Derech Etz Chaim Secures the #2 Seed While Crushing Torat Shraga

In the last week of the AFI regular season Derech Etz Chaim manhandled AFAC - Torat Shraga (A team) 27-8 32-6 to capture the #2 seed going into playoff qualifying round.
After a terrible start with Doni Raskas fumbling the kick off return on the one yard line leading to a safety and a 2-0 Torat Shraga lead. That was the last time they would lead as the DEC defense held the entire night only allowing two TD's with three interceptions. The DEC offense led by new father Gilad Silverman was precise marching down field time and again with Gilad hitting both Doni Eastman and Rafi Kintzer with long bomb touchdowns to cap the games. Daniel Macks had several receptions and even Gilad did when Doni Eastman took over at QB.
The game was a great way to finish the regular season. The next round DEC needs to win 2 out of 3 games to advance to the upper tier, Holyland Bowl playoffs. This coming week they face the same team they did last year int he first round (different name same players) .
Highlights should be up later this week (and with 49 points there are allot of them!)Stay tuned

DEC Splits with Big Blue

Last Saturday night Derech Etz Chaim took on the number one ranked Big Blue and came away with a split.
The first game started poorly for DEC with the opening kick off returned by Big Blue for a touchdown. From that point on the DEC defense held Big Blue until the very end of the game. DEC marched down field and was in the red zone on their first drive when QB Gilad Silverman threw an interception on a mix up on the receiver’s route. Big blue got the ball but was forced to punt and DEC came right back scoring on a great catch by TE Ari Silberstein that tied up the score 6-6 .
Big Blue could not get anything going and it came down to DEC with the ball in the final minutes. The DEC offense stalled on the 40 and decided to go for the win on a long pass with a minute left. It failed and Big blue with good field position was able to score to take the first game 13-6.
In game two once again DEC controlled the ball driving down on every possession to score two touchdowns while holding Big Blue to one score. The big play of the game came on the Big Blue extra point try with Ben Barel intercepting the ball in the end zone and out ran the entire Big Blue team to take it back for the score.
With the DEC defense holding Big Blue, DEC got the ball back with the ability to run out the clock but Dani Eastman stepped out of bounds on a run to give Big Blue the ball back with 40 seconds to go. The DEC defense held and the final score was DEC 14 Big Blue 6
Highlights this week are once again from Ben Spear productions (warning – the subtitles with the scores are incorrect)

Mazal Tov

Mazal Tov to Gilad Silverman, long time quarterback of the DEC football team on the birth of a baby boy! He and his wife Avital should be Zoche to raise him to Torah, Chuppah and Maasim Tovim and to bring him into the Bris of Avraham Avinu in its proper time.

DEC splits with Dhani's Bowties

Derech Etz Chaim suffered its first loss of the season as Dhani's Bowties played 5 men in coverage to thwart DEC's potent passing game. In game #1 QB Gilad Silverman could not solve their defensive coverage and DEC lost 7 - 12.
In the second game the offense continued to have trouble until Dani Eastman threw a TD to Daniel Macks to tie the game 7-7. The DEC defense failed to stop the Dhanis drive and they were on the verge of scoring when Dani Eastman came through again with an interception in the endzone , running it back he lateraled to Dani Raskas who ran the length of the field for the game winning TD.
Here are the highlights (thanks again to Ben Spear productions)