A Solid Scrimmage in Switzerland vs. the Lugano Rebels

Sunday, 16 February, 2020

After five long and somewhat tedious weeks of practice, it was finally time to take the field against an opponent other than ourselves.

We headed north about 45 minutes by car to Switzerland for our annual scrimmage early this morning.

Italy's Varese Skorpions

at

Switzerland's Lugano Rebels

at 10:30 a.m.

We car pooled from a frosty

Skorpion Field at about 8:30 a.m.

Skorpions gathering for our

first road trip of 2020

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for

American football in Switzerland!

We were warming up on a synthetic

turf field next to Lugano's Soccer Stadium

FC Lugano's seventh place Swiss Super League team would be playing a home game later this afternoon against the second place BSC Young Boys from the Swiss capital city of Bern.

It was FC Lugano in an upset today, 2-1 over the BSC Young Boys.

 Always nice to have

the Alps for a backdrop

The Rebels kicking off to start things

in what would be a 95 play scrimmage

Skorpion Field Goal block team

Good pressure by #57

LB Stefano Lusuriello

Rebels on offense running

a Counter play

Skorpions on the Goal Line

 First and Ten,

DO IT AGAIN!

Speaking of Young Boys . . .

My third annual traditional post-Lugano scrimmage photo with the legendary OL/DL Luca Pinto.

Luca is a former Skorpions player who has coached our DL the past two seasons.

Due to Italy's 48 years of age playing limit, he can no longer play with any Italian club.

Since Switzerland has no age limit for players, he has been playing for the Rebels the past three seasons.

Luca is now 51 years old and played Offensive Guard and Defensive Tackle the entire scrimmage today.

I think that it is safe to say that he is passionate about our great game of American football.

This scrimmage was a good one for us today.

We had three goals in mind for this scrimmage.

First, find out what we can do well. As it turns out, we had several strong points today.

Two highlights were outstanding hits by Sergio "Mizu" Montalbetti on a Kickoff Return and an absolute snot bubbler by LB Elia Aquilano on Defense.

Both clean hits would be $30,000 fines and three game suspensions in the NFL. Interpol may be called in to investigate.

I thought that our pass blocking was solid all day.

Many of our new, young players showed that they can contribute this season.

Second, find out where we need more work.

Better tackling and a much more consistent rushing attack come to mind.

Finally, come out of the scrimmage healthy.

Thank goodness, we suffered nothing but the usual bumps and bruises that are common with any American football practice.

On the drive home, some of us stopped off at the Grotto Bagat Ristorante and Pizzeria in Lavena Ponte Tresa, Italy for a meal.

We waited to dine until we drove back across the Swiss-Italian border as everything costs much less in Italy.

The Grotto Bagat sits next to an

arm of the huge Lago di Lugano

Ten Skorpions, Ten Pizzas

Sharing a pizza is not really a thing in Italy.

Here, everyone gets there own pizza and then it is mangia, Mangia, MANGIA!

It was another positive step forward today for the Skorpions. 

The Italian DII season starts in less than two weeks now when the Skorpions host the Modena Vipers on Saturday, the 29th of February.

Stay tuned . . .