After a little more than three quarters the Novi Sad Dukes had a safe lead of 18-7 and were on the verge of victory, but the Vukovi Belgrade managed to get to the end zone in the last few minutes twice, setting up one of the most interesting SELAF games ever for about a thousand people in the stands.

What they failed at for most of the game, the Vukovi were able to do in the last minutes of the game, scoring twice on Pavle Tasić’s great play, but by then it was too late; Dukes held the Vukovi out of the end zone on their two point attempt getting to quarterback Andrej Tasić and later recovering an onside kick for the 21-19 win.

In a very intense game, players from both teams delivered plenty of hard hits throughout the game – one of the players often on the grass was the home team’s quarterback Čaba Juhas, but he never left the field and helped his team to win the best possible way, by passing for two touchdowns to Rastko Jokić. First from inside the 10 yard line in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead following a blocked extra point attempt, and also in the third quarter with a 38 yard strike to get the lead back at 12-7. Their two point attempt was no good. The Vukovi got their first and only lead with a 5 yard touchdown run by rookie Uroš Milić.

Vladislav Petković recovered Andrej Tasić’s fumble with just over seven minutes to play and went all the way for his team’s first significant lead, but for the second time the extra point attempt was no good. Pavle Tasić started the comeback when he cought a pass a ran almost the length of the field to make it 18-13, and after Dukes score three, the same player gave the Vukovi a chance to tie the game with less than a minute with three amazing catches, the last one for a 5 yard touchdown. His older brother Andrej failed in converting for two, similar to the touchdown before, when the officials signaled he didn’t get in, even though Belgrade thought he did.

Still, it was a bad ending in a bad day for the Vukovi’s quarterback, who had an interception and several fumbles in one of his least successful games thus far.

In the middle of the third quarter Miloš Stanimirović and Dejan Rončević of the Vukovi and Marko Đanić of Dukes were ejected after a brawl.

“We expected a win, but we started passing with success too late. We practiced a lot of runs before the game, and we thought that would work better, but that didn’t happen”, said the game’s ill-fated hero Pavle Tasić.

Vladislav Petković, linebacker and kicker, admits that a defeat would’ve been hard for him after the lead and after a poor day in the kicking game. “A defeat would be really tough for me after that, although their players were able to get through too much on kicks. Defense and offense played a great game, though the defense let back a bit in the end.”

“Everyone said we were outsiders, but I think we even underperformed. I don’t know if this was the best game in Serbia so far, but it was certainly the most exciting. It’s visible that football in Serbia has made a lot of progress”, said Rastko Jokić, one of better on Dukes with two touchdown catches.