Sofia Bears 28:12 Golden Bears Bor

Victory! The Bears are at the final! After a real thriller at the stadium in Kraljevo, the symbolic hosts won a deserved victory

For another match, the Bears had to play in Serbia, as Golden Bears did not want to come to Sofia, although the Bulgarian team has so far visited Bor 3 times. In American football, the words "honor" and "respect" are very important, every team and player must respect their opponent and when they do not and use all techniques only to win by trampling on these 2 words... they cannot earn respect on the field and will deservedly lose.

So it happened under the heavy sun and 30 degree heat in Kraljevo. The match started equally with several exchanges of the ball. The Bulgarians played well on the ground due to their faster players and varied gameplay. The passing game, however, never got going in the first half. Still, the Bulgarians opened the scoring after a few runs and a QB sneak for the last yard, followed by an extra point.

The Bears' strong defense did not allow the Golden Bears to score in the first half, despite the opposing team's good play and passes.

The fact that they could not decide the game in the first half played a bad joke on the Bears. With the first play of the second half, with their Kick Return, the Serbs were able to get back into the game and scored a TD while the Bears were caught napping. The blocked extra point, however, was very important for the Bears further in the game.

Again there was an exchange of the ball and although the Bears literally "crushed" their rival on the ground and made nearly 70 yard drive, thanks to the running backs Atanas Atanasov, Alexander Mitsov and Alexander Kenanov still failed to reach a second touchdown. This benefited the team of Golden Bears, which with several violations and penalties for the Bulgarians and several good passes, reached a touchdown and for the first time took the lead. Again, there was no extra point, and the match "heated" to the point where a Golden Bears player hit a referee and was sent off. At the most decisive moment, the bears gritted their teeth and did not succumb to tension. The Bears played very strong in  defense and gave no more chances to the opponent to do more. After great ground plays, the offense exploded and scored a very important touchdown that put the Bears ahead by 9 points thanks to the extra points.

Golden Bears threw themselves into the last assault, but again the Bulgarian defense was merciless and literally tore the first line of the Golden Bears and sacked their quarterback, which led to intercepted passes. One of them came from Radoslav Tashev: reacting brilliantly from outside linebacker, he intercepted a pass and scored an important TD.

Todor Stamenov that day was merciless in the extra points (4 of 4) and scored the last nail in the coffin of the despondent Serbs, scoring with a great corner pass by Nikolay Georgiev.

Thus Bulgarians are on the verge of a perfect season. According to the rules, the 2 teams that are in the final qualify for promotion next year to the second league. The Bears still don't know who their opponent will be in the final on July 24. But they can congratulate themselves on a wonderful season so far.

Huge thanks to our sponsor BRITOS, thanks to which we managed to go the hard way and get to the much desired promotion. We also thank all our fans who support us even remotely. #noexcuses

Result:

Sofia Bears 28:12 Golden Bears Bor

First half:

Nikolay Georgiev TD (Todor Stamenov PAT) (7:0)

Second half:

Bor TD (7:6)
Bor TD (7:12)
Radoslav Tashev TD (Todor Stamenov PAT) (14:12)
Atanas Atanasov TD (Todor Stamenov PAT) (21:12)
Todor Stamenov TD (Todor Stamenov PAT) (28:12)