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: