Devils record fourth shutout in six games in 59-0 victory over Rebels

The Wroclaw Devils won their fifth consecutive game of the 2012 season on Saturday afternoon, dominating the AZS Silesia Rebels in a comprehensive 59-0 whitewashing. The win allowed the Devils to keep pace with the only team to beat them so far, the Gdynia Seahawks, in the race for the top postseason seed and an inside track to NAC SuperFinal VII.

The score replicated Wroclaw's 59-0 victory over the Rebels in Katowice on March 31, a game which saw Niles Mittasch score five touchdowns. Mittasch was only somewhat quieter on Saturday, scoring three times to give him a staggering total of 20 touchdowns in Wroclaw's first six games. The MVP candidate has been the centerpiece of a Devils offense that has scored nearly 48 points a game so far this year.

The loss for the Rebels dropped them a game behind Kozly Poznan. Silesia is now in a last-place tie at 1-5 with the Dom-Bud Krakow Tigers, but even that fact does not put them out of contention for a playoff spot in the strange world of the Topliga. With four games remaining, they will likely need to defeat both the Tigers and Kozly later in the season to have any chance of wresting the final playoff spot from Poznan.

Mittasch had some help from his friends against the Rebels, as both Tomasz Tarczynski and Michal Rózycki ran the ball effectively for the guests. The Devils attack was steady, and Wroclaw led 17-0 after a quarter and 31-0 at halftime. Although Rózycki did not score, Tarczynski found the end zone twice, giving him a respectable total of five scores on the season.

The Devils also got solid play from quarterback Krzysztof Wydrowski, who is continuing his return to form after a back injury suffered early in the season, and Krzysztof Wis, who ran an interception back for a touchdown and who also kicked a 34-yard field goal and successfully converted all five of his PAT attempts. Wis split kicking duties with Alan Neary, who himself was successful on his three conversion tries.

The Rebels, who did not help their own cause by committing seven turnovers in the game, will need to improve to have any hope of reaching the postseason. Things do not get easier for them in their next game, however, as they will travel to Gdynia to face the Topliga's other 5-1 team, the Seahawks, on May 20. The Rebels will be rooting for the Devils a day before that game, when Wroclaw will host Kozly at the Olympic Stadium.