The Abu Dhabi Wildcats and Dubai Stallions both enjoyed lopsided victories in the Emirates American Football League (EAFL) play-offs on Friday to set-up a repeat of last season’s Desert Bowl in a fortnight’s time.
Buoyed by the return of Vivaldi Tulysse from an ankle injury, the Wildcats tore into the Dubai Barracudas at Zayed Sports City en route to a 40-0 win.
Defending champions Wildcats kept it simple, rushing the ball almost exclusively and passing only twice in the whole game. It was an approach that paid dividends though as the capital side scored three touchdowns in the opening quarter, two of which were run in by Tulysse – the second from 75 yards.
Quarterback Amos Daniels and Andrew Williams added TDs in the second quarter as Ty Cobb’s attempts to get the Barracudas moving forward became more and more desperate.
Unsurprisingly, the Wildcats took their collective foot off the gas in the second half, with the score remaining at 33-0 until the end of the final quarter when Emirati Nader Almahri streaked into the end zone.
However, the Barracudas’ frustrations were all too clear to see as both Jay McPhail, for unsporting conduct, and Stefan Kirsten, for throwing a punch, were ejected in the final 30 minutes.
Tulysse finished the game with 162 yards from eight carries while the Wildcats recorded 301 yards as a team, with only 11 coming via passes.
“We’re going back to the final so it feels really good,” Tulysse said. “That was the best I’ve felt this season.”
Last night was the first time Tulysse had played since tweaking his ankle injury against the Barracudas three rounds ago.
Wildcats coach Charles Gillespie was therefore keen to wrap his star asset in cotton wool during the second half.
“We had to protect him a little bit because we didn’t want him to get injured ahead of the next game,” he said.
Earlier, the Stallions ran in seven touchdowns in their 47-7 defeat of Al Ain Desert Foxes. Former professional basketball player, Ali Al Hossona – who only took up the sport midway through last season – scored two TDs but it was quarterback Serb Andrej Tasic who was the architect of a dominant first-half.
The Serbian completed seven of eight passes for 181 yards, and threw for four TDs as the Stallions built a 28-0 lead before the end of the second quarter.
Tasic was relieved of QB duties in the secondhalf as Chris Wentzel and Marcus Morton were given some game time ahead of the Desert Bowl.
“It was too easy,” Tasic, who threw for a TD with just his second pass of the game, said. “Al Ain are a better team than this, they can do much better. Last season proved that.”
RESULTS
Abu Dhabi Wildcats 40-0 Dubai Barracudas
Dubai Stallions 47-7 Al Ain Desert Foxes
