The Kaiserslatuern Pikes kicked off their 2011 season with an easy 43-3 victory over the Hanau Hornets Sunday in Hanau.
The Pikes (1-0) took a quick lead on their first offensive play of the year as running back Eric Walton took a toss to the right and raced 67 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. The Pikes would not look back again. After a 49 yard field goal by Hanau, the Pikes struck again with a 35 yard touchdown strike from Denis Rohleder to Pascal Koch. This put Kaiserslautern up 14-3, heading into the half.
The second half was all K-Town as they exploded for 23 points in the third quarter. Walton added two more scoring runs from 47 and 62, Darius Carter scored from 10 yards out, and the Pikes defense added a safety.
Timo Schllimer would cap off the scoring with a 7 yard run to push the final score to 43-3. Head coach Jason Nowlin was extremely pleased with the play of his players, he said.
“I thought we came out with good energy, and played hard all game,” he said. “We’ve been practicing hard now for about four months to get ready for our season. I’m very happy for our men to see that hard work pay off.”
As good as the offense was, it was the defense that was the story. K-Town forced four Hanau fumbles, recovering two, and also got a pick courtesy of Cornerback Martin Molock.
“All winter I’ve talked to our guys about being aggressive, forced other teams into mistakes, and capitalize when they do. I think we did a great job of that today,” Nowlin said.
Kaiserslautern finished with 367 yards of total offense while only giving up 110. They also finished with 292 yards rushing led by Walton, who ended up with 249 yards on 10 attempts and three touchdowns.
Kaiserslautern will travel to Ravensburg April 30 to take on the Razorbacks. The following week will be a Kaiserslautern home opener (May 7) game against Freiburg.
(Courtesy of the Kaierslautern Pikes)