NHFL Playoff Results

[Joe Greco]

THe NHFL Playoffs were held just outside Philadelphia yesterday and it was a long day with many tense games and a thrilling championship game.

The final 4 consisted of Raiderman playing Karim Campbell and Ed Roche facing Dave "Punk" Bartels.

In the game between Raiderman and Karim, after a scoreless first half Raiderman busted a long TD run which ended up being the only points in a hard fought 7 - 0 victory.

In the other game, a late TD drive by Ed Roche broke a 3 - 3 tie and secured a 10 - 3 victory sending him into the finals against Raiderman.

In the championship game Raiderman kicked a long field at the end of the first half to take a 3-0 lead. After stopping Raiderman on the opening drive of the second half Ed Roche took the ball and moved into scoring position and kicked a 62 yard field goal for a 3-3 tie.

On the next series Ed's defense came up big again and Raiderman was forced to punt. Ed then began a methodical drive into scoring range and with a maximum of 2 plays left in the game set up for a 45 yard field goal to break the tie, but it went wide. Raiderman was unable to score on the final 2 plays and the game went into overtime.

In overtime Raiderman got the ball first and his offense began to click and he put together a very impressive drive capping off with a TD. In the NHFL the team that has the ball first has a choice if they score a TD. If you go for 2 and make it the game is over, if you go for 1 point the other team gets the ball from their own 20 yard line, needing to score a TD and extra point to win.

Raiderman went for 2 but was unable to get a receiver open and the try was no good. Ed Roche took over needing a TD drive. He put together a couple of first downs but on a 4th and long was unable to stop the board on time to attempt a pass resulting in a game ending sack.

Final score Raiderman's Sting 9 Ed Roche's Fighting White Bears 3.

Congratulations to Raiderman for winning his second consecutive NHFL Championship and to Ed Roche for a brilliant, undefeated regular season and near championship run. Also congratularions to Karim Campbell and Dave Bartels for making it to the final 4 and to all participants for what was a great day.

Prior to the playoffs, Ed Roche was honored as the NHFL "Coach of the Year" and Jack Thomas was honored as the "Iron Man of the Year" for his dedication to the game and for overcoming obstacles during this past year.

Joe Greco