Sat. & Sun., May 25-26, 2024
Lot's of football this weekend which is always a good thing for me.
Let's start South of the Border . . .
An unusual match-up
These U.S.A. collegiate games overseas usually involve NCAA DII or NAIA schools.
This one featured an NCAA DI non-scholarship school.
The Drake University Bulldogs are from Des Moines, Iowa. They were the 2023 Pioneer Football League Champions going 8-0 in league play and 8-4 overall. They were eliminated in the first round of last year's NCAA FCS playoffs.
The Bulldogs were headed to Panama for a ten day excursion that included each player taking part in a Drake University three credit business course titled "Panama and the Global Economy."
Of course, they were also there to play a friendly football game against an all-star team made up of players from Panama's two American football leagues.
Interesting but no contest.
Final Score
Drake 64 - Panama 0
Italy's top league had its final
regular season games this weekend
Firenze Guelfi (6-1) vs.
Parma Panthers (4-3)
This promised to be a good one.
And it was, Parma in a mild upset
Ancona Dolphins (5-2) vs.
Torino Giaguari (2-5)
This one looked to be non-competitive.
And it was, Ancona won easily
Bologna Warriors (0-7) vs.
Legnano Frogs (3-4)
This may be ugly as Bologna had only scored 14 points total this season and had been shut out five times.
And it was. Make that six shutouts
for the extremely young Warriors
Varese Skorpions (7-0) vs.
Milano Rhinos (2-5)
The Skorpions looked to have an easy time of it.
But they didn't which is typical
of these Skorpions
The Skorpions entered the Fourth Quarter with a commanding lead of 42-22.
The Rhinos then proceeded to score on their next three possessions to take a 43-42 lead with 1:59 left in the game.
YIKES!
No problem really. The Varese squad returned the kickoff to the 50 yard line and got another 15 yard gift on the return from the Milano squad via a face mask penalty.
On the first play from scrimmage, the Skorpions threw a 35 yard TD pass and successfully executed a two-point PAT with 1:09 left in the game. Skorpions lead, 50-43.
The Skorpions Defense, thanks to three consecutive holding calls on the Rhinos, held serve to win the ball game.
A wacky final weekend with the
Lazio Marines (3-5) having a Bye
Final IFL Regular Season Standings
1. Varese Skorpions 8-0
2 Tie. Firenze Guelfi 6-2
Ancona Dolphins 6-2
4. Parma Panthers 5-3
5. Legnano Frogs 4-4
6. Lazio Marines 3-5
7 Tie. Milano Rhinos 2-6
Torino Giaguari 2-6
9. Bologna Warriors 0-8
The IFL playoffs start in two weeks
IFL Wild Card Games
June 8-9, 2024
#5 seed Legnano Frogs (4-4) at
#4 seed Parma Panthers (5-3)
#6 seed Lazio Marines (3-5) at
#3 seed Ancona Dolphins (6-2)
#1 seed Varese Skorpions (8-0) and
#2 seed Firenze Guelfi (6-2) have Byes
The playoff Semi-Finals will be played June 15-16.
Varese will host the winner of the Legnano-Parma game.
Firenze will be at home against the Lazio-Ancona game winner.
For our beloved Skorpions, the playoffs will be tough regardless of their glossy 8-0 record and #1 seed.
During the regular season this is how the Cardiac Kids of Varese fared against all five of the other playoff teams:
Varese 7 - #2 seed Firenze 0
Varese 21 - #3 seed Ancona 20
Varese 38 - #4 seed Parma 34
Varese 26 - #5 seed Legnano 22
Varese 28 - #6 seed Lazio 7
Cool Italian DII graphic . . .
. . . Brescia Bengals with a solid
win over the Torino Reapers
Europe's Super League started its
fourth season of play this weekend
with three games on Saturday
Vienna Vikings with an easy win
over Hungary's Enthroners
No surprise.
Barcelona over Switzerland's
Mercenaries in a close one
I thought this one could go either way, and it did.
The Tirol Raiders demolished
Italy's Milano Seamen
The win by the Austrian squad was expected but not the margin of victory and a shut out to boot!
GREAT graphic to start off
Sunday's slate of four games
Hamburg winning was expected but
Prague keeping it this close was not
Poland's Wroclaw Panthers got
off to a great start in beating the
Berlin Thunder
The defending ELF Champion
Rhein Fire had no trouble with
the Cologne Centurions
Stuttgart over Munich
The Frankfurt Galaxy, Madrid Bravos
and Paris Musketeers had Byes
European League of Football Schedule
Saturday, June 1, 2024
Stuttgart (1-0) at Wroclaw (1-0)
Tirol (1-0) at Vienna (1-0)
Barcelona (1-0) at Madrid (0-0)
Munich (0-1) at Milano (0-1)
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Prague (0-1) at Berlin (0-1)
Paris (0-0) at Hamburg (1-0)
Fehérvár (0-1) at Cologne (0-1)
Rhein (1-0) at Frankfurt (0-0)
BYE: Helvetic (0-1)
Spanish Serie B/D II
Championship Game
The Terrassa Reds (9-0) earned promotion to Serie A/D I in 2025 with their win over the Valencia Giants (7-2).
Sweden's top club, the Stockholm
Mean Machines won easily
Four games left in Poland's DI circuit,
only the top four teams make the playoffs
France's DI Power Rankings
going into the weekend
The Power Rankings #1, 3 and 6
teams all lost, hmmm . . .
New French DI Conference Standings
By the way, if there are ties, the French list their records as Wins-Ties-Losses.
C'est la vie
Reading Is FUNdamental!
series did not disappoint one bit
Bruno's stories make one desire a move to the southwest of France for the cuisine, lifestyle and gorgeous scenery.
