It has often been said that football is a game of inches. I have witnessed the truth of this statement as both a coach and fan on countless occasions. On a hot Sunday evening in Helsinki, under a smoke filled sky from the recent Russian wildfires, our team narrowly escaped defeat in a hard fought overtime battle. The Crocs came out of the gate slow, while the Roosters played with intensity in the early stages of the game. We found ourselves in a 14-0 hole in the 2nd quarter. We regained our focus enough to score before the half and trailed 14-7 at the break.
The guys were really upset at halftime and determined to get things going in the second half. Our team played with a sense of urgency in the 3rd and fourth quarters and things began to swing our way. We converted a 4th down play for a touchdown pass to tie things up and then our defense made some key stops to send the game into OT.
We lost the coin toss and had to take the ball first in OT. A flag for holding was thrown on the first play of OT, which put us in a big hole. After converting a 3rd and long for a first down, we were able to punch in the go ahead TD on a sweep play. The Roosters took their possession and threw an interception right off the bat. Hooray, the game is over and the Crocs win 21-14! Not so fast, we were called for defensive holding and the Roosters got the ball back and received an automatic first down. On the next play, we received another defensive holding call allowing the Roosters to advance to the five yard line. They scored on the drive and now trailed by only one point with the conversion soon to come. We assumed they would kick the extra point and take their chances again on the next series. To our surprise, they decided to go for the two point conversion. They are a tough team to defend in a situation like this, but our team made the stop as their pass attempt floated inches away from their intended receiver. Now it was time to celebrate. We escaped with a 21-20 win and guaranteed ourselves a spot in the playoffs with the victory. Our next game is a home match vs. the Tampere Saints this Saturday. Way to go Crocs!
Lights out.
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