Game vs Helsinki 69er's

 

Helsinki came to town and it was a must win for us.  In face every game the rest of the way out is a must win.  But if we lose this game we are in dead last and staring division II in the face.  The team that finishes last in the league is forced to drop down to the second division in Finland.  I promised and actually guaranteed our players and GM that we wouldn’t be that team. 

 

The game was a pretty tight game the whole way through.  I played my favorite position…Decoy!  I pretty much lined up on the sideline with two Helsinki players and watched as our guys played 10 on 9.  They over played me a little too much and it allowed us to run the ball with ease.  As much as I love to get that ball, it was really good to see Joonas slice through their defense for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns.  He played incredible!  Mikko, started his first game of the season.  He didn’t play real well, but finally got some confidence late in the game and I think the experience and the win will really help him out throughout the rest of the season.  Ryan and the defense really played well and stepped up huge in the last few minutes to stop Helsinki from winning the game on the last drive.  Ryan led our team with 7.5 tackles. 

 

Personally, I didn’t do anything.  Like I said, I was a decoy the entire game and only had 2 catches.  I actually had more tackles in this game than catches; 2 on kickoffs and 1 on an interception. 

 

Artic Circle Trip

 

Right after the game Jukka, Big Mikko, Heikki, Ryan and I decided to pack into a little car and cruise 2100 kilometers roundtrip to the Artic Circle and back, (I have around 150 pictures from this trip).  This was a sweet road-trip, and was definitely one of the best times I have had in Finland.  There is something about packing 5 guys into a 5 seater car and driving for 3 days in the middle of no-where.  We definitely made some memories.     

 

We started out driving straight north till we hit the Artic Circle.  We stay in two different cottages that were very nice.  We saw Santa Claus and plenty of his reindeer, ate reindeer steaks, sat in the sauna, and saw some of the best views I have ever seen in my life.

 

We came home by driving down the far west coast of Finland down the Gulf of Bothnia.  We stopped in Oulu, which is an awesome little town on the coast.  We ate dinner and played football in a park.  We then drove several hours more before stopping at a beach near Kokkola.  This is where we got out and got into the water.  It was really one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.  The water wasn’t as cold as you might think; in fact swimming in Colorado was much colder.  We finally returned back to Kouvola around 7:30 on Tuesday morning.

 

Our route was from Kouvola - Kuopio - Kajaani - Rovaniemi - about 100 km north of Rovaniemi - Oulu - Kokkola - Jyvaskyla - Lahti - Kouvola