Derech Etz Chaim football is back!

After the heart breaking loss in the final moments of last season's Championship game DEC is ready to make another run. With many returning members of last years team everyone wants to go all the way this time.
Gilad Sulverman returns at Quarterback. Noam Silverman, Joseph Gomez, Levi Klein, Aron Hertz, Dovi Pollack, Jacob Kon, Ephraim Addato and Lior Goldstein are all returning from last year's team. New recruits include Doni Raskas and Gilad Bengio at cornerback. Raphy Kintzer and Zev Klein as wide receivers, and Sammy Blivaiss and Coby Yudkowsky on D-line.
The heart of the old team and the last remaining member of the 2009 Championship team, Pinchas Shwarzbaum is gone (though rumor has it he may be back in time for playoffs.)
The first game of the season is this coming week versus Jerry's Kids, a veteran team who should provide a challenge, particularly with star receiver Jacob Kon and D- lineman Levi Klein out for the week (Levi injured his ankle in a pre-season scrimmage and will be out for several weeks.)
We look forward to a great season once again for DEC. Please stay tuned to the web site www.decfootball.com to catch all the game reports and highlight reels.

Highlight Reel of 2011 Championship game.

Recap of Championship Game

In what will go down in AFI history as one of the most exciting Championship games Derech Etz Chaim was defeated by Big Blue in the final seconds on a “Hail Mary” pass that found a receiver.

The game began poorly for DEC with Big Blue receiving the kick-off and immediately driving down field. Missed flags led to a Big Blue touchdown and a 6-0 lead.

DEC offense could not get moving and turned the ball over on downs after a poorly thrown 4rth down pass and gave Big Blue the ball with great field position at the DEC 20. The DEC defense held and on 4rth down a Big Blue pass intended for Yona Mishan was picked off by Dovi Pollack and ran back for a touchdown. But in what would be a night of controversial calls the TD was called back. Big Blue still could not convert and DEC got the ball back. A long bomb to Jacob Kon is dropped in the end zone and the DEC offense cannot get it together with Gilad throwing an interception in the end zone. Gilad was under tremendous pressure all night with the Big Blue D line getting through on every play.

Big Blue went three and out as did DEC on their next drive, Big Blue finally got something going and on a long pass scored a TD and a crucial extra point to end the half with DEC down 0-13

Whatever was said and adjustments made at half time worked because Gilad and the DEC offense came out on fire. Going no huddle, a pass to Noam, another to Pinchas, two more passes to Sam Ash led to first down. Another to Sam then Noam then Sam again, set up a 4rth down TD pass to Pinchas Shwartzbaum. The entire drive of 7 plays took under 3 minutes to score.

Score Big Blue 13- DEC 6.

The DEC defense held and Big Blue went 3 and out and was forced to punt. DEC got the ball back and after two false start penalties brought the ball back to the DEC 5 Gilad went to work and on 3^rd and long hit Noam to bring the ball just short of a first down. A Big Blue offsides gives DEC the first down on the Big Blue 25.Two incomplete passes brings up 3^rd and long and Gilad hits Pinchas who takes it in for a TD. Again no extra point and the score is Big Blue 13 – DEC 12 with 13 ½ minutes left in the game.

Big Blue opens up its drive hitting a speedy receiver together with a DEC defensive breakdown and a controversial block gets to the end zone to score. Though a flag is thrown on the play for a block to the back, after a review the call is rescinded and Big Blue leads 19 – 12.

Gilad went to work again throwing long to Pinchas who brings the ball down to the DEC 20 another pass to Sam, another to Pinchas coupled with a holding call against the defense and that brings the ball down to the Big Blue 2 yd line. On 4rth down in a must score position Gilad falls while evading the oncoming defenders but recovers to hit Noam in the end zone for a DEC TD to bring the score to 19-18 with 5 minutes to play.

After Big Blue gets the first down on a long pass the DEC defense holds and DEC gets the ball back on their own 30 with 2 minutes to play. Gilad hits Gomez then Sam then Gomez for a 1rst down on the 10 . With 1:35 left DEC calls timeout with two downs to get the ball into the end zone.

