STUTTGART, Germany – Sterling Jones rushed 17 times for 185 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as the Division I-South champion Heidelberg Lions downed the Patch Panthers 33-9 in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Xavier Moore got the Lions (5-1) started, plunging over from a yard out in the first quarter, then turned things over to Jones, who broke a 26-yard TD run in the first period and added scoring runs which covered seven and 57 yards in the second period. Chris Cuthbert, who carried 10 times for 57 yards, added Heidelberg’s fifth TD on a 22-yard, third-quarter run.

According to Patch coach Brian Hill, the Lions were even more impressive on defense.

“(Heidelberg’s) defense was very tough,” Hill said by telephone on Sunday evening. “We pretty much were punting most of the time.”

Forcing those punting situations were Moore, who made 10 tackles, two of them for losses; Jimmie McBride, who picked off a Patch pass and made eight tackles; Davon Loney, who numbered a sack among his eight tackles, and Wayne Dawkins, who made five tackles and recovered a Patch fumble caused by Cuthbert.

Patch, which concluded its season 2-4, scored on Connor Charlton’s 35-yard, second-quarter field goal and a TD run late in the game by Kevin Andrus. His score was set up by a bad snap on a punt attempt which Patch recovered on the Heidelberg 15-yard line, Hill said. Andrus ran in three plays later.

Ryan Frary recovered two Heidelberg fumbles and made 10 tackles, according to Hill, whose team lost to the Lions 21-0 in Heidelberg on Oct. 2.

“They looked even better this time than last time,” he said.

Heidelberg is to host defending D-I champion Ramstein on Saturday in a European Division I semifinal games which is a re-match of last year’s title game.

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