It’s been an exciting past three weekends for the Unicorns
as we chalked up three more victories against Wiesbaden, Munich, and Stuttgart
respectively. Although never over
satisfied, the Unicorns are starting to string together some solid performances
all across the board and playing with a certain confidence that the good teams
display when they take the field.
Practices are getting better, guys are becoming healthy, and there are
new additions to the team on both sides of the ball that are helping this
momentum continue. Winning is a habit
around here, but if we don’t keep our head down and continue to work our butts
off there are a couple of teams who handed the Unicorns their two losses of the
season looming over the next three weeks.
We do not control our own destiny to take the top spot in the GFL South
and claim home field advantage in the playoffs, but there couldn’t be a bigger
chip on this team’s shoulder to avenge our early season losses at home in front
of the Unicorn faithful. Meanwhile, let’s
recap the past three weeks of Unicorn football.
6/22 Wiesbaden
Phantoms
In an odd situation, the Unicorns and Phantoms squared off
in back to back weeks both home and away.
The first game was highlighted by high scoring from both sides causing
some concern with the Unicorn defense considering the Phantoms were winless
heading into the meeting with the Unicorns.
The concern is valid, but in every athletic season there will be off
days. The important part is when one
phase of the game is lacking the other phase picks up for in order to get the
victory. The second showdown with the
Phantoms was a complete 360 defensively as dominance was displayed at times
resulting in a first half shut out and an eventual 34-14 victory. With the Phantoms change at quarterback it was
our time to shine in the secondary and take advantage of errant throws. Taylor was able to finish the day with no
balls completed his way and I was able to snag two of the three INTs on the
day. Offensively it was another day at
the office for Ryan and the receiving core putting up over 200 yards through
the air, however; what really sticks out lately is the running game. We aren’t afraid to admit and claim our
identity as a passing team, but running for 3 TDs and nearly 200 yards will
certainly give headaches to any defense trying to slow us down. The win was celebrated in style by going out
to one of the bigger festivals near Frankfurt with some of the teammates. After a night of shenanigans all of our focus
was on a hot Munich team looking to improve their place in the overall
standings.
6/29 Munich Cowboys
After securing a victory against the Phantoms in Wiesbaden,
our focus was set on the Munich Cowboys who were riding a two game winning
streak and putting pressure on the rest of the division. The game was our wettest one of the year by
far, it rained from start to finish, making it difficult for both offenses to
move the ball as effectively as they would have liked. Despite the rain, our offense overcame the
challenge and the soaking wet footballs to put up 452 yards of total offense,
26 first downs, only one turnover, and 30 points. On the flip side, Munich
struggled offensively as our defense put together a solid performance, allowing
only 218 yards of total offense, 8 first downs, and 14 points while also
picking their QB off three times. This was a big win and put us on a three game
winning streak heading into four straight home games in the Hall.
7/13 Stuttgart Scorpions
This past weekend we took on the Stuttgart Scorpions at home
in front of our biggest crowd thus far. It
was great to be playing at home again after two straight games on the
road. No other stadium we have played at
has an atmosphere that compares to the one we play in at home in Hagenbach
Stadium. This game was our new
teammate/roommate Dusty Thornhill’s first game back in the Unicorn uniform
(played with Boehme and Nish in 2011) and it was great to have our fourth
American out there on the field. Our
offense kept it rolling this game putting up 38 points, 490 yards total
offense, and 30 first downs. It was our
best rushing performance this season by far. The o-line and running backs had it clicking
as we posted 321 yards rushing off of 50 attempts for an average of 6.3 yards
per carry. Defensively, we played very
well, our line was creating pressure all day and our secondary didn’t allow a
single big play through the air. When it
was all said and done, Stuttgart could only manage 192 total yards of offense,
10 first downs, and 7 points. Next up on
the schedule is the Franken Knights who defeated us earlier this year by one
point. I know we will all be highly
motivated to come away with a victory against the Knights and get the bad taste
out of our mouths from the first game.
Taylor and I are over the halfway mark of our European
adventure and couldn’t be enjoying ourselves more. We’ve both been extremely fortunate to have
support from friends and family who keep up with us and even come visit
here. Aside from football we have spent
our time lately in Munich, Dachau concentration camp, Hofbräuhaus Brewery,
celebrating America’s birthday, going on bike rides, and of course the beer
garden. Here is a collection of some
pictures over the past four months:
drew fisher's Slidely by Slidely - Slideshow maker
Go Unicorns,
Drew and Taylor