On 4rth down Gilad throws to Noam who collides with the defender, but while catching the ball on the floor, launches the ball over the line for a TD

DEC has its first lead 24- 19 with less then a minute to play.

Big Blue’s drive stall and on 4rth and long just get the first down to stay alive, with 14 seconds left and no timeouts the Big Blue Quarterback launches a “Hail Mary “ to the end zone. Lior is there covering the intended receiver and Gavi is flying in with another Big Blue receiver who somehow in the middle of the pack comes up with the ball and Big Blue ruins DEC’s comeback and its dream of another title.

Gilad Silverman, Noam Silverman, Sam Ash and Pinchas Scwartzbaum played an outstanding second half . This game ends the Pinchas Shwartzbaum – Sam Ash era of DEC football and the newer talent will have to pick up where they left off.

If you wish to listen to the entire exciting game follow the link at www.israelsportsradio.com to The A.F.I. Flag Football Championship between DEC & Big Blue

DEC loses Championship to Big Blue on last minute TD

Derech Etz Chaim came back from a 12-0 halftime deficit to take the lead 24-18 with less then one minute to play but lost on a "Hail Mary" pass with 14 seconds left to give Big Blue the championship. A full game report and highlight reel coming soon.

Get Ready for the Championship

The excitement is building as Derech Etz Chaim gets ready for the Championship game. As we get ready we invite you to watch the highlights from the 2009 game .

DEC Football on the Radio

If you wish to hear the broadcast from last Motzei Shabbat's game against Lobos it will be re-broadcast tonight 6:00 PM Israel time at www.israelsportsradio.com .

Last night Rabbi Katz was interviewed on the AFI hour. That interview should be up on the radio site soon as well so check back.

The "Big Game" this week Holyland Bowl Derech Etz Chaim vs. Big Blue will be broadcast live at 8:20 Israel time. A rebroadcast will be available and we will keep you posted.

All of the above should be able to be found in the "listen again section of www.israelsportsradio.com

Highlights DEC vs Lobos Semi Final Game 2011

Getting Ready for the Big Game

DEC 2009 Championship Team

As DEC prepares for the Championship it is worthwhile to recall some recent DEC football history.

DEC is preparing to play in its second Holyland Bowl in three years, winning in 2009, and "only" making it to the final four in 2010. This years DEC team has only one player who played in that game two years ago and is made up mostly of first year Talmidim! In the last three years DEC's record is 40 wins and 3 losses, and is one of the most dominant teams in the AFI. Year after year the DEC system seems to not only attract some of the top athletes but prepares them to succeed like no other Yeshiva team has succeeded, and all this from a pool of only 40 students.

They face a worthy opponent in Big Blue. They have won more championships over the years then any other team, consisting of Israelis who have been playing together for many years. Last year, to the shock of many, they did not qualify for the top tier playoffs and they entered this year with some younger additions to bolster their team.

These two teams met earlier this year with DEC winning the first game and tying the second (for an overall win) but both teams are much improved since then.

It should be a great game.

DEC crushes Lobos to move on to the Championship

Derech Etz Chaim manhandled Lobos 40 - 6 to move on to the Holyland Bowl Championship next week against Big Blue.

Lobos, who knocked DEC out of the playoffs last year in the semi finals came into the game looking to do it again, but not this time. The game began with DEC going three and out and Lobos scoring on their first drive to lead 6-0 , that was Lobos last score of the game. Gilad Silverman marched the team down field spreading the passes around to Jacob Kon, Joseph Gomez, Pinchas Schwartzbaum, Sam Ash and TE Noam Silverman. DEC scored on their next two drives and the defense held Lobos to no gain, with the turning point coming on a Gavi Guterson interception that led to another score to give DEC the lead 20- 6 at the half. Lobos could not get anything going with interceptions by Dovi Pollack and Lior Goldstein and DEC kept rolling up the score. As the final minutes approached the fans went wild and DEC returns to the Championship game for the second time in three years.

