FWL Bowl XVII

Montreal Machine 13 Amsterdam Admirals 10

(Play by Play)

Montreal         7  3  3  0 -- 13
Amsterdam        0  7  0  3 -- 10

First Quarter
Montreal - Brown 5 run (Cortez kick), 5:45

Second Quarter
Montreal - Cortez 27 FG, 5:42
Amsterdam - Thurman 11 pass from Symons (France kick), 14:19

Third Quarter
Montreal - Cortez 25 FG, 5:18

Fourth Quarter
Amsterdam - France 23 FG, 2:13

It was a meeting of two great teams in the league, the Montreal Machine who have won a joint record 3 FWL Bowl's and have appeared in 5 finals and the Amsterdam Admirals who finished with the best record this year.

Montreal had injury problems as star HB Corey Walker was out for the game, in came FB McKenzi Smith and Amsterdam started the game heavy favourites because of Montreals injuries and also having homefield advantage.

Montreal surprised everyone by moving the ball downfield on their first drive and scoring a touchdown when veteran FB Ricky Brown scored on a 5 yard run. After an Amsterdam fumble Montreal increased the lead to 10-0 as the Admirals appeared to be very nervous. With an injury to starting QB Joe Hamilton, backup BJ Symons came on and led his team downfield in the final few minutes of the first half and scored on a touchdown strike to WR Elijah Thurman. The halftime score was Montreal 10, Amsterdam 7.

Joe Hamilton came out to start the second half and looked rusty as he threw an interception on the Admirals first drive which led to another Montreal FG and now a 13-7 lead. Finally Amsterdam came back when Montreal fumbled the ball away and the Admirals moved downfield but had to settle for a short FG and now trailed 13-10 early in the 4Q.

Throughout the game Montreal struggled to run the ball, Amsterdam totally stuffed McKenzi Smith but by focusing on the run it made things easier for the passing attack. Veteran QB Danny Wuerrfel hit 11 of 12 passes and his short passing attack totally stopped the Admirals defense from making big plays. However later in the 4Q Wuerrfel was seriously injured and backup Dave Ragone had to come in.

Amsterdam had to get things moving, they outgained Montreal by a lot of yards and many first downs but just couldnt get into the endzone. A good drive late in the 4Q had to result in a punt as they were just out of FG range after driving to Montreals 38 yard line. Despite having 1st and 10 from the Montreal 42 yard line they gained -3 yards, 2 yards and then on 3rd down Hamilton threw a short pass for just 5 yards. Hamilton still appeared woozy from the first half hit which put him out of the game for a while. Finally the Admirals defense forced Montreal to punt, the Machine were lucky they werent caught for a safety, on 4th & 25 from their own 5 yard line they punted the ball and Amsterdam would start from their own 46 yard line with 1:44 left. Here came the comeback.

What comeback ? On first down Joe Hamilton threw a dangerous pass and LB Tim Johnson made a great play and put his name in the Montreal record books with a huge huge interception. Montreal ran out a lot of time and Amsterdam did have one more chance but just narrowly failed to get into FG range and the time ran out.

Despite being outgained 9 to 21 first downs and by nearly 150 yards Montreal made some huge plays on defense. Last year Danny Wuerrfel threw 2 ints in the 4Q to help give Scotland an FWL Bowl win, this time he didnt throw a pick, completed 11 of 12 passes and was named MVP just ahead of LB Tim Johnson. Johnson made an interception, had a sack and led his team jointly with 10 tackles but the panel gave the award to veteran Danny Wuerrfel who led his team to a surprise win but an amazing 4th FWL Bowl win, a record in the FWL.

Congratulations to David Harwood who won the FWL Bowl yet again with a great squad of young players and great veterans. Danny Wuerrfel won his 4th FWL Bowl and has led his team to an incredible 7 finals ! You had to feel sorry for Niki van den Berg but he had a great season and the Admirals would surely be back next year, he has a great team in Amsterdam and the players said after the game they would go one step further next year. Well done to Montreal, champions of the FWL.

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