TAFT Titans (U17) back on track

On a beautiful, sunny summer evening, the TAFT Titans hosted the defending champions, the Porvoo Butchers. Porvoo was coming off a huge win in their season opener vs. the Helsinki Wolverines and the Titans were coming off a defeat to those same Wolverines. A loss here would really put Titans in bad shape as only the top two teams will go to the Finals this year.

The Titans' defense started out strong, forcing punt after punt by the Butchers. In between the punts, Otto Laakkonen would get an interception to stop a Butchers drive. The Titans moved the ball well but penalties and bad snaps would stall their drives. Finally, the Titans put together a TD drive as QB Joona Collier would lead his team down the field. Receptions by Wilhelm Stigzelius and Laakkonen would take the ball inside the ten, where RB Leevi Karjalainen would pound it inside the two and Collier would take it himself for the score. Laakkonen's extra point would take the Titans into halftime with an 8-0 lead.

The second half was more of the same for the Titans defense as Viljo Lempinen, Valtteri Forsman and Jere Salejärvi would help to keep the Butchers to 104 yards on the day. The Titans would score twice in the second half as Collier would run in his second score and later find Laakkonen in the end zone on a 15-yard pass. They would lead 20-0 with 5 minutes left in the game.

As the champions they are, the Butchers would not go down without a fight and put together their best drive of the day to cut the lead to 20-8 with a few minutes left. The Titans would recover the onside kick and essentially run out the clock for the much-needed victory. The Titans would like to thank the Butchers for a good game. It is always a pleasure and a challenge to play them.

The TAFT coaches are mostly pleased with the performance. A win over a solid, well-coached team is always a positive, and yet there is much for the Titans to improve upon before their next game. That game will be on August 7, vs the Roosters, at Tali field.

The coaches would also like to thank the parents and volunteers who do so much behind the scenes to make this all work!

Mark Collier, Head Coach

Photos by Laura Helminen to be found here