Derech Etz Chaim moves on to the Quarter Finals

Derech Etz Chaim handily defeated Jerry's Kids (Beis) 32-7 in the opening round of the AFI Holyland Bowl playoffs to set up this weeks rematch against Bagelsberg - formerly known as Flying Pizzas.
Last year DEC met Flying Pizzas in the quarter final and were winning with 3 minutes left in the game. The defense made a great stand and the officials, over the vociferous objections of DEC miscounted the downs to grant Flying Pizzas a 5th down and DEC was knocked out of the playoffs.
One year later Flying Pizzas now called Bagelsberg is facing a new DEC team in the same round of the playoffs. Bagelsberg lost a game in the interim round and came in to the playoffs as a lower seed which set up the meeting, but Bagelsberg handed DEC is worst regular season loss earlier in the regular season. This should be an exciting game with DEC wanting to avenge last years 5th down.
Ben Spear has put together creative highlights of last weeks game against Jerry's kids. Enjoy!:

DEC Crushes Lobos 46 -0

Nobody expected it to be this easy. Last years champions Lobos, newly invigorated with QB Micha Muschal have always had close games with DEC. Going back 5 years when DEC stunned Lobos in the championship game, these two teams have met for some of the most exciting games in the AFI with both teams winning and losing in this great rivalry. This game was suppose to be close but DEC came out from the beginning and never stopped and the DEC defense smothered the Lobos for a 46-0 victory. Ben Barel had 3 interceptions and Dani Raskas capped the game with a final pick 6. Gilad Silverman threw to Dani Eastman, Daniel Macks and Raphy Kintzer for TD's and Daniel Romero ran in a short pass for a TD as well.
DEC now goes into the top tier playoffs for the 6th year running as the number 2 seed and has a bye this coming weekend
Highlights by Ben Spear

DEC defeats LA Nutrition to move on in Intermediate Stage Play

Derech Etz Chaim had to make a tremendous come back on a rainy cold night to defeat LA Nutrition 27-21 and move on in the intermediate stage playoffs.
Kraft Stadium has probably never had worst field conditions. With the rain pounding and the drainage system not working one side of the field was ankle deep in water from the back of the end zone to the 30 yard line. The difficult conditions took away much of DEC's natural advantage over the weaker team. LA Nutrition is the same team that gave DEC trouble last year in the opening week and with DEC receivers dropping the slippery ball and the defense missing flags the game did not look good as DEC went into half time down by a touchdown.
The game began with LA Nutrition quickly scoring and a DEC touchdown off a long Ben Barel run called back by our favorite ref (there is your shout out). It did not go much better until late in the second half when the defense stepped up. Doni Raskas made a clutch interception in the end zone and Gilad Silverman connected with Dani Eastman, Ari Silberstein and Daniel Macks to take the lead finally with 2.5 minutes left in the game. The defense held and DEC was able to breath and take a knee to end the game.
Hats off to Avi Aryeh, Sammy Tover and crew for giving DEC a difficult time with good play. They should still be able to make the final 16 with two victories in their coming games.
Next week DEC faces defending champions Lobos in a rematch of week one. It should be the annual excitement that occurs every year between these two teams.
Due the to rain and there is no highlight video this week.

Highlights from last weeks game

This Saturday night DEC faces LA Nutrition in the first game of the intermediate stage. As the #2 seed DEC faces the 31 seed, a team it faced last year in the same game. In the intermediate round two wins gets you into the round o 16 top tier Holyland Bowl playoffs where DEC has been for the last 6 years.

Here are the highlights from last weeks thumping of Toras Shraga:
Thanks again to Ben Spear productions: