Losing three straight in Belgrade, and four overall, the Budapest Wolves found themselves down 14-0 in the first quarter, and all pointed to the same old outcome. In the end, they managed to make the home team work hard, but the Vukovi still won 30-20, for the fifth straight time.

The Vukovi yet again relied on Brandon McDowell to carry the offense, but in an unusual way. With Jordan Green hurt, and without the second and third backup out, the Vukovi went with McDowell at quarterback. Though he didn’t shine as in the previous game, especially not as a passer, he scored one on a run and passed for one more, giving his team, along with running back Uroš Milić and former junior receiver Saša Petaković, just enough of offense the edge out the Wolves.

The Vukovi scored on a convincing opening drive when Milić punched it in from 3 yards out and moments later, McDowell connected with Petaković for a 14 point lead. Unable to move the chains, the Wolves caught a break that carried them for almost four quarters, when another former junior Ákos Újfalusi ran the kickoff back for six.

The Wolves were hard to kill from that point on, with the Vukovi increasing the lead, only to see the opponent come right back. McDowell scored on a 20 yard run, but Péter Cseperkáló showed some of the moves that made him one of the best CEFL players two years ago, scoring on a 20 yard run of his own.

A strong defensive performance from both teams, led by the Vukovi’s Miloš Lišanin, who had another multi-sack performance, limited the teams to just one score each, both in the fourth quarter. Petaković gave his team what looked like the decisive score, running an end around for 77 yards, but Csanád Király and Krisztián Piros made some huge catches, with the former cutting the lead to 8 on a 26 yard pass from Attila Lendvai with five minutes to go.

The recurring theme showed up for the Wolves again on the extra point attempt — they were just short for the whole game, like when they turned the ball over on downs inside the Vukovi 15 with the score 21-14. With the score 28-20, the Vukovi blocked the extra point attempt, and Luka Strahinović ran it to the Wolves end zone for two points, and the final score.

“It was hard, but it wasn’t harder than what we expected. The defense played great. The offense … with all the injuries, they played well again. Great actually, considering they didn’t have a quarterback”, said Lišanin, who also forced two fumbles.