Since losing in the intermediate round to Tov Pizza, DEC has been on a roll defeating GR Eagles, TJ, Joes Eagles (Torat Shraga) and now Lobos with the scores getting higher each game and the defense giving up less points every week.

Highlights will be coming soon and there will be several posts this week leading up to the championship game

We're going to the Ship' !

DEC destroys Lobos 50 - 6 . Derech Etz Chaim is going back to the Championship for the second time in 3 years and will play Big Blue next week for the title!
Game report and highlights coming soon

DEC destroys Joe's Eagles moves on to Final Four

Derech Etz Chaim completely controlled the game from beginning to end, to send Joe's Eagles (Torat Shraga) home 54- 12 to move on to the final four for the third year in a row.

On both ends the team played with intensity with Gilad hitting Pinchas, Sam Ash, Jacob, Gomez and Noam for touchdowns and Dovi Pollak and Lior Goldstein making interceptions to stop the only serious Joe's Eagles drives in the first half.

With the score 42 - 0 at the half the starters took a rest and Jake Moritz, Mendel Lazarous got some playing time.

Credit goes to Levi Klein, Ephraim Addato, Gavi Guterson and Ezra Isaacs, who played great defense from beginning to end to completely squash any hope for Joe's Eagles.

DEC now gets ready to play Lobos for the thrid year in a row and second straight semi final match .

Highlights coming soon.

The Playoff Picture

As the AFI and Derech Etz Chaim enter the “Elite Eight” lets update the overall playoff picture.

This week DEC takes on Joe’s Eagles, (Torat Shraga), the team with the second best record this year (following DEC) and the #1 seed in the playoff’s. But that is a bit misleading as they were a Friday team and played a very weak schedule. DEC is the favorite to win, but, it is playoffs and upsets happen.

Including DEC the top 6 teams are still in the playoff picture. The playoffs on the same side of the bracket as DEC pit last years champions, Lobos, vs. Klein Management. The winner will play the winner of the DEC - Joes’ Eagles game. Both Lobos and Klein are very strong teams and the outcome is far from certain. Lobos are still led by QB Yitz Weider who lost to DEC 2 years ago in the Holyland Bowl and beat DEC last year in the semi finals and went on to win it all. Klein is a team that has usually fallen short and was knocked out in the playoffs the last two years by DEC, but this year restocked with a number of the players from the Lobos team that lost to DEC two years ago. Klein is widely viewed as the most talented team in the league.

On the other side of the bracket the 4 teams remaining include three of the leagues strongest teams. Bitach take on Tov Pizza. Tov is without their Quarterback Micha Muschel who was injured three weeks ago in the DEC game and is out for the season. Tov Pizza is still strong but without that mishap they would be favorites to take their bracket. Big Blue takes on Jerry’s Kids and are the strong favorite to emerge and go on to the Holyland Bowl, though Bitach or Tov Pizza could pull off an upset.

Stay tuned for Saturday night to see who goes on to the final four.

DEC Beats TJ 31- 19 to advance in the playoffs

In the leagues most anticipated first round playoff match up, Derech Etz Chaim handily defeated the highly rated TJ (Tifferet Yerushalyim) team 31-19 and moves on to face Joes Eagles (Torat Shraga) in the playoff quarter finals.

The game began poorly for DEC with TJ scoring first. Gilad Silverman quickly got DEC back into the game with a long bomb to Jacob Kon to quickly bring the team down field and score. TJ leading 7-6 quickly scored as well on a long down field pass and it looked like it was going to be a difficult night for DEC at this point down 13-6.

The team drove down field scoring again to bring the score to 13-12. This time the defense held and TJ could not put up points getting the ball back to the DEC offense with 3 minutes left in the half. That is when the big turn around occurred.

DEC drove down field scoring just at the 1 minute warning to take their first lead 18-13 . TJ got the ball and on their first play from scrimmage, Dov Pollack picked off the pass giving DEC the ball with under a minute at the TJ 10 yard line. DEC quickly scored and looked to head into the half with a 24- 13 lead.

