Quarterback Howard Bouldin hit Sidney Oliver on a 44-yard pass play to start the Vikings first drive and running back Nicolay Aslasken finished it off as he rumbled in from four yards out to give the Vikings a 6-0. The PAT was good from kick Siggen Tveiteras.
Oslo's defense started off just as hot led by a big hit on third down by LB Aarno Sjöblom and forced the Firebats to punt immediately. The second offensive drive for the Vikings lasted only for a couple of plays as Howard Bouldin connected with WR Tuomas on a beautiful throw and catch. Siggen Tveiteras added his second PAT to make the score 14-0.
The Vikings defense shut down Valencia again and forced another punt. A mix of run and pass highlighted the third drive which ended with Bouldin throwing his second touchdown pass, this time to Deonte Morris. After a Tveiteras PAT, the score was 21-0 in favor of the Oslo Vikings with a minute to play in the first quarter.
The second quarter was marred by penalties and with
the game in control, the Vikings offense became complacent and sluggish. The Firebats advanced deep into Vikings territory on a broken play. However a sack by LB Santtu Äyräväinen and then an interception by Oslo DB Lorenzo Proctor ended any hope of Valencia scoring in the first half. The total offense for the Vikings at the break is 260 with 189 through the air and another 71 on the ground. The Firebats managed only 55 yards of total offense and 3 first downs.
Much like the opening of the game the Vikings come out firing, Santtu Äyräväinen registers his third sack of the game and Valencia is unsuccessful on a fourth down attempt to give Oslo's offense good field position to work with on the first drive of the second half. Howard Bouldin pairs up with Deonte Morris two times with a 17-yard throw and catch for the score. Tveiteras boots another PAT to make the game 28-0 to Oslo.
The Vikings defense forces another three-and-out, but a great punt from the Firebats puts the ball inside the Vikings own 5-yardline. Valencia gets a safety on a bad-snap in which Bouldin passes to Aslasken who is taken down in the endzone giving the Firebats their first score and the game is now 28-2. The Firebats score their only touchdown of the game on a 32-yard pass to cut the score to 28-9. On the following
drive, the Vikings offense immediately answers with a long run by Nicolay Aslasken and another touchdown pass combo from Bouldin to Morris. After the PAT, Oslo is up 35-9.
With time still left in the third quarter, Coach Val Gunn decides to start working in more players as many starters are on the sidelines for the remainder of the game. Linebacker Herman Gamnes takes an errant pitch from the Firebats QB and recovers the fumble to give the Vikings offense again good field position as the third quarter comes to a close. DB Jaquon Morrison hauls in an interception and late in the game young QB Memhet Sezer connects with veteran WR David Rodsand for a nice 20-yard pass play. The Vikings add a 34-yard FG from Tveiteras to cap off the scoring 38-9. Oslo finishes the game with 513 yards of total offense, 335 passing and 178 rushing. On defense the Vikings limited Valencia to only 28 yards rushing, 133 passing for a total of 161 yards and also forced 3 turnovers in the game.
In the post-game press conference Viking's head coach Val Gunn touched on several points.
"It was a nice win for us. I was a bit scared that the weather might be a factor with all the wind on Friday afternoon, but it ended up being just about perfect conditions for the game. We started out on fire, scoring 21 points and then went on a bit of cruise control in the second quarter. We picked it back up in the second half, which was good to see. When you manage over 500 yards of offense things are usually going to go your way. Now we have to cut down on our penalties and play all 48 minutes if we want to win against Coventry. We were in a similar situation last year after beating the Berlin Adler down in Germany. But we let Amsterdam come in and get
away with victory and had to watch Berlin advance in the EFAF Cup, so we do not want to see a repeat. If we can step it up even more against the Coventry Jets, then I believe we can make it out of group play and move on to face the Swarco Raiders in the EFL quarterfinals.”
Defensive Coordinator Brian Cain also answered some questions.
Coach Cain, how did the defense play in the game?
"Overall, I am very pleased with how the defense played. We blitzed well, tackled well, ran to the ball well and covered well. I thought we were night and day better compared to the Kronberg game. We made some mistakes but those are entirely correctable over the next week.”
