Speed Subdue Prowlers On Strength Of Aerial Assault
David Chappell
Saturday May 3, 2003
Riding a nine touchdown performance by quarterback Roy Johnson, the Speed defeated Greensboro 59-52 in an offensive explosion that leveled Richmond’s record at 2-2. The Prowlers fell to 3-2, and out of first place in the af2’s Atlantic Division. This victory was the Speed’s second in succession over a first place team.
Johnson passed for seven touchdowns, including five to OS Damon “Redd” Thompson. Johnson also ran for two other scores. The Richmond quarterback finished 26-36 for 326 yards and was not intercepted. Thompson caught an incredible 18 passes for 225 yards.
Speed head coach Richard Davis commented on Thompson’s effort by saying, “Redd Thompson—what a stud. When Kevin (Harvey) and Jeff (Townsley) left, Redd came to me and said he was happy for Kevin and Jeff, but that his job now was to keep the Richmond Speed legacy alive and that I could count on him. Well, the son of a gun has lived up to that.”
Johnson also spoke admiringly about his offensive specialist. “Redd Thompson is amazing. He makes my job easy. I just throw it to him, and you know he’s going to make a play,” Johnson said.
A key to Richmond’s success on offense last night was neutralizing Greensboro’s pass rush, particularly holding the Prowlers’ star DL Thaddeus Bullard in check. Davis commented, “How about my big boys on the line? We stoned them with good offensive line play. That’s where we won this ball game.” Johnson concurred, saying, “Our offensive line did a great job. Our line stepped up to the challenge and played a great game.” Richmond WR Richard Holland, who caught Johnson’s other two TD passes noted, “Greensboro is known for their pass rush, and our offensive line did a great job against them.”
Holland said that the Prowlers had a difficult time dealing with the speed of Richmond’s fleet receivers. Holland commented, “For the first time in a long time the Richmond Speed are living up to their name—which is speed. Not too many teams are going to be able to play man the whole game against our speed. It’s just not going to happen. We knew [Greensboro] was going to play man, and we took advantage of that and picked our spots.”
Greensboro started fast in this contest, with Bobby Sippio running back the opening kickoff 56 yards for a touchdown. Richmond answered with the game’s next two scores, a 24 yard Johnson to Thompson TD pass and a five yard touchdown run by Johnson. The Speed led 13-7 after one quarter.
Greensboro took their last lead of the night at 12:10 of the second quarter, 14-13, on a TD pass from quarterback Caleb Slover to WR Bobby Graham. While the Prowlers would never lead the game again, Richmond could never fully pull away.
The Speed had a 25-14 lead with 7.9 seconds remaining in the first half, but Greensboro appeared to seize the game’s momentum by scoring ten points in those final few seconds to cut the Speed’s advantage to 25-24 at the half. First, OS Corey Sullivan hauled in a four yard pass from Slover. When Richmond could not handle the ensuing squib kickoff, Josh Jones was brought in and nailed a 35 yard field goal for Greensboro on the last play of the half to cut Richmond’s lead to one point going into intermission.
Richmond answered immediately with a 29 yard TD pass from Johnson to Thompson at the 13:08 mark of the third quarter. Thompson grabbed another scoring toss from Johnson later in the quarter, to give Richmond a 38-31 lead after three stanzas.
Both teams scored 21 points in a wild fourth quarter. Inside :30 remaining and trailing 59-44, the Prowlers scored on a 19 yard pass from Slover to Sullivan to cut the Richmond lead to 59-50. Greensboro converted on a critical two point conversion to stay in the game at 59-52. The Speed survived an onsides kick with 24 seconds remaining that hit several players before going into the stands. Greensboro was called for offsides on the play, which Richmond declined. The Prowlers were out of time outs, and Richmond ran out the clock with one running play to seal the win. The victory marked Richmond’s fourth in a row against Greensboro in the short four game history between the clubs.
Davis said preparation and the elimination of mistakes spelled the difference in this contest. Davis commented, “We had some great coaching by our assistants. They stepped up and did some great quality game preparation for the week.” Davis went on to say, “I’m very proud of our organization. We’ve banded together, and now we’re doing the little things like eliminating penalties and turnovers, and keeping to our assignments. We’re stringing all of those things together, and we’re a pretty good football team.”
Greensboro head coach Steven Jerry agreed that the Speed came into last night’s game with some effective schemes that throttled the Prowlers at times. Jerry said, “Richard (Davis) came in here and had a great offensive game plan, and we didn’t have anything to counter it. We didn’t get any stops, and they did a great job offensively.”
Jerry also gave high marks to Roy Johnson, a player who Jerry has previously coached. “Roy’s a great young man, I love Roy to death. He’s doing a great job. I always knew he would be a great quarterback in this league. It was just a matter of him getting in the right system and doing the right things.”
The Greensboro coach said the Speed negated one of the Prowlers’ biggest advantages, Greensboro’s pass rush, by having Johnson deliver quickly on timing routes. Jerry noted, “Richard did a great job of managing the ball game. They went three step all night, and didn’t give our [pass rush] a chance to get up the field. The ball was gone by the time they got two yards up the field. Hat’s off to Richard, he did a great job.”
For the Prowlers, Slover was an impressive 22-35 for 261 yards and six touchdowns. Slover was not intercepted. Sullivan snared ten passes for 128 yards and four touchdowns. Graham chipped in with seven receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Jerry said he believes his quarterback from Tusculum is growing up fast. “Caleb Slover has been battling. He did a great job. He’s getting better in his reads, and I think he’s finally comfortable in my offense. Last year his offense was completely different, so it took him a little longer to get adjusted to my system. Now that he’s adjusted, he’s doing a great job.”
Greensboro will attempt to get back on the winning track next weekend at Cape Fear. Meanwhile, Richmond will look to go above .500 for the first time this season in an encounter with the Rochester Brigade next Saturday night at the Richmond Coliseum.
Johnson believes that the effort as a team against Greensboro was encouraging, and bodes well for the rest of the season. “We came out and played as a team. We’re coming together right now, and that’s a good sign,” Johnson said. Davis added, “This Richmond Speed football team is showing some great signs, slowly but surely.”
David Chappell is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has closely followed local sports in Richmond and vicinity for over thirty years, and Arena Football 2 since its inception. David currently writes extensively for a website that he co-founded which documents professional wrestling in Virginia and surrounding areas from 1974-1986. A former elected prosecutor, David is currently a practicing attorney in a large downtown Richmond law firm.
