Cardinals and Browns in back to back showdowns

The Cardinals got a lucky bounce late in the fourth quarter ontheir own kickoff as they got by a stubborn Browns eleven, 19 to7.

The Cardinals nursed a 6 to 0 lead courtesy of a16-yardtouchdown by John Anthony Criscione late in the first half. TheBrowns’ Gianfranco Torpedo Pappalardi gave the his team a onepoint lead late in the fourth quarter as he barged into pay dirtfrom the one yard line and then duplicated the score with the extrapoint.

The 7-6 Brown lead lasted until there were three minutes left inthe game when Jason Wolf Man Perlstein fired a bullet to JosephPallone for a 10 yard TD; when Perlstein added the extra point, theCards had a narrow 13 to 7 lead.

But disaster struck on the ensuing kickoff as there wasconfusion between the Browns’ deep receivers and when neither manwent for the ball, Criscione raced in between the receivers andfell on the live ball for a back-breaking touchdown.

The low-scoring game showed off some great defensive talents asGiancarlo DiGregorio (blocked punt), Michael Correa, Justin ShotGun Cohen and Jake Cisek anchored the Brown’s defense while AngeloUndertaker Fiumefreddo, Thomas Pretorius and Dylan Salas came upwith key stops for the Cardinals.

Browns 12 Cardinals 12

In another game, Cardinals’ defensive back Jon Smok’n Nelsonrecovered a fumble with 1:50 left in the game to stop a late Brownsdrive to preserve a 12 to 12 tie ball game.

The Cardinals had protected a 12 to 6 lead deep in the fourthquarter on the strength of two first half touchdowns. Criscionereturned a first quarter punt for a touchdown and then teamed upwith Justin Moran for a 10-yard strike through the air for their 12points.

The Browns sandwiched in their score set up by a great puntreturn by Tylor Martinez who returned the ball to the Cardinals’one yard line. Pappalardi wasted no time as he plunged in for theTD on the very next play. Neither team made good on any of theextra point attempts.

The Browns tied the game late in the fourth quarter as Martinezscored again, this time exploding for a 30-yard romp around hisleft end. That important PAT failed and the teams were knotted at12.

The Cards went three and out on the following possession and hadto punt the ball, giving the Browns a late chance to break the tie.The Orange and Black drove to the Cardinal 15-yard line but on anattempted sweep, the ball carrier was met by Cardinal corner backNelson who separated the ball from the running back and promptlyrecovered the ball to kill the Browns’ drive with 50 seconds leftin the game.

In addition to Nelson’s fumbled recovery, Fiumefreddo andPretorius anchored the Cardinal’s line while Perlstein picked off aBrowns’ pass to key the Cardinal defense. Nasser Maloley andMichael Correa came up with fumble recoveries for the Browns tocompliment several key tackles by Anthony Figueroa and DerekHernandez.