The TJ quarterback threw a long pass which was well defended by Lior Goldstein who tipped the ball, but the TJ receiver made a great effort and grabbed the ball to put TJ on the 5 yard line with seconds to go in the half. On the next play Lior intercepted the pass in the endzone and ran it all the way back for a touchdown as time expired. With the extra point DEC went into the half leading 31-13 having scored 19 points in the last minute of the first half!

The second half was all defense with TJ getting a meaningless touchdown late in the game and the game ended on an appropriate note with Ezra Isaacs intercepting the final TJ pass of the season.

Pinchas Shwartzbaum caught two TD's, Jacob Kon caught one and ran for one and Noam Silverman caught one for the DEC scores. Defense played incredibly well, Gavi Guterson made important stops and the D-line - Sam Ash, Levi Klein and Efraim Addato all kept the pressure on the TJ QB and made big stops.

Here are this weeks highlights:

DEC moves on to the Playoffs!

In its first elimination game Derech Etz Chaim took on a determined GR Eagles in a physical game and handily defeated them 40 – 18. The game began very one sided and ended one sided. DEC’s first three touchdowns, on two TD passes to Pinchas and a Jacob Kon interception went unanswered until late into the first half when GR Eagles scored twice to bring the halftime score to 19- 13. Derech Etz Chaim dominated the second half with a 30 yard TD run by Sam Ash, a TD to Jacob and a trick play pass from Jacob Kon to Joseph Gomez. All went unanswered as the DEC defense held the GR Eagles to one touchdown at the end of the game.

It was a powerful second half showing from DEC who had been struggling late in games the last several weeks and it was a great win entering the Holyland Bowl playoff tier for the 4rth year in a row. DEC will face a resurgent TJ in the first round of the playoffs next Sat. night. Last year TJ lost in the finals and the same team is back. Though they did not perform well in the regular season, they have played strong in the post season and will be a challenge for DEC in what will again be the game of the week at Kraft Stadium.

Highlights of this past weeks game:

Online All Star voting underway!

Online voting for the 2011 All Star Game is underway.Vote for the DEC nominees

The ballot is at www.afisports.weebly.com . The All Star Game is tentatively scheduled for Championship weekend, immediately preceding the Holyland Bowl.

The All Stars are chosen in a combined online poll and officials’ poll.

DEC loses a close one to Tov Pizza 21-19

DEC suffered its first loss of the season to Tov Pizza in the qualifying round and now must beat the GR Eagles next Sat. night to advance to the playoffs.
In an extremely close game decided by extra points, DEC with 2 chances in the last 5 minutes to win the game could not punch it in.
On the first play of the game Gilad threw a TD pass to Pinchas to go up 6-0 but Tov Pizza immediately scored on their first two drives to take the lead 14-6. DEC came back with another touchdown and had the ball with time to score at the end of the first half but could not get into the endzone ending the first half down 14-13.
In the seond half the DEC defense stood tough giving the offense plenty of opportunities to score but the DEC offense sputtered to lose 21-19
Next weeks game is now a must win to get back into the playoffs. Hopefully the team will take some lessons from this week, win next week, and get it back together for a strong playoff run now going into the final round as a 2 seed.

DEC crushes Neve Tziyon in Group Stage opener

In what is becoming an annual event, Derech Etz Chaim crushed Neve Tziyon 39 - 13 in their opening game of the group stage to once again move closer, to a playoff berth. Jacob Kon starred on the night with 3 TD receptions, one extra point, two interceptions as well as throwing a TD to Joseph Gomez to cap off the night.
Gilad threw 5 TD’s on the night, 3 to Jacob one to Noam and another to Pinchas. Levi Klein had a big night on D-line with some timely big sacks as well as applying pressure throughout the game.
Next week DEC moves on to play Tov Pizza, a team at the top of the league in a game the league is buzzing about. DEC is looking forward to Sam Ash returning to help with the playoff run.
Here are this weeks highlights:

DEC prepares for groups stage vs. Neve Tziyon

This Saturday night DEC will face Neve Tziyon in its first group stage game. The format was changed this year so that to qualify for the upper tier playoffs, a team needs to win 2 out of 3 group stage games.

