Winless Cobras Almost Upset #1 Storm... Almost
Chuck DiLullo
Wednesday April 16, 2003
The Cobras have yet to close on their first win of the season but the trademark of this team has always been their incredible work ethic and the ability to maintain a positive attitude during what has been a very trying season on the players, coaches, manage- ment, ownership and, most importantly, the fans. That work ethic and attitude almost re- sulted in what would have been the largest upset of the season versus the Storm in front of 6,121 fans at the Charlotte Coliseum.
“I told them (the Cobras) in the lockeroom, ‘How many 0-10 teams would have come out and played like they did tonight,’” said head coach Mike Hold. “I guarantee you that most of them would have packed it in but these guys are playing hard every snap and every down. I feel so bad for the guys. They played so hard against the best team in the league. They came ready to play. I just feel for them. I know they are as frustrated as I am.”
The Storm came into the game with an eight-game winning streak and were looking to keep pace with the L.A. Avengers for the best league record. They had already handed the Cobras their worst loss of the season, 60-20, in the opening weekend.
The Cobras shocked the Storm by racing out to a 17-0 lead, their largest of the season,
11 minutes into the game taking advantage of two Tampa turnovers. Carolina seemed poised to take a 24-7 lead midway through the second period only to have QB Stewart Patridge’s pass to Charles Johnson intercepted in the end zone by Game MVP Omarr Smith. The resulting TD set off the Storm’s offense, ending the half at 17 all.
Hold agreed that this play was a key part of the game, saying, “We had our chances with a couple of opportunities in the second quarter where we got down in the red zone but didn’t capitalize but that’s Arena Football. They (Tampa Bay) also had opportunities early on they didn’t capitalize on.”
“When you play a team like Tampa, you have to capitalize on every opportunity,” said Patridge. “We stayed in the game but came out on the losing end. I take the brunt of the burden for this because there were two times we should have scored down close and came up short.”
The Cobras continued to fight the Storm in the second half, taking a 31-24 lead into the fourth quarter but Tampa used brutally effective performances from FB’s David White and Andre Bowden to grind out the victory. All four of Tampa’s second-half and over- time touchdowns came on the ground with Ironman of the Game Bowden accounting for a total of four in the game, including the game winner in OT.
“When we got up 17-0, there was no doubt that Tampa was going to come back. I knew they would, they are a championship team,” said Hold, “but what our guys did is they didn’t let that get to them and they fought, fought, fought.”
“This was a dogfight. They are a real good team. This not horseshoes,” said defensive coach Flint Fleming. “We are not taking any moral victory out of it. We are proud of our guys but yet we need to finish on one of these games and we are running out of time.”
The Cobras will continue their pursuit for their first win on Friday, April 18th, at home against the Georgia Force, who are coming off a dismal home performance against the New York Dragons. It’ll be interesting to see which team rebounds best.
Chuck DiLullo works for a manufacturer of process control instrumentation as a sales engineer. He has been a fan of professional, college and high school football since he could walk. Chuck is originally from Philadelphia and he became a huge Arena Football League fan while living in Buffalo. Chuck has lived in Charlotte since 2000 with his wife & three children.
