The Return of Ben Holmes

The anticipated return of Ben Holmes was nothing short of exciting! Holmes struggled in the first quarter as he took back over the Vienna Vikings offense from emergency QB Shelton Eppler. The first drive didn’t go as planned as Holmes threw an early interception. On the other side of the ball, Vienna's defense, one of the top defenses in the ELF, kept the Vikings in the game holding the Wroclaw Panthers offense to just 1 yard in the first quarter as they attacked John Uribe, making him uncomfortable in the pocket. 

The second quarter is where the fun began. The Vikings broke the scoreless tie in the second quarter with a beautiful touchdown pass from Ben Holmes to Noah Touré. Followed by a 4th & 6 dime to Kimi Linnainmaa, a beautifully placed football, for a touchdown to put Vienna up 14-0. The Vikings defense stopped the Panthers on 4th and 1 to give Holmes the ball back with just under two minutes remaining in the half. That was more than enough time for the Vikings offense as Ben Holmes threw his third touchdown pass of the quarter with 17 seconds left in the half. Besides Holmes getting pressured and hit every other drop back, he definitely seemed to get more comfortable as the 1st half went on. 

Whatever Head Coach Chris Calaycay said to Ben Holmes at halftime must have worked because Holmes looked surgical in the 3rd quarter. Completely controlled the field with the help of Karri Pajarinen, the Finnish killer, in the run game. Holmes got his 4th touchdown pass of the game coming off of busted coverage as Noah Touré got behind the defense for his 2nd of the day. 

The fourth quarter was back and forth as the Panthers scored on an 11 play drive. Ben Holmes and company followed that with their own 11 play drive capped off with a 2 yard touchdown run by Kari Pajarinen. Holmes found Reece Horn three times, Kimi Linnainmaa once, and Holmes helped himself out by picking up a total of 26 yards on the ground.

In conclusion, after the first drive jitters, Ben Holmes “BenVP” found his groove and methodically picked apart the Wroclaw Panthers defense finishing 30/52 351 passing yards 4 TDs and 1 pick while leading the now 6-0 Vikings to a 37-25 win over Eastern Conference rivals Wroclaw Panthers. Let’s see if this momentum can continue into next week as the Vikings will have to travel to Tirol for the second iteration of “The Battle of Austria” this season! 

More Player Stats:

Noah Tourè: 11 rec 155 yards 2 TD

Reece Horn: 8 rec 128 yards 1 TD

Kimi Linnainmaa: 7 rec 96 yards 1 TD

Karri Pajarinen: 20 att 113 yards 1 TD

Photo by: Hannes Jirgal