Ndavyah Williams and his Haifa Underdogs teammates made the long trek down the Beersheva and won handily despite a short-handed roster defeating Beersheva Black Swarm 51 – 6.
Haifa started the game off with a 3-and-out, but Nimrod Smith picked off Beersheva quarterback Itay Reuven’s pass, setting up a touchdown run by Hillel Meran, 7-0. Two plays later Haifa’s Guy Halberthal picked off Reuven and took it 17 yards to the house for a 13-0 lead. The Black Swarm answered with an 11-play drive which ended with a David Rabinski rushing touchdown from 5 yards out, 13-6 at the end of the first quarter. Ilya Averbuch answered for Haifa with a 20-yard field goal (16-6), and the Swarm missed a field goal of their own. Haifa quarterback Matt Kauffman found Dean Kol for a 27-yard score on 4th-and-12 to put the northerners up 23-6, and the Haifa defense then forced a punt. Beersheva’s Nadav Eliyahu picked off Kauffman’s pass, but the Swarm missed another field goal attempt right before halftime.
Beersheva was in trouble at the start of the second half, when a high snap was recovered at the 1-yard line by Haifa’s Amit Kolton and running back Yair Zilbershtein ran it in from there, 29-6. Beersheva drove 44 yards in 15 plays but came up empty, and then Kauffman found Matan Fourier for a 7-yard touchdown pass as the fourth quarter got underway, 37-6. Smith picked off Reuven again, and Kauffman found wide receiver Ron Dafni for a 20-yard score, 44-6. Beersheva missed another field goal, but then forced a Haifa punt. However, Matanel Katz muffed the catch and Kauffman, who also serves as Haifa’s long snapper, recovered the ball and ran 12 yards for another Haifa touchdown, 51-6.
Kauffman completed 10/22 passes for 140 yards, 3 scores and a pick. Williams had 66 yards on 9 carries and Meran had 38 and a score on 11 carries. Dafni caught 3 passes for 26 yards and a score and Fourier had 2 for 21 and a score. Amit Kolton lead the defense with 8 tackles, 3 TFL, a sack and a fumble recovery and Mica Allon had 8 and 2 breakups.
Reuven completed 9/29 passes for 59 yards and 3 interceptions. Rabinski rushed for 105 yards and a score on 12 carries and Tal Biton added 10 for 27. Katz and tight end Shai Bortnik each had 3 catches for 15 yards. Shlomi Shohat lead the Beersheva defense with 10 tackles and 1 TFL, while IFL tackling leader Sandro Kalandadze had 8 tackles and a sack.
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