BRUSSELS, Belgium – Firmly stepping out from his older brother’s shadow, Vinny Culotta rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns Friday night as the International School of Brussels Raiders collected their first victory of the season, 37-22 over the visiting AFNORTH Lions.

Culotta, whose brother Gino rushed for more than 200 yards per game during his senior season last year, did his damage in only nine carries. He helped ISB (1-2 overall and in Division II-North) erase a 14-13 halftime deficit in the rain in the Belgian capital.

Andy Putch, who rushed 17 times for 96 yards, ran for two ISB TDs.

AFNORTH (0-3, 0-3) got 148 yards from 14 Dante Brown rushes and 45 more yards on nine carries by Tony Legare.

According to AFNORTH coach Greg Blankenship, the Lions missed out on a chance to collect their first victory of the season when they had an apparent kickoff return TD nullified by a penalty and surrendered a touchdown when ISB stripped an AFNORTH ball carrier of the ball and returned it for a touchdown.

Blankenship took solace, however, in the progress his ground game displayed.

“(Quarterback) Jacob Reynolds, Dante Brown and Tony Legare are learning to run downhill,” he e-mailed on Saturday. “And beginning to churn out large chunks of offensive yardage.”

AFNORTH’s Andrew Carnigan-Jackson led all tacklers with 14; Matias Bifani topped ISB with 10 stops.

ISB is to visit SHAPE this Saturday; AFNORTH is to take on Baumholder.

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