Games We Play: Flag Football: Lobos to face Big Blue in Holyland Bowl

Kfar Zippori claims co-ed title; Diamonds.com advances in WAFI playoffs.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
sports 3 88 (photo credit: )
sports 3 88
(photo credit: )
American Football in Israel's Holyland Bowl matchup has been set. Lobos and Big Blue both scored 38 points in recording convincing victories in the semifinals at Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem on Saturday night. In the first semi, the Netiv Inmates were looking for their second straight upset, but Lobos turned them back 38-19. Netiv defeated Karelitz in the quarterfinals the previous week. Big Blue then took the field against Klein Management. The defending national champion, which overhauled its roster in the offseason, took a seven-point lead into halftime (13-6), and scored 25 unanswered points in the second half to pull away for a 38-6 victory. The 2007 Holyland Bowl is scheduled for 9 p.m. on February 17 at Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem. For the first time in its history, the AFI men's contact league has six playoff tiers leading to six bowl games. All six bowls are set to be played on Friday and Saturday, including The Terem Bowl in memory of Dr. David Applebaum (Tov Pizza vs BL&L Ligers) at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night; The Koby Mandell Cup (Refa-na Meuchedet vs Premier Gem) at 12:30 p.m. Friday; the Koolanoo.com Bowl (Cafe Rimon vs METV) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; the FlyACake.com Bowl (Chrainzilla vs Ziontours) at 11:15 a.m. Friday; and the Heritage Affinity Bowl (Misha'an Plumbers/Pizza Sababa/z.z vs Lev Aharon Jerusalem) at 10 a.m. Friday. Kfar Zippori claims co-ed title Kfar Zippori scored the winning touchdown with 13 seconds left and held on to beat defending champion and previously unbeaten Ba'al Shen Tov 33-26 in the 2006/07 Tuesday Night Football League final this week. Trailing 26-25, Kfar Zippori got the ball back with 41 seconds on the clock after forcing Ba'al Shen Tov to punt. Amir Kronberg's third touchdown pass of the game went to Ariel Gilor and a two-point conversion, again featuring a Kronberg-to-Gilor connection, gave Zippori a 33-26 lead with 13 seconds left. Ba'al Shen Tov quarterback Yomi Groner completed an 18-yard pass to Naftali Schwartz and then threw to David Abell to pick up a first down and stop the clock with four seconds remaining. On the final play of the game, though, there were no open receivers for Groner and his pass sailed out of the end zone. Kfar Zippori had stormed out to a 12-0 lead in the first half, but BST scored the next 20 points to take an eight-point advantage into halftime. After Ba'al Shen Tov found the end zone for the first touchdown of the second half, Mordechai Goodman and Kronberg led the Kfar Zippori offense to 21 unanswered points. Goodman, Kfar Zippori's captain and quarterback, threw two touchdown passes. The Pizzeria Efrat owner also passed backwards behind the line of scrimmage to Kronberg, who found three different Kfar Zippori receivers for their other touchdowns. Gilor and Aaron Berger each had two touchdown receptions for Kfar Zippori, while Binyamin Teitz's TD reception opened the scoring. Diamonds.com advance in WAFI playoffs Diamonds.com beat the Arnona Bombers 18-6 in the first round of the onlysimchas.com Women's American Football in Israel playoffs at Kraft Family Stadium last week. Emily Neilson scored two touchdowns, and Miriam "Rapper" Rappaport scored one. Neilson also made two interceptions on defense. Trumanettes 38, Eden's Eagles 12 The Trumanettes' touchdowns were scored by Elissa Sagoskin, Sarit Bailey, Yael Hartman and Ayelet Wartelsky. Bailey caught a pass for an extra point, as did Keren Klass. On defense, Sagoskin had an interception, and sister Jessie picked the ball off twice and ran it back for TDs each time. Hartman played a key defensive role as well, rushing the Eden's Eagles quarterback and sacking her three times. Misha'an Plumbers 42, Ziontours 7 Misha'an Plumbers Yael Freedman scored three touchdowns, Esti "Baseball" Bernstien scored one TD, and Ahuva Odenheimer scored two, including an interception return for a score. "Baseball" and Odenheimer also scored three extra points each. High school league playoffs under way Jaffe Strategies, Yad Eliezer and The Jewish Press advanced in the first round of the Yosef Goodman High School AFI playoffs at Kraft Family Stadium last week. Jaffe Strategies 21,Tankers 12 Jaffe quarterback Gavi Teitz threw two touchdown passes to Aron Wasser, and Justin Hess had a rushing TD. On defense, Justin recorded three interceptions and Yehuda Baker had the game-changing interception. Shmuel Goldstein sacked the Tankers QB four times. Yad Eliezer 31,Hunki's Pizza 0 Yad Eliezer's Yair Grosbar had two interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown. Avi Ettinger scored three TDs and Chaim Erblich rushed for one TD. On defense, Channan Kupietzky had seven sacks. The Jewish Press 49,Briut Modi'in 6 Hershel Bachrach led The Jewish Press to a comfortable victory over Briut Modi'in with three interception and five touchdowns. Elimeir Maltz had one TD, Shlomo Priess-Bloom had three TDs and an interception and Yoel Ross threw three TD passes. For more information on American Football in Israel, visit www.israelfootball.net;e-mail info@israelfootball.net, or call (054) 440-0659.