DEC has faced and beaten Neve Tziyon each of the past two years on their way to the playoffs, creating a yearly rivalry and thrilling games that have gone in DEC's favor. You can see great highlight reels of the games at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRbY_Sn62Sc

and last years game at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxFGbz4uOI

Stay tuned for this weeks game.

DEC wins again but....

Derech Etz Chaim handily won their last two regular season games against All the Kings Men 13-0 and 27- 6 to finish with a team all time best record 12-1-1 and 25 points and the #1 rank in the league.

After the game team officials reversed the results and granted DEC a forfeit, the reasons why are still unclear but here is what we do know.

During the game the officials approached the DEC team captain questioning the eligibility of a DEC player. The team Captain, Pinchas Shwartzbaum told the official that the player in question, began the year playing two games for another team and was removed from their roster. He also told the official that the player in question also played a game on another team without being on that teams roster, but that DEC understood that being as he was not rostered they could add him to the DEC roster as they did. The referee allowed the games to continue without requiring DEC to remove the player.

Following the game the league decided to reverse the decision, declare the player ineligible and grant DEC two forfeits moving them down the standings to the 9^th seed.

Team reaction was obviously one of shock having been accused of deceiving the league when the captain felt he had been up front with the knowledge he possessed.

The feeling around the league is that the teams that are being punished are essentially those who now have to play DEC with the new seedings, essentially taking teams that succeeded in a achieving higher seedings and forcing them to face the highest ranked team in the league, DEC, while rewarding the lower seeds (Canaan Bar-Am) by now giving them a weaker opponent.

Derech Etz Chaim is presently getting ready for their first second round game where they will face Neve Tziyon, an opponent they have defeated each of the past two years on their way to the playoffs.

DEC vs. Big Blue

The highly anticipated match up of two of the best teams in the AFI did not disappoint, and DEC proved itself once again to be a serious contender to go all the way. The game was played to a packed Kraft Stadium, in spite of the cold, wet and windy weather conditions. The game did not stayed close and with clutch plays on both ends of the field.

Big Blue received the opening kick off and took advantage of DEC defensive confusion to score on the first play of the game, but that was to be the last time they would lead. Gilad Silverman took over for DEC and drove downfield and threw the first of 3 touchdown passes to Jacob Kon who played incredible despite being sick. The DEC defense then held Big Blue, who punting into the wind, gave Gilad great field position to set up his next TD. Pinchas caught the extra point and it was DEC 13- Big Blue 7 .

Big Blue drove down the field and on a play from the 2 yard line seemed to throw an interception to Lior Goldstein who took it all the way back. In what would be one of many controversial calls the officials called it back and Big Blue went on to score tying up the game 13-13.

Once again DEC drove down field with a TD pass to Jacob Kon capping the drive getting the extra point to bring the score to 20-13. Though the DEC defense held Big Blue to 3 and out the offense could not run out the clock and Big Blue had the ball for one final drive but threw an interception to Jacob to end the first game.

Game two began with DEC receiving and throwing an interception on the first play of the game. Big Blue could not turn it into points and both sides stalled with the game remaining scoreless through 15 minutes. Finally Gilad connected with Pinchas for a touchdown missing the extra point with Big Blue coming back and scoring on an incredible catch by Sammy Tover for a TD. With the extra point coming once again after officials called a controversial pass interference call Big Blue led 7-6 with under 3 minutes left . Gilad was able to find Gavi Guterson in the end zone for a TD and an great catch by Joseph Gomez made the score DEC 13- Big Blue 7 with under a minute remaining. Big Blue seem to stall but after DEC was called for a tackling penalty was able to get into the end zone with no time remaining. The final extra point to win it was intercepted by Dov Pollack to end the game tied 13-13.

Noam Silverman also playing sick had 5 incredible receptions, and Noam, Josh and Aron Hertz held the Big Blue line giving Gilad all the time he needed. Levi Klein and Efraim Adatto on D-line put pressure on and got key sacks to end drives.

With the win and only on week remaining in the regular season DEC is on track to finish in first place and their best record ever going into the group round.

Highlights: