Rookie Super Bowl brings Bears and Bengals together

It was a game that one expected nothing less than the intense nail bitter it played out to be. This year’s DHAA Knights rookie Super Bowl between the Bears and Bengals closed out an incredible year of exciting, well-balanced and fun-filled football games in the 7-8 year old division.

The Bears, a week removed from playing a 4 OT thriller to advance to the Super Bowl, were the first to open the scoring. Led by QB Michael Campo, RB Ryan Spelman and Valentina Campanella, the Bears in a time-consuming drive found the end zone on a TD run by Maya Gonzalez.

The Bengals had an opportunity to tie the game after Christian Trantino’s long run late in the second quarter but a stout Bears defense held the Bengals scoreless in the first half.

The Bengals were awakened in their opening second half drive when, on the very first play, Freddie Scuteri broke a length of the field run off a handoff for a game-tying and momentum-changing touchdown. Both defenses continued to shine until late in the fourth quarter when Scuteri once again broke open another long run.

Bears linebacker Michael Rizzi made an incredible play to tackle Scuteri on the one-yard line, which would set up the Bengals with the opportunity to take the lead. The Bears defense held strong until Bengals QB Matty “Ice” Bracco on fourth down, scrambled for his life and what seemed to be an eternity, until he found Trantino in the back of the end zone for a go-ahead TD.

The Bears threatened late in the game but an unflappable Bengals defense and great pass defense by safety Jaden Santo helped propel the Bengals to a Super Bowl victory.