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Frankfurt Galaxy Dominant Against Unbeaten Hamburg Sea Devils, 35-9

Hamburg traveled to Frankfurt in a battle between the 2 teams with the best records in the European League of Football. The Sea Devils come in unbeaten, and the Galaxy has only 1 loss, to Hamburg.

The Galaxy took first blood in their quest to even up the score against the Sea Devils on a methodical drive, that ended with a 21 yard TD from QB Jakeb Sullivan to Kevin Mwamba. 7-0.

The 2 trade punts before we see more scoring, as Hamburg was able to pin the high-powered Frankfurt offense deep in its own territory, but, the Sea Devils were only able to get a 42-yard field goal out of it. 7-3.

The Galaxy came back on their next drive, and on a nice pass from Sullivan on an out pattern to WR Anthony Mahoungou. He made 1 man miss, and went 29 yards for the score. 14-3.

Big plays by QB Jadrian Clark to Kwame Ofori, and WR Jean-Claude Madin Cerezo keep the 4th drive alive in the 2nd quarter. Followed by a QB run by Clark, and the Sea Devils are inside the 10. But the Galaxy defense held them to another Andersen field goal. 14-6.

Despite being the top defense in the ELF, Hamburg was picked apart in the 1st half by Frankfurt. The Sea Devils defense so far had given up an average of 12 points a game, but Sullivan and Mwamba have the Galaxy in position to score a 3rd touchdown, as they connect on a pass that put them at the Hamburg 2. One play later, Sullivan scored on a QB sneak. Missed PAT, 20-6.

It was another rainy day in Germany, and as it picked up, a high snap was mishandled by QB2 Salieu Ceesay, and was picked up by the Galaxy’s LB Sebastian Silva Gomez and returned 38 yards for a TD. PAT was good, 27-6.

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours, and it has definitely poured today in Frankfurt, but not on the Galaxy. Another Hamburg punt gave the ball back to Frankfurt with less than 3:00 to go in the 2nd quarter. The Sea Devils are hoping the tides will turn in the 3rd quarter.

A big defensive stand can change momentum going into the half, and despite losing team’s sack leader, LB Jan- Phillip Bombek late in the 1st half, they were able to get a lot of pressure on Sullivan, creating a punt.

The Sea Devils took the 2nd half kick, and hoped to take advantage of the momentum picked up by the defense, and although they ran out of time, they had a decent drive going late in the 2nd quarter.

Mismanagement of timeouts hurt them big, and they already used 1 within the 1st 2:00 of the 3rd quarter. They’re bound to lose a game, and if you’re going to, it means something for it to be against the 2nd best team in the league, but it’s not what you want.

If they were to mount a comeback like last week, it cannot be just on the leg of Phillip Friis Andersen . They had to get in the endzone. But instead of getting on the board, the Sea Devils had to punt on their 1st drive of the 2nd half. The 2 teams traded punts to start the 3rd quarter.

The Galaxy secondary has been on display all day, as even when Clark has time, no one was open. DB Joshua Poznanski intercepted a 3rd quarter pass from Clark, and the 2nd drive of the half for Hamburg is over.

Most points allowed by Hamburg before today was 23 to the Wroclaw Panthers, but the Galaxy already has beaten that. On their 2nd possession of the half Sullivan perfectly placed the ball in the back of the endzone for a 24 yard TD pass to WR Hendrik Schwarz. PAT no good, 33-6.

Ceesay replaced Clark again, but it didn’t help. Should be noted that the switching of QBs was a pregame decision of the coaching staff, wasn’t based on in-game performance. Trying something different in an attempt to gain an advantage by using a hopefully unprepared for scheme.

Galaxy applied pressure all day, and it wasn’t any different on the ensuing drive. Deep in their own territory after a big sack on Ceesay, and the Sea Devils already used their 2nd time out. Again misuse of their timeouts hurt them late in the game.

The Sea Devils had to punt again, deep in their own territory. However, a bad snap went through the endzone, causing a safety. Galaxy led after that 35-6.

Galaxy RB Gerald Ameln lost the ball as he was going down on Frankfurt’s next possession, and the Sea Devils recovered the fumble. It was close, looked like Ameln’s knee might have been down, but they don’t have replay in the ELF. Clark returned, down 29.

Although Xavier Johnson was back this week, the run game was not a factor for the Sea Devils. The Galaxy defense overpowered the Sea Devils.

Two big plays by TE Adria Botello Moreno got Hamburg inside the redzone. A sack and a holding penalty put the Hamburg offense back outside of the 20, and the Sea Devils were forced to try a 34-yard field goal. Andersen hits, made the score 35-9.

QB2 Moritz Johannknecht replaced Jakeb Sullivan for the Galaxy. Sullivan accounted for 4 TDs today, 3 in the air, one on the ground. It was time to get the backup some reps.

Many things went wrong today for the visiting Hamburg Sea Devils. Some were self-inflicted, so definitely need to work on a little discipline and continuity. But the bigger story is the absolute dominance by the Frankfurt Galaxy in all phases. Holding the Hamburg offense to single digits for the 1st time this season. And the Galaxy offense scoring more points than the Sea Devils have allowed all year.

What has been a dominant front 7, was neutralized by the offensive line, and play scheme. QB2 Johannknecht was able to get Frankfurt into the redzone late in the 2nd half. They will need to figure out what went wrong. Now both division leaders have the same record, splitting their matches.

Final score, 35-9.

Hamburg falls to 6-1 and will travel to Berlin to face the Thunder.

Galaxy improves to 6-1, and will travel to Poland to face the Wroclaw Panthers

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Josh Davis Reporter
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