Opening New Season! The Kfirim survive a thriller in a replay of last season's final, impressive victories for Modi'in and Haifa

The Kraft Family Youth League kicked off with a new and exciting season in three great games. The champion, the Jerusalem Kafirs survived a very late comeback by the Kiryat Ono Wolves and came away with the victory, the Modi'in Flames had no difficulty against Ramat Hasharon and the resurgent Haifa defeated the Gorillas.

Kfirim Jerusalem 22 –  Kiryat Ono Wolves 17

A close game dominated by excellent defenses gave us a not bad reproduction of last season's final, and despite the team from Jerusalem controlling the whole game, Kiryat Ono were very close to stealing the victory with a comeback from the movies and great minutes from their outstanding player Uzi Gillenberg. Gillenberg also broke the early tie deep in the second quarter with a 37-yard field goal kick, but on the ensuing drive last season's outstanding QB Mati Bedranesh connected with his favorite target of the game, and probably for the rest of the season, Ami Fried (he finished with 4 catches for 93 Yard) who ran away from the defense until the Jerusalemites' first TD of the season.

Menachem Sklar increased the lead right on the brink of halftime with a four-yard run, and the defenses returned to work in the third quarter with Dobi Sarazin on the host side leading the team in tackles and on the other side Benya Ravitz doing it for the wolves. The dam was broken in the fourth quarter when the visitors got back to a three-point margin with Rami Adler's QB sneak, but with two minutes to go the game looked locked and closed with Badranesh's run to the endzone.

Not if you ask Gillenberg, he took the kickoff after the touchdown, all the way for a quick score and an onside kick and also took over on the next play. Kiryat Ono made good progress with the ball but the clock was ticking and on fourth down and one yard when the game was on the line, the Kiryat Ono Wolves failed at KB Scenic and the Kaffirs escaped a loss already in the opening game of the season.

Ram Ramat Hasharon 0 – Lehavot Modi'in 42

Ramat Hasharon's young and renewed staff was no real opponent for Avitar HaCohen's apprentices, who from the opening kick attacked the host team and in the first period a pass from Nathaniel Aronoff to Matan Bowman for 50 yards opened the scoring in the game. An interception by Yakir Berger and a messy game by both teams led to TD number 2 in the air by Aronoff into the hands of Yair Makhlouf of the tight end.

After the onside kick, the connection between Aronoff and Bowman produced another quick TD, and on the threshold of the half the advantage had already become indelible with a pass to Haley HaRosh. Adi Raz, the Thunder's QB did his best to lead his team with good passes and showed his speed with Very nice runs achieved by the first skiers but was kidnapped at the end of the first half by Yehoshua Shmilovitz.

Aronoff was intercepted in the second half, but gave up his fourth TD of the game with his second to Harush, and the replacement KB Roi Melol ran for a TD near the end of the game and sealed the final score.

Mazkeret Batia Gorillas  0 – rams Haifa 28

The Elks came into the season with a solid squad and a lot of confidence and only strengthened it after a game in which they made it easy for them against the gorillas who gave a good fight and made several nice moves throughout the game but failed to stop the guests. Seba Medved, the Haifa KB, was of course the main executor of his team, but the first TD of the game came through the legs of Kalim Moglinitsky. Medved gave up three TDs, the last of which will enter the highlight of the game when he manages to take control of a high snap, manages to escape the head pass and finds Nebo Yadgar completely free in the endzone.

The Batia memorial defense was good throughout the game, when one player stood out above all, Amit Shemesh #47, who was everywhere on the field and finished with an extraordinary statistical streak as the leader in tackles (12), in addition to a sack, a tackle and a half for a loss of yards and two interceptions, the second impressive Especially when he collects and picks the ball in the air above everyone else.

Medved with a reasonable game of 9 of 21 for 137 yards, distributed the ball between several targets and also completed TDs to Avishi Daskel and Natai Fedida, with the latter also stopping the only real chance of a souvenir in the game and snatching the opponent's QB, Ohad Sheetrit, in the endzone .