Engineers defend university championship

Engineers defend university championship

The KIT SC Engineers have achieved their first major goal of the season and were able to defend their title as German University Champions again at the adh-Open American Football in Hamburg (also known as Hochschulbowl).
adh open american football hamburg kit

In the tournament held last weekend, the team of head coach Felix Bleimund prevailed against the Hamburg Snipers, the Aachen Rockets and the Mannheim Knights and thus achieved their eighth victory (record!) at the Hochschulbowl.
Although they had traveled to Hamburg with the clear goal of winning the tournament again and could fall back on an already well-rehearsed team, the relief after the final victory against the Aachen Rockets was clearly visible to every single player, coach and responsible person. To get to this point, the team had to play its best football over two days and play highly concentrated games against three very good teams, who were by no means prepared to let the Engineers win the tournament without a fight.
The tournament started on Saturday in the tournament mode "everyone against everyone". After the team from Münster had cancelled at short notice, it was decided that all preliminary round matches would be played on Saturday and on Sunday, based on the results, a match for 3rd place as well as the final would be played.
In the first game, the Aachen Rockets managed to defeat the Hamburg Snipers 6-3 in a hard-fought match. After that, the Engineers had their first game against the Mannheim Knights.
KIT SC Engineers start against Mannheim

The team got off to a perfect start in the game, scoring points right on the first offensive play. Wide receiver Felix Batsch caught a long pass from quarterback Jonas Lohmann and carried it into the Mannheim end zone. Batsch was also responsible for the next points when he secured another long pass from Lohmann and carried it past his opponents into the end zone.
The Engineers' defense dominated their opponents throughout the entire tournament and did not allow Mannheim a single first down except for their last offensive series. In addition, the Green and White defensive line repeatedly managed to provoke mistakes from their counterparts and thus recover the ball early. The offense also continued to do its part in the first win, scoring once more before halftime when Jonas Lohmann carried the ball over the goalline himself from close range.
After the break, the team then increased the score with a field goal from back-up kicker Hannes Löffler and a touchdown pass from quarterback Felix Bleimund to tight end Niklas Gauly before Mannheim marched down the field on their final drive to cut the final score to 32-7.

Bad start against Hamburg

In their second game, the Engineers then got off to a less fortunate start, although the offense marched down the field very confidently against the HSU Snipers as well. Nevertheless, the Hamburg team was able to equalize the score after two touchdown passes from Jonas Lohmann to his receivers Felix Batsch and Thomas Thorn, or even take the lead with 14:13, because the Engineers missed one of their extra points. However, each of these touchdowns came on very long plays after lapses of concentration on the part of the Engineers, so that after these had been turned off, the Hamburg offense was hardly able to get going for the rest of the game.
Instead, the Engineers' defense consistently went along with the Snipers' very tough football, pushing the hosts to their limits, while the offense continued to play at a high tempo, pushing the score higher and higher.
First Jonas Lohmann found his receivers Felix Batsch and Giannis Savidis with short passes to the right side of the end zone before the score was 26-14 going into the break. Savidis stood out in a very positive way both on offense and in special teams, which was perhaps due to a special motivation boost, as last year an unsportsmanlike conduct by a Hamburg player had ended the tournament early for him.
In the second half, the team then reduced the tempo noticeably, but was still able to score twice through runs by Jan Löwer, who had once again arrived as the only "real" running back and was accordingly allowed to spend a lot of time on the field. The Hamburg offense did its best, but could not do anything against the outstanding Engineers defense, so that the game ended with 40:14.
With handbrake on against Aachen

As the Aachen Rockets had already beaten the Mannheim Knights 38-6, the Engineers' last game of the preliminary round against Aachen was already a preview of the final to be played the next day, which is why both teams played with the handbrake on a bit, gave their reserve players some playing time and, above all, tried to analyze their opponents' game.
The Engineers got off to the worst possible start in the game, as Felix Bleimund's pass was intercepted by an Aachen defender and carried back into the end zone on the first offensive series of the game. The subsequent successful two-point conversion gave the Rockets an early 8-0 lead.
However, the Engineers managed to cut the deficit to 8:6 before the break when Thomas Thorn again caught a pass from Jonas Lohmann and carried it into the end zone.
The second half was then mainly characterized by the two very disciplined defensive lines, which did not allow any more points, so that the game also ended with 8:6.
In the last game of the preliminary round as well as in the game for third place, which was played on Sunday before the final, the Hamburg Snipers and the Mannheim Knights faced each other and both times the host was able to win the game. The very young and freshly built Mannheim team showed a very courageous performance in both games and lost in the preliminary round only narrowly with 6:7, then had to admit defeat in the game for third place but clearly with 33:7 the clearly more experienced Snipers team. The only touchdown scored by the Knights in this game was a fumble recovery by linebacker Falco Böllhoff, who plays for the Engineers in the league.

Bad start to the final

The final against the Aachen Rockets started for the Engineers offense again with a total failure. After a failed handoff, the ball landed in the hands of an Aachen defender, who couldn't be stopped on his way into the end zone. The subsequent two-point conversion was stopped a few centimeters from the goal line, giving the Rockets a 6-0 lead.
In the following period, the Engineers' offense got into the game better and marched down the field very successfully a few times. After receiver Hannes Löffler carried a short pass from Jonas Lohmann to just outside the end zone, it was tight end Jonathan Gürtler who caught a pass over the middle to even the score.
The successful offensive series had a bitter aftertaste, however, as offensive guard Friedemann Nonnenmacher suffered a serious knee injury and will be out indefinitely.
The Rockets offense continued to fight hard but could not find any gaps in the Engineers defense, whose offense in turn was able to score once more before the break after several unsuccessful drives. Once again, quarterback Jonas Lohmann took the leather into his own hands and carried it down the right side past all opponents into the end zone.

In the second half, the Engineers offense, with the 14-6 lead behind them, then missed several times to decide the game after long offensive series, as Jonas Lohmann set two field goals from promising distances next to the goal posts. However, as the defense continued to allow hardly any space gain for Aachen, Lohmann got a third chance to decide the game, which he did not miss this time. His field goal to make it 17-6 shortly before the end of the game ended all hopes of the Rockets to still turn the game around and was thus the starting signal for the Engineers' victory celebration.
The victory was something very special for Carmen Mayer and Lena Salfenmoser, both soccer players at KIT SC, who had traveled to Hamburg with the team and also spent some time on the field. The two are the first women ever to win the University Bowl.
The KIT SC Engineers would like to thank all teams, organizers, fans and everyone who made sure that the Hochschulbowl was once again a weekend full of high class football, great atmosphere and lots of fun for all participants.
And of course a very special thanks goes to the players of the Mannheim Knights, who created a great atmosphere for Engineers throughout the entire final and even outdid the cheerleaders of the Hamburg Snipers at times with their chants, acrobatics and enthusiasm.