Macon`s 2nd Half Thaw Ends Blizzard
Keith Murphy
Sunday April 6, 2003
The Blizzard kept the Macon scoring machine off-balance in the first half through ball control (Green bay held the ball 23 minutes more than Macon) and attitude. “We just felt, and we got the same feeling in Hawaii, that we’re expansion Green Bay and this is going to be an easy game,” Jefferson explained. “A lot of the guys take offense to that. But I tell them, nothing’s given; you have to take it. You can’t expect people to respect you when you haven’t done anything yet. Hopefully we can learn from this and keep coming in with chips on our shoulder and playing people hard.”
Macon’s inexperience at the key skill positions of quarterback and wide receiver were evident in the first half as the offense misfired time and time again stumbling to a 21-19 halftime lead. “It was our own mistakes,” said Knights’ Offensive Coordinator Tres Sullivan. “We brought it on ourselves. Our motto has always been to take care of ourselves. If they do what we’ve coached and they’ve been taught we’ll be OK. Tonight, we didn’t and it showed. We turned the ball over. Put the ball on the ground. We did a lot of things that are uncharacteristic for us. So we had to come back and fight and that’s what we did in the second half.”
In that second half, Macon rolled up a 34 – 6 advantage to create a final score that made the game look like a 55 – 25 blowout. However, anyone who was at the game knows that the Knights had to scratch and claw to pick up the win. One of the keys to the Knights’ second half performance was, according to FB/LB Byron Douzart, Macon head coach Kevin Porter’s halftime sermon, “We were a little flat in the first half, but coach gave us a little pep talk at halftime then we came out and played together as a team.” When asked to rate the halftime speech, “Oh, it was a ten-point-nine on the Richter scale.”
One of the evening’s many promising performances was the work of Knights’ starting quarterback, Sean Peterson who completed 14 of 19 passes for 139 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. He also ran for a touchdown. Sullivan was pleased with Peterson’s debut, “It was OK. He’s wearing number 12 and the 12 who was wearing it before him (John Rayborn), well, I was kind of having flashbacks to last season. For his first time out he did a good job. He did what I asked him to do and that was to take care of the football, except for the one time. Other than that he played within himself and let his teammates help him.”
Offensive Specialist Jacques Rumph, whose 50 yard kickoff return for a score was the straw that swept away the Blizzard, echoed his coach’s faith in the new quarterback, “I think he did OK for a first time out. He can’t do nothing but get better.”
Peterson was a little harder on his own performance, calling it, “a good beginning. Obviously not a perfect game and that’s always what you’re striving for. I thought it was a solid start and we got the win and I’m glad I was able to make enough plays and the receivers made great plays. The Offensive line was great. I had all day to throw. When you watch their quarterbacks running around for their lives it makes me glad these guys are on my side.”
The Knights showed a new facet which may concern future opponents, a fast-strike opportunistic defense which picked off two of Ryan Alunbacher’s passes and returned both for scores. The Knights also sacked Alunbacher three times and blocked two PAT attempts. If the Knights can get their offense revved up to last year’s speed and can maintain the defensive pressure this year’s edition of the Macon Franchise could be very formidable.
Next up for the Knights are the Greensboro Prowlers who will visit for the season’s first Black Friday. Green Bay will get a well deserved rest and a chance to add up their frequent flier miles.
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
