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Panthers top Lions in an overtime thriller

Super Bowl next for fierce in-town rivals

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 11th, 2008 issue

Boxscore


By quarters
Lions 6 8 0 7 0 21
Panthers 7 7 7 0 6 27
Scoring
1st Qtr - Panthers: Dopita 1-yard run; Srp kick
Lions: Andres 60-yard pass from Navrátil; kick blocked
2nd Qtr - Panthers: Zvada 38-yard pass from Shrum; Srp kick
Lions: Gabriel 10-yard pass from Navrátil; 2-point conversion
3rd Qtr - Panthers: Dlouhý 2-yard run
4th Qtr - Lions: Halenkovský 2-yard pass from Navrátil; Tomaník kick
OT - Panthers: Shrum 8-yard run
Rushing
Lions: Sotola 13-31; Dundáček 3-25; Musil 2-25; Gabriel 5-20; Navrátil 2-10
Panthers: Shrum 14-83; Dlouhý 11-37; Víšek 11-23; Jantoš 5-22; Dopita 7-20
Passing
Lions: Navrátil 12-26, 216, 3 TD, 3 interceptions
Panthers: Shrum 5-20, 111, 1 TD, 2 interceptions; Lancaster 0-1, no interception
Receiving
Lions: Andres 4-122; Halenkovský 4-40; Dundáček 1-26; Musil 1-12; Gabriel 2-4
Panthers: Zvada 1-38; Wajtr 1-34; Lancaster 2-27; Hamal 1-12

They say it’s better to be lucky than good. But sometimes it’s best to be lucky and good.
This rule applied especially at the end of a bitter knockdown duel between the Lions and Panthers. Locked 21-21 at the end of regulation June 8, the Lions watched a potential overtime victory slip off the fingertips of sure-handed wide receiver Lukáš Halenkovský.
Overtime rules in the ČLAF give each team the opportunity to score from 25 yards out. The Panthers took over but made little headway on carries by Martin Dlouhý and quarterback Jake Shrum. On third down, Shrum was wrapped up on the line of scrimmage, flipping the ball desperately as he fell toward running back Stanislav Jantoš.
The ball bounded loose, toward the sideline. Jantoš, straining frantically, scooped it up just before it rolled out of play, eluded a tackler, gathered some momentum and raced for a first down.
After a 3-yard plunge by fullback Miroslav Dopita, Shrum faked to his fullback, tucked the ball in and sprinted untouched for an 8-yard score.
“They were overloading our trips side,” the Panthers quarterback said of the game winner. “It was bound to open up sometime.”
Before his climatic scamper, the Lions-Panthers season finale had been a brutal, back-and-forth struggle. Shrum and his squad jumped on top early when Jan Wajtr hauled in a 34-yard pass to set up a Dopita touchdown. But the Lions struck back, quarterback Libor Navrátil hitting Petr Andres for 60 yards and six points.
Each team managed to score once more before halftime. The Panthers pulled back on top following a grueling 12-play drive covering 53 yards, capped by Dlouhý’s dive from 2 yards out.
All afternoon the Panthers power game moved the ball, 3 or 4 tough yards at a time. But the Lions defense stiffened in the second half, twice slamming the door on Shrum’s troops in the red zone.
Navrátil, meanwhile, shook off early season inconsistency — and the blustery conditions — to connect on 12 of 26 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns. The last of these, a 2-yard toss to Halenkovský, knotted the score once again with about 2:30 remaining.
Jaroslav Matoušek’s sack helped stop the Panther’s next drive. And David Folejtar’s interception with just under a minute to play in regulation gave the Lions one final shot. But Navrátil’s pass sailed into the hands of Panthers safety Sam Lancaster.
Barring a Lions loss to Brno — unlikely — the in-town rivals should face each other once again in the Czech Super Bowl, June 27 in the new Slavia football stadium at Eden.
“There’s one team that has something to think about going into the Super Bowl,” Navrátil said of the Panthers, who received a scare to the team’s undefeated ČLAF season. “And that’s not us.”

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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