Two of the last three undefeated teams will meet on Saturday, when the Novi Sad Dukes host the Vukovi Belgrade, in a game that could decide the top team of the South. Whoever wins will get their sixth win, four games before the end of the regular season, and it could be the deciding edge both teams are looking for.

Although both teams are undefeated in five games, there’s no denying that Belgrade’s streak has been simply imposing. If the Novi Sad Dukes want to beat the Vukovi and get to the top of the standings of the South conference, they’ll have to play the best game this season. But, they do have one thing going for them — they’re the last team that beat the Vukovi in a streak that has now stretched to 13 CEFL games.

In the opening week for the Vukovi in 2007, they lost a game in Novi Sad that went to the wire, with the Dukes eventually getting a win on a 2-point conversion stop. From there on, though, it’s been non-stop winning, including the league championship last year and a great start this season, where the hardest fought game was the 42-17 win over the Budapest Wolves.

“I’m not worried, every game is a different story”, says the Dukes’ president and running back Kosta Stojaković about the Vukovi’s highly succesfull run this year.

The Dukes haven’t been winning as big as the Vukovi — in fact, where the Vukovi have been winning with ease, the Dukes have even struggled. Look no further then their one-point win over Zagreb last Saturday, a team the Vukovi used for their most convincing win of the season.

One problem for the Dukes could be the schedule — the game on Saturday will be their 11th game in consecutive weeks, because they’re playing two leagues this year. For this reason, Saturday’s game will count for both the CEFL and the Serbian league, but more importantly, could this simply be too much?

“There’s no fatigue, nobody’s tired and honestly, we’re better off playing every week; it feels good to have a game every week”, says Stojaković. “So it’s not that, it’s more the lack of motivation and rest for our key players … In Zagreb, we didn’t have any motives, we went there just to finish the game as quickly as possible.”

Still, once it turned out to be a close game, they couldn’t pull away for another easy win. On the flip side, though, they have been winning, as simply as that. Against weaker teams or stronger teams, the outcome was always similar, and this weekend, they’re hoping for more of the same thing.