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By Pat Clifton
(Above, Dallas player is off to the races. Their speed outside proved to be too much for Shreveport.)
With a riveting 25-24 win over Shreveport, Dallas RFC not only clinched a playoff berth, but also moved up a spot in the West-South, from fourth to third. To do the latter, they needed a little help from the Austin Blacks, who beat the then third-place Austin Huns 58-13 Saturday. Therefore, the Huns and Dallas swap seeds, sending Austin to Aspen and Dallas to Glendale May 8th for the DI West crossovers.
It was all on the line for Dallas Saturday - if they lost, it would have created a log jam in the middle of the league table, and they, the Huns and Shreveport would have shared identical records, leaving playoff aspirations and destinations in the hands of tiebreakers. But as long as they took care of their own business and beat Shreveport, they knew they had a ticket to the playoffs waiting for them, they just didn‘t know where it would take them.
“We looked at it either way,” said Dallas president Jeff Kolberg. “If we won and went to Glendale or we won and went to Aspen, we looked at it as a real opportunity to play somebody good.” The key part of that equation was Dallas winning, but visiting Shreveport, with playoff hopes in tow, wasn’t going to make it easy.
Dallas attacked quickly, extremely quickly, scoring just 23 seconds into the contest. “We noticed something a little irregular on the return side,” said Jeff, “so (Matt Rawle) kicked it to the short side and Kelly Kolberg caught it on the fly and ran it and put it right under the pole.” Rawle nailed the coversion, putting the home team up 7-0.
Kelly, playing wing, asserted himself again shortly thereafter for Dallas’ second score, racing one in from beyond 50 meters, and with a failed conversion attempt, Dallas held an early 12-0 advantage. However, Shreveport would roar back, scoring two converted tries and nabbing a 14-12 halftime advantage.
Rawle opened the second half with two Dallas penalty kicks, giving them an 18-14 lead, but once again, Shreveport’s forwards responded, scoring a go-ahead try around the 70-minute mark. Shreveport missed the conversion, but led 19-18. That was until Dallas got the ball back in the hands of Kelly Kolberg for their final try, something Shreveport made a concerted effort to prevent after his two first-half scores.
“They really couldn’t handle Kelly. When he got the ball they had their hands full. Basically, after the second score in the first period, they pretty much did everything they could to not let him have the ball, and just try to shut him off because they couldn’t stop him,” said Jeff. “Last week against San Antonio, he put three on the board over 50 yards, too. He’s pretty hard to handle.”
Rawle nailed the conversion, which would prove to be priceless, putting Dallas up 25-19 with less than 10 minutes to play. The Huns would again answer back with a try, but they scored near the touch line and with no time left on the clock, leaving their playoff destiny on the leg of their drop-goaling kicker.
“They probably made a big mistake in not trying to take some more time and try to push the ball into the middle of the field and score then,” said Jeff. “I knew what they were going to do, and I knew they were going to put it over in the corner, and I knew if they did that we were going to win, because there was no way they were going to convert from the touch line.”
Shreveport’s kicker missed, and Dallas won by the narrowest of margins, 25-24. The May 8 West crossover matches are now set in stone. The pairings are listed below.
Aspen (North #1) vs. Austin Huns (South #4)
Glendale (North #2) vs. Dallas (South #3)
Houston (South #1) vs. Denver Highlanders (North #4)
Austin Blacks (South #2) vs. Kansas City Blues (North #3) |
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