Thursday night in the annual Jerusalem derby Hanukka Bowl, in a clash of the IFL’s remaining undefeated teams. The Underdogs will play their first home game of the season next Friday against Mazkeret Batya, at their new home field in Kibbutz HaHotrim.
In Friday’s tight affair, the Silverbacks had a 10-play, 65-yard drive in the first half, capping it off with a 20-yard touchdown run by Ohad Samuely for a 7-0 lead. The Pioneers punted, but right before halftime Amit Militanu intercepted a pass by Mazkeret QB Ido Eisikovits, setting up a Yuval Fenta TD run nine seconds before the break to make it 7-6.
The teams exchanged punts to start the second half and with three minutes to play in the third quarter, Samuely ran in his second score of the day for a 14-6 Mazkeret Batya advantage.
Tel Aviv got the ball with under five minutes to play in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie it up, but Omri Mizrachi threw incompletions on third and fourth downs. The Pioneers wisely used their timeouts, though, and the Silverbacks had to punt the ball with under a minute and a half remaining. However, Mizrachi’s second-down deep pass was intercepted by Daniel Cohen to seal the historic win for a jubilant Silverback squad.
Both teams have this week off before away games next week.