In front of a large crowd of the nation’s capital faithful, the Silesia Miners used big plays on special teams to overcome a slow first half performance to defeat the determined Wroclaw Crew team 18-7 claiming the Polish Bowl IV in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday, October 17.

 

The Miner’s only first half points came from a blocked punt that they returned for a touchdown.  Despite the Miners turnovers and lack of offensive productivity, their defense was outstanding and the young team went into half only down 7-6. 

 

Silesia Miners Artur Loncierz proved to be the game changer that the Miners needed to push ahead of the defending champions. In the third quarter, the explosive running back took a kickoff return at his own 20 yard-line, he started right and cut back left as a convoy of blockers escorted him for an 80-yard return into the end zone.  He also made several big plays in the defensive backfield breaking up long Wroclaw pass attempts.

 

The Miners came into the finals with the mindset of redemption of the 2007 championship in which the Wroclaw Crew defeated Silesia.

Silesia's defense gave the Wroclaw Crew trouble all afternoon and never really go into an offensive rhythm. The impressive defensive performances of the Miners kept this year's PLFA MVP running back Jakub Plaxzek bottled up all afternoon when he usually is know to wreak havoc in the open field. 

 

The Crew’s only touchdown of the game came in the second quarter as quarterback Rafal Lysiak lobbed a perfect pass to Piotr Nawrot near the sideline of the two-yard line.  

 

The Miners continued to pound away at the Crew in the second half and finally scored on offense with a two-yard run by Grzegorz Suder capping a long drive in the third quarter and was named the game MVP.  Silesia was able to eat up the clock with the running game in the second half and their suffocating defense kept the defending champions scoreless for the remainder of the game.

 

The Silesia Miners played the most consistent and balanced football of any team in the Polish American Football League this season and was deserving of the Polish Bowl IV title. Two years ago they surprised everyone by making it to the title game in their first season in the league.

 

This year no one can deny that the Miners are a team worthy of being called Poland’s champions and IFAF.org October Team of the Month.