BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Fittingly enough for a team that attends classes a stone’s throw from USAREUR headquarters, the Heidelberg Lions used the Old Army Game Saturday night to claim a 12-3 victory over Ramstein and their first European Division I football championship since 1999.

“Our main focus was to shove it down their throats,” summarized senior wingback Andrew Spellman about his team’s game plan, after his Lions had run 56 plays to just 33 for Ramstein. “Run” was the operative word — the ground-hugging Lions attempted zero passes in winning their eighth D-I title, most by any school in the division.

“Our O-line dominated,” said Heidelberg coach Brad Shahan about the way his crew of Blair Wagner, Greg Wagenaar, Jordan Fackler, Daniel Hase and two-way All-European Brandon Simmons continued the level of achievement they had established the week before in a 44-6 victory at Wiesbaden.

“Fackler controlled their linebacker all night. With the holes they were opening, we were able to use four different running backs. We always had fresh legs in the game,” Shahan said.

Freshest of the four was All-Europe tailback Lewis Allen, who carried 32 times for 130 yards. Like Spellman and Simmons, Allen was completing his fourth season as a Lions starter.

“Our line stepped up big,” Allen said of the way the Lions front led the way in erasing memories of last year’s title game. Heidelberg came into that game unbeaten, just as Ramstein did on Saturday, only to fall 37-7 to Wiesbaden.

“We kept that game in the back of our minds all year,” Allen said of the ’04 disappointment. “It reminded us that you can’t come into this game cocky.”

After two regular-season losses, 10-7 at Ramstein and 14-13 at Wiesbaden, the Lions were far from cocky on Saturday. Especially on defense.

“We knew we had to come up big,” said Simmons, who along with Darvelle Rivers and Wagner topped the tackling chart with seven each. “We had to go all-out.”

In the first quarter, Lions defenders were called upon to redeem two lost fumbles, an easy-enough mistake to make in the drizzle that fell throughout the game. Heidelberg, however, surrendered only a 34-yard Justin Wiehe field goal just at quarter’s end. It came after a nine-play, 55-yard drive aided by 20 penalty yards against the Lions.

Things changed in the second period. Zachary Tapp-Wilson returned the Ramstein kickoff 28 yards to set the Lions up for an 11-play, 44-yard drive capped by Chris Jones’ eight-yard TD run with 6:19 left in the period. Like nearly all of his team’s rushes on Saturday, it was up the gut.

Jones, a 6-2, 193-pound senior who carried 10 times for 55 yards and recovered a fumble, was playing just his second game of the season. He broke his ankle in Heidelberg’s 20-14 victory over Wiesbaden on opening day.

“He’s our only undefeated player,” Shahan said.

Heidelberg scored its second TD on a 2-yard plunge by freshman quarterback Matt Howard-Darling just three minutes later. It capped an eight-play, 28-yard drive set up when Spellman blocked a Ramstein punt.

The block was typical of the Lions’ defensive dominance. In the second quarter, the Ramstein offense, for which tailback Cyril Borden had averaged 114 yards per game, made just one first down. It came on a scramble on the final play of the half, and resulted in a painful leg injury to quarterback Joe York.

In the third period, they managed one first down and a turnover. The only offensive threat the Royals mustered in the final three quarters was the second-half kickoff return by A.J. Hawkins, which required Rivers to make a TD-saving tackle at his own 49. The Royals went three-and-out from there.

Spellman said the Lions weren’t worried about Borden’s getting to the boundary.

“We were focusing on stopping them between the tackles,” he said.

In the process, they stopped Borden. He rushed for fewer than 50 yards.

Heidelberg’s victory culminated a long process, Shahan said.

“This championship has been building for three years,” he said. “Each year, we took another step closer.”

Migrated