New York Bears are Your 2023 EFA Champs

In what was an exhilarating end to the 2023 EFA season, the undefeated New York Bears stayed that way, defeatinng the No. 2 seeded Empire State Demon Knights by a score of 35-20 at the Joseph F. Fosina Field on Sunday. The hard-fought victory came after the Bears fell behibd by 12 points in the opening quarter.

The Demon Knights opened the scoring just two plays in on a Ty Lopez run, and two drives later, an acrobatic TD gran by AJ Ray made it a 12-0 game. Needing a response, the Bears got it with a 45-yard strike from Juan Rodriguez to Tyler Williams, on the opening play of the very next drive.

In the second quarter, Williams grabbed his second TD off of a Demon Knights fumble, tying the score at 12-12 before halftime. That proved to be the theme in the 3rd quarter, as the Demon Knights committed two more turnovers and the Bears immediately turned them into points, first on Williams' third TD of the game and then a TD strike in the red zone to Dutka.

Play moved on to the 4th quarter, and the Demon Knights got back into the game with a Tyler Sawicki TD grab that made the score 27-20. The Demon Knights got a defensice stop and the ball back midway through the 4th, but another interception proved costly, and the Bears punched in another TD o a 45-yard strike from Rodriguez to Tyler Peddie. That was it for the scoring, leaving the final at 35-20.

Juan Rodriguez earned MVP honors thanks to his 5 TD performance.