Comeback Stars
WORLD LEAGUE – It looked like it would be a huge upset in the World League’s week 11 Premier Match as the Buenos Aires Blue Dogs led from the Thursday game through most of Sunday, but faced with a 27 point deficit, the AF#24 Scandinavian Stars pulled off a 99-90 comeback win. Led by their Chargers defense with 5 interceptions and two touchdowns, who added 36 points to their total, the Stars completed their comeback with receiver Mohamed Sanu’s endzone catch on Monday Night Football. The Blue Dogs’ receivers accounted for almost 300 yards and 4 touchdowns in this one, but it wasn’t enough. Had their starting quarterback been available to them instead of being on a bye, the outcome might have been different, as Buenos Aires stumbles to third place in the West.
Scandinavia, meanwhile, dropped into second place in the Eastern Conference, despite the win. The Stars advanced their record to 9-2-0 but so did the Old England Patriots after they beat Cali Rox 147-126 in an exciting shootout game that had over a dozen lead changes throughout the weekend. The score by Old England was good enough put them into the League Record Book as the 12 best single game performance of all time, but more importantly, it also allowed them to overtake Scandinavia in total points on the season, moving the Patriots into the top spot in the Eastern Conference and in the league. Both franchises are sitting on 9 win seasons right now, and are separated by just 15 points in total scoring, and with just 2 weeks left, it’s going to be a real race to the finish to see which of these two can capture the Eastern Conference’s #1 seed and the first round bye that goes with it. The Patriots are riding a 5 game win-streak and beat the Stars 89-63 in Week 5, then went on to capture their historic 50th win in Week 10, while Scandinavia could reach that same milestone themselves with just 4 more wins.
London and Jerusalem are now locked into a battle for the 3rd and final playoff spot from the East, both clubs with 7-4-0 records. London has the edge in tiebreakers with a nearly 150 point lead over the Cheeseheads in total season scoring. In fact, London leads the league in total scoring at this point and is still mathematically eligible for the #1 seed in the East; they can capture their own 50th win with just 4 more victories as well.
In what’s turned out to be the much weaker, Western Conference, Buenos Aires’ loss drops them into 3rd place with a 5-6-0 record. The Mexico Aztecs remain first in the conference, but their lead has dropped to just 1 game, at 6-4-0, thanks to their Week 11 loss, 93-118 to Dublin Bay. The only Western team showing any spark in Week 11 was the defending Champion Dacusville Devils who put up 128 points in their 128-48 destruction of New Orleans. Buenos Aries, has the most favorable schedule of the three to finish out the Regular Season.