Your linebackers were all over the field making tackles and getting pressure on the QB.
“I thought Santtu, Kalle, and Aarno showed why they are the best linebackers in Finland and a strong asset to this team. They made play after play which was a big improvement from training camp.”
What were some of the negatives for you?
"We have to clean up the stupid penalties for Coventry. 2 or 3 fifteen yard penalties will get you beat against better teams."
Anyone off of the radar who stepped up for you today?
“Emre Yilmaz was a pleasant surprise. He stepped in, especially after Christoffer Nielsen got sick, and clogged up the middle."
Did you accomplish some of your goals for the game?
"Lorenzo Procter had a huge interception for us. We gave up a long pass play, and two plays later he saves us with that pick. JQ had a nice interception, and Herman Gamnes had a fumble for our 3 turnovers, which was our goal."
SCORING SUMMARY
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Oslo Vikings................ 21 0 14 3 - 38
Valencia Firebats........ 0 0 2 7 - 9
1st Quarter OSL – N. Aslasken 4-yard run (S. Tveiteras PAT good)
1st Quarter OSL – T. Kivisaari 31-yard pass from H. Bouldin (S. Tveiteras PAT good)
1st Quarter OSL – D. Morris 12-yard pass from H. Bouldin (S. Tveiteras PAT good)
3rd Quarter OSL – D. Morris 17-yard pass from H. Bouldin (S. Tveiteras PAT good)
3rd Quarter VAL – Safety on N. Aslasken
3rd Quarter VAL – G. Falomir 32-yard pass from Ma. Holbrook (Firebats PAT good)
3rd Quarter OSL – D. Morris 21-yard pass from H. Bouldin (S. Tveiteras PAT good)
4th Quarter OSL – S. Tveiteras 34-yard field goal
TEAM STATISTICS
VIKINGS FIREBATS
FIRST DOWNS................ 17 8
Rushing................. 6 3
Passing.................. 9 3
Penalty.................. 2 2
RUSHING YARDS........... 178 28
Attempts............... 24 25
AVG per rush........ 7.4 1.1
PASSING YARDS............ 335 133
Comp-Att-Int........ 19-37-2 9-22-1
AVG per ATT........ 9.1 6.0
TOTAL OFFENSE........... 513 161
Total plays............ 61 47
AVG per play........ 8.4 3.4
FUMBLES: # – Lost........ 2-0 2-1
PENALTIES: # – Yards... 13-140 6-62
PUNTS – AVG................. 1-44 4-42.5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Oslo Vikings
Rushing # Yards TD LG AVG
------------------------------------------------------
N. Aslasken 16 154 1 35 9.6
S. Oliver 4 24 0 8 6.0
H. Bouldin 4 9 0 6 4.5
Receiving # Yards TD LG AVG
------------------------------------------------------
D. Morris 5 108 2 33 21.6
S. Oliver 3 71 0 44 23.6
T. Kivisaari 2 58 1 41 29.0
D. Rodsand 3 31 0 20 10.3
J. Morrison 2 29 0 16 14.5
N. Aslasken 4 38 0 27 9.5
Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
---------------------------------------------------------
H. Bouldin 18 – 32 – 1 315 4 44 1
M. Sezer 1 - 5 - 1 20 0 20 0
Defense Solo-Ast-Tot FF-FR Int Sacks
(Top players only)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Aarno Sjöblom 9 – 6 – 12.0 0 – 0 0 0
Santtu Äyräväinen 6 – 6 – 9.0 1 – 0 0 3
Kalle Dasilva 4 - 5 – 6.5 0 – 0 0 0
Christian Laupsa 2 – 5 – 4.5 0 – 0 0 0
Hans E. Sjetnan 3 – 3 – 4.5 0 – 0 0 0
Christian Paulsboe 1 – 6 – 4.0 0 – 0 0 0
Herman Gamnes 2 – 2 – 3.0 1 – 1 0 0
Jaquon Morrison 1 – 2 – 2.0 0 – 0 1 0
Lorenzo Proctor 1 – 1 -- 1.5 0 – 0 1 0