Potent Defensive Mixture Of Old And New Propels Speed Over Brigade
David Chappell
Saturday May 24, 2003
Any cause for concern proved to be entirely unfounded. Instead, mixing several untested rookies with several veterans who were largely untested in 2003 proved to be just the right ingredients for a Richmond defensive uprising. Limiting the Brigade to a paltry 139 total yards, the Speed’s defense held Rochester to a season low 20 points in a 40-20 Richmond victory last night before a crowd of 2,417.
Thrust into defensive action last night for the Speed, newcomers Charlie Robinson, Corey Middlebrooks and Tone` Dancy all acquitted themselves admirably. Neither Robinson nor Middlebrooks had played a down for Richmond prior to last night. Dancy saw only very limited action against Mohegan last week, in his first game for Richmond.
Robinson, 6’0” and 190 pounds out of East Carolina University, was pressed into starting at DS last night in his first action for Richmond. Robinson faced two outstanding wideouts in Rochester’s OS Martino Theus and WR Derek Baker. The Richmond rookie more than held his own. Richmond head coach Richard Davis, speaking on the Speed’s radio broadcast said, “I’m very proud of Charlie Robinson. Charlie is a very intelligent kid, and that’s what has kept him around. He had an injury early on (this year), or I think you would have seen him on the field earlier.”
Seeing his first playing time for the Speed, Middlebrooks was also impressive last evening. The 6’2” 230 pound linebacker out of Georgia Southern put good pressure on Brigade QB Jason Visconti in the second half when the Brigade were trying to claw their way back into the contest. Regarding Middlebrooks, Davis commented, “Middlebrooks is going to be a player. We think he can help us. The kid gets off the ball, and has a great attitude. He’s a Richmond Speed kind of kid.”
Likewise Dancy, the 6’2” 250 pound Division III All-American DL out of Ferrum College, played well when the game was still competitive in the second half. Included in Dancy’s fine play was his breaking up of a two point conversion attempt by Rochester, that could have cut the Speed’s lead to 26-14 with 6:52 left in the third quarter.
As for the new players on defense, Davis summed it up by saying, “I was happy to see some of the youngsters step in and play.”
Added to the Speed’s defensive mix last night were veterans Kevin Harvey, Chris Field and Tim Jones. None of the three had appreciably contributed on defense for Richmond in 2003, but all had been stalwarts in previous years.
Harvey, the two time defending af2 Ironman of the Year award winner, previously under team suspension, met up with his teammates in Rochester directly from his home in New Jersey. And he hit the field running last night. Playing primarily on defense against the Brigade, Harvey was solid in the defensive backfield. With 12:11 remaining in the game, Harvey knocked down a Brigade fourth down and goal pass to effectively end any realistic Rochester hopes. Harvey also played some offense late in the game, catching three passes for 51 yards and Richmond’s last TD with 10:59 remaining on a 32 yard bomb from QB Roy Johnson.
Davis said he was happy to have Harvey back. “[It was] good to see Kevin Harvey back. It’s nice to get that kid back in. And I tell you what, he’s happy to be here.”
Veterans Chris Field and Tim Jones also contributed mightily on defense last night. Field applied good quarterback pressure in the second half, and recorded Richmond’s only QB sack. Jones was pressed into starting at linebacker, and played well in the first half when the game was still in doubt.
Davis was delighted with his defensive mix of young and old last night. Davis explained, “We were all but dominating [tonight] from a defensive perspective. I’m proud of the defense. We got after them pretty good.” The Brigade could muster but three scores in their nine possessions last evening.
The Speed defense set the tone immediately last night, forcing the Brigade into an unsuccessful field goal attempt by Vinnie Corsaniti on the game’s first possession. Richmond took over and scored right away on a 22 yard TD pass from Johnson to OS Damon “Redd” Thompson in the back of the end zone giving Richmond a 6-0 lead with 9:53 remaining in the first quarter.
Richmond went up 9-0 with 3:56 remaining in the first quarter on Peter Martinez’s 15 yard FG. The kick came after a Speed touchdown was nullified by an offsides penalty.
The Speed increased their lead to 16-0 early in the second quarter when Thompson made a circus catch on a 21 yard strike from Johnson. The Brigade scored their only points of the half after a Johnson fumble, striking with a 10 yard pass from Visconti to WR Melvin Parris who broke free from Speed tacklers at the seven yard line. The two point conversion pass failed, and the Speed lead was 16-6.
The Speed maintained possession the rest of the half but for one play, being inside the Rochester red zone most of that time. After 13 plays, which included a missed FG where they recovered a live ball for a new set of downs, Richmond settled for a 23 yard Martinez field goal at :07 for a 19-6 halftime lead.
The third quarter saw Johnson record two more TD passes, sandwiched around a Rochester score. WR Marc Bacote made the second of those TD catches with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter, despite tight coverage by Rochester’s Parris. Richmond led 33-12 after three quarters.
Richmond applied strong pressure to Visconti and Brigade backup QB Kevin Carty in the fourth quarter. Carty was finally able to hit Baker with a scoring toss with 1:42 remaining. He then passed to Theus for a two point conversion to make the final score a bit more respectable at 40-20. FB LaMonte Coleman did recover the ensuing onside kick for Rochester, but DS Deshane Dennis intercepted Carty with 27 seconds left for the Speed to end the Brigade’s last hope.
In addition to his solid play in coverage and the late interception, Dennis also ran back three kickoffs for 63 yards for Richmond.
Johnson, the af2’s leading passer, had yet another excellent outing. Johnson finished 22-27 for 293 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Regarding his quarterback, Davis commented, “Looked like [Roy] was pretty sound and solid again tonight. He made good decisions. Boy, he’s playing good. I’m happy for him.”
Thompson had another stellar night receiving for the Speed, catching eight balls for 113 yards and three touchdowns. Bacote and Marcus Richardson also contributed four pass receptions apiece for Richmond.
Despite having problems negotiating the low overhead clearance at Blue Cross Arena with his kickoffs, Martinez was solid in his kicking otherwise. He converted 2-3 field goal attempts and 4-5 extra points. The Speed recovered Martinez’s lone onside kickoff attempt early in the contest.
Bright spots were few for the Brigade (1-7). Baker came on in the second half and finished with eight catches for 60 yards and 2 TDs. WR Andra Johnson made four grabs for 31 yards. Parris caught three passes for 26 yards and the one score. Visconti finished a respectable 17-32 for 115 yards and 2 TDs with no interceptions.
But the two biggest Rochester threats on offense had games to forget. Theus was held to three catches for 16 yards. Coleman, arenafootball2’s second leading rusher, made no impact on the ground and caught only one pass for eight yards.
Downsides for Richmond in this game were few, but there were some. The Speed amassed a whopping 13 penalties for 119 yards. Richmond also fumbled five times, losing three, prompting Davis to say, “Turnovers concerned me a little bit. We have some ball security issues we need to work on.” Also, the Speed lost FB/LB Rodney Sledge to an ankle injury early in the game. Sledge did not return to action.
But overall, Davis was well satisfied to bring his shorthanded team on a very long road trip and come away with a solid win. Davis noted, “We just wanted to come up here and get a win. I’ll take it. I just wanted a ‘w.’ We [came] up here and had a real methodical win doing a lot of things right.”
The Speed (4-3) return home to the Richmond Coliseum for the first time in three weeks to host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers (2-6) this coming Saturday, May 31 at 7:00 p.m.
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.
