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Three-time defending European Division III football champion Ansbach and this season’s Division III-South winner, Hohenfels, earned berths Saturday in this year’s title game.

Ansbach claimed a 52-16 victory at previously unbeaten AFNORTH, and Hohenfels beat visiting London Central 44-6.

Ansbach 52, AFNORTH 16At Brunssum, Netherlands, the Cougars held 300-yard rusher Jared Waters to 162 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries in eliminating the III-North champs.

“It was a real rock ’em, sock ’em game. It was very physical,” said Ansbach coach Marcus George, who’ll have his team trying for an unprecedented fourth straight title next Saturday as part of DODDS-Europe’s Super Six championship tripleheader at Baumholder.

Ansbach quarterback John Willis, who was 16-for-24 for 243 yards, passed 40 yards to Tyler Sherman and 18 to Xavier Sheppard for touchdowns as the Cougars took a 30-0 halftime lead.

Willis also ran 11 times for 89 yards, with TD runs of 5 and 19 yards.

“Our secondary could not cover the Ansbach receivers throughout the game,” AFNORTH coach Greg Blankenship wrote in an e-mail. “We shut down the run but could not come close to shutting down the passing game.”

Charles Melton also scored twice for Ansbach (6-1), which got 83 rushing yards from Sheppard. Sheppard scored twice on 2-point conversion runs and caught a pass for a third 2-pointer. Gary Yonson ran 9 yards for Ansbach’s other TD.

Waters scored on runs of 15 and 60 yards for AFNORTH (6-1), but was held under 300 yards for just the second time. Ansbach’s defense, led by David Zumbach’s 10 tackles, and the game situation combined to hold him to about half his average.

“Ansbach took control of the game in the first quarter,” Blankenship wrote, “and limited the touches for Jared Waters because we were playing catch-up football.”

Sascha Miller led the Lions’ defense with 12 tackles. Brock Blankenship added nine tackles and a fumble recovery.

Hohenfels 44, London Central 6At Hohenfels, Stephen Washington ran 65 and 25 yards for TDs and returned an interception 25 yards for the Tigers (7-0).

Brandon Merriweather and Chris Fisher also rushed for TDs for Hohenfels and quarterback Jason Parks (4-for-8, 73 yards) threw a 25-yard TD pass to Matt Apodaca. Washington carried 14 times for 199 yards, Merriweather seven for 57.

London Central (3-3) got 149 rushing yards and 67 passing from Foxy Thomas. Dee Marbury ran 10 times for 62 yards.

Marvin Fitchett got a workout on the Bobcats’ defense. He made 10 solo and five assisted tackles.

The championship showdown will be a rematch of an Oct. 15 game between the conference rivals. Hohenfels won that game 25-24 to snap Ansbach’s 28-game winning streak, a DODDS-Europe record.

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