Thirty-five games down, six left to go.

And if the previous four months were any indication, we are in for a hell of a ride in the playoffs.

The curtains closed on the Kraft Family IFL regular season with a pair of nail-biting contests that had vastly different implications. In the weekend opener on March 4 from the capital, the Papagaio Jerusalem Kings jumped out to a 10-0 lead and withstood some fourth-quarter Aryeh Bauman heroics to pull out the 18-12 victory and snatch second place from their city brethren at the time that matters most.

On Saturday, March 6 night in the South, the host Beersheva Black Swarm became the first team in league history to record a winless season, falling to 0-10 to wrap up their inaugural campaign with a courageous 20-14 defeat at the hands of the Dancing Camel Modi’in Pioneers.

While the Black Swarm opened the scoring with the only touchdown of the first frame to give the energetic home crowd reason to believe that their boys would finally crack the victory column, ultimately Beersheva couldn’t overcome a pair of Tal Brown interceptions and a couple of Yotam Kushnir touchdowns, the second of which stuck the hosts in a two-score hole that proved just a bit too deep to dig out of.

Koren Cohen threw two 13-yard scores to Mitch Birtner in addition to his untimely picks and the Swarm outgained an opponent for just the second time all year. Certainly the signs of progress were self evident in every single snap compared to some of the early-season debacles, however the plight for a maiden victory will have to wait another seven months as Beersheva is now relegated to watching the playoffs from the sidelines.

The Pioneers (4-6), who were successful in a second consecutive match and enter the postseason on a high note, notched their second 20-14 conquest of the expansion Swarm to fittingly bookend their opening-night W and now have less than a week to prepare for a first-round contest this Friday against the Lions, who were thrashed 26-2 by Dancing Camel a mere fortnight ago.

That loss for Big Blue was sandwiched by a pair of six-point setbacks to the Kings that saw the Lions plummet from a top perch in the standings at 6-1 to their final position as the No. 3 seed, earning them a rematch with Modi’in for a spot in the semis.

Going into Thursday’s Jerusalem Derby, both squads knew that the winner would not only secure second place overall and a much-needed week off, but would also be guaranteed a place in the final four. However, neither team would rise to the occasion early as the first-quarter devolved into a virtual punt-off.

In the end, that was all Papagaio needed to put the first points on the board, as Big Blue muffed a spiraling Ari Wajsbort punt before the ball was kicked around in a scrum and eventually recovered by a Lions’ player in his own endzone for a Kings’s safety and 2-0 lead.

The two-time finalists’ only turnover of the night – a lost fumble from running back Danny Brill – was quickly manufactured into another eight points midway through the second quarter, when Leib Bolel bulldozed through the line on a bruising tackle-breaking run and barreled into the house for his sixth touchdown of the season. David Jesselson adroitly completed an improbable underhand flip to Bolel as he was being dragged down by two defenders for the ensuing two points and Papagaio would carry that 10-point margin into the break and all the way through the third quarter as well until something finally hit the fan.

With Itai Ashkenazi still on the mend, the Lions decided to start Ben Lemberg under center and the results were disastrous. With the converted lineman taking snaps, Big Blue was forced to punt on four of its first six possessions, the other two drives ending in the half-time buzzer and the momentous lost fumble.

Even with a lifeless offense, the Lions’ defense was not about to call mercy and the hardnosed unit led by a returning Kasey Stewart and possessed Scott Eisenberg kept the team within striking distance until Bauman made his first appearance of the season at QB on the first drive of the final frame.

Despite not having practiced with the first-team offense all year, the manchild known as “the Animal” immediately injected life into Big Blue’s sails, demonstrating how he took the club to both Israel Bowls to date. The newly-groomed 36-year-old came into the game slinging, and was rewarded with a pass interference call on a nicely thrown bomb to Idan Yaron that set up a broken bootleg 12-yard patented Bauman power-scramble for an unconverted touchdown to make it a 10-6 ballgame.

With less than four minutes remaining and the Kings’ clinging to their slim advantage, Lions defender Ido Ben Dayan made a gorgeous play on a Jesselson attempted pass, batting the ball up blindly and coming down with the interception to give his team another possession starting in Papagaio territory. Three plays later, Bauman hooked-up with a wide-open Amichai Bergman for a two-yard score and Big Blue’s first lead in a while.

Time was running out and the Kings, who to that point had relied on a ground game based around Wajsbort, Bolel and Jacob Tannenbaum, finally brought in their not-so-secret weapon in Jon Rubin, who had largely been a non-factor on the night as a linebacker.

The aptly monikered “J-Train” responded with a first-down burst and four straight carries as Papagaio quickly used up all three of its timeouts to move the ball up field. However Stewart stuffed the IFL’s leading rusher for a six-yard loss to set up a critical third-and-long as the clock struck one minute and the tension in the packed Kraft Stadium rose to a palpable level.

Jesselson would come through in crunch-time, throwing a right-on-the-money, over-the-shoulder fade to T.J. Williams, who corralled the ball into his expansive grasp just as he crossed the goal line for the game-winning score. The Lions had one more desperation drive in them, but Rubin – who was shadowing Yaron for much of the fourth quarter – skied to pick off a hail-mary attempt and the Kings clinched the season sweep of Big Blue with a couple of kneels.

Papagaio, which was at one point sitting at 1-3, has now won three consecutive games and five of its last six to finish the campaign with a 6-4 record and enter the playoffs with a head full of steam. While Thursday’s bye-clinching victory was definitely not pretty, the Kings have exhibited an ability to close out contests, either from behind or in front. Combine that with a lethal threat like Rubin that they can unleash on either side of the ball – and the fact that they will be rested for their semifinal bout – and it is very clear that the Purplemen will be a very tough out in March.

Joining the Kings in the postseason on-deck circle are the Mike’s Place Tel Aviv-Jaffa Sabres, who ran away from all their rivals with a 9-1 record, a full three games ahead of the trio of second-place teams. Both the Kings and the Sabres will be riveted to this weekend’s pair of first-round playoff matchups that are sure to be wildly entertaining as well as ultra-competitive toss-ups.