Falcons lose "Battle of the birds"

After failing to hold on to a fourth quarter lead against the Alphen Eagles at home four weeks ago, the Arnhem team repeated this last Sunday in Alphen. This time a 7-6 third quarter lead was given up to the reigning champion Eagles and the team were unable to overcome the deficit in the remainder of the game.

"Scrappy" was the general consensus about the game when it was all over. Lots of turnovers (2 for the Eagles, 5 for Arnhem) and, an inordinate amount of penalty yards on both sides lead to a low scoring game where neither offense could convince and where neither defense could really make their mark on the game.

It started out well enough, the Eagles orchestrated a nice opening drive and scored the first 6 points of the game. The Falcons answer didn't come immediately, but when it did it was a thing of beauty: AJ Hobbelink connected with Jermaine Ramsey on a short post and a missed tackle and 60 yards later the Falcons tied up the score. This time the Falcons used Joost Holtslag as placekicker and he added the extra point for a 7-6 Falcons lead.

Then, scrappiness set in, and this was the cause that this turned out to be the halftime score as well.
Immediately after halftime the Eagles set to work on a run dominated drive, something that's unusual for them but also proved to be very effective. At the end of it the Eagles ran the ball in for the touchdown and QB Richard Bouthoorn connected with his receiver for the two-point conversion to give Alphen a 14-7 lead.

The Falcons offense then got chance after chance and set up drive after drive, only to see them end in turnovers (either on downs, punts or penalties). With a little over two minutes to go the Arnhem offense once again gathered themselves and started a very promising drive and drove deep into Alphen territory until the gremlin that plagued them in their home-game against the Eagles reared up its ugly head again: a snap exchange was botched, the fumbled ball recovered by Alphen.

All that rested were kneel-downs for the Alphen Eagles to hold on to a very hard-fought victory. A victory that all but assures them of first place in the division and with that home field advantage for the playoffs.
The Arnhem Falcons most likely will travel to the Amsterdam Crusaders for their playoff game, something the team will get to do next week as well as their week 9 regular season game has them pitted against the 'big red' from Amsterdam.