Wildcats Hit Major Speed Bump In Richmond
David Chappell
Sunday June 22, 2003
With the win, Richmond improved to 5-6 and remains in contention for an arenafootball2 playoff berth. Cape Fear dropped to 8-3, but still sits comfortably atop the af2’s Atlantic Division.
Richmond’s winning points came on quarterback Roy Johnson’s 17 yard scamper around right end with :07 remaining in the game, erasing a 54-52 Cape Fear lead. Johnson then drilled a two point conversion pass to Damon “Redd” Thompson in the back of the end zone to give the Speed a 60-54 advantage.
The Speed still had to endure a Wildcat kickoff return, and a “Hail Mary” pass attempt into the end zone by Cape Fear QB Bryan Snyder with two seconds remaining on the clock. But there would be no miracle finish for Cape Fear on this night.
The game between the two bitter Atlantic Division rivals was emotional and heated throughout, with the two teams combining for 21 penalties for 167 total yards. The hitting on the field was fierce by both teams, much like the verbal sparring between both head coaches in the local media over the past two weeks.
Speed coach Richard Davis said, “This win was particularly nice, I tell you. Staying away from turnovers tonight was big. Also, we did a real good job on assignment issues. We took care of business from that perspective.”
Cape Fear coach Chris Siegfried said he expected to get a difficult game from the Speed on the road. “Tough game, tough loss on the road,” Siegfried commented. “It’s tough playing this game on the road. I told my guys, just because their record [was 4-6] doesn’t mean they weren’t going to come to play. They played tonight like the Richmond that I’m used to.”
“My hat’s off to them, they did a great job,” Siegfried continued. “They wanted it more than us tonight, and they outplayed us tonight. Simple as that.”
Joel Gordon started for Richmond at quarterback, but was ineffective on the game’s first series. Davis replaced the rookie with Roy Johnson, who played the remainder of the game at quarterback for the Speed.
The Wildcats scored quickly after the Speed’s quick three and out, going up 6-0 with 10:25 remaining in the first quarter on FB Wilmont Perry’s one yard run. Cape Fear kicker Nathan White, who kicked for Richmond earlier this year, missed the first of what would be four unsuccessful PAT tries in six attempts.
The Speed used up virtually the remainder of the first quarter on a 14 play 34 yard drive that resulted in Peter Martinez’s 26 yard field goal to cut the Wildcat’s lead to 6-3 with :21 remaining in the first stanza.
Richmond’s defense then mounted a furious pass rush early in the second quarter that gave the Speed control of the game through its middle stages.
On the first play of the second quarter, Snyder was hit hard at the Cape Fear one yard line and coughed up the ball. Richmond capitalized quickly on a one yard run by Johnson to take their first lead, 10-6, with 14:24 remaining in the half.
The Richmond pass rush was not finished, though. On the Wildcats’ next possession, Snyder was trapped in the Cape Fear end zone by Richmond DT Chris Field for a safety. Up 12-6, the Speed scored again two plays later after the free kick on an 11 yard touchdown pass from Johnson to WR P.J. Winston to pad their lead to 19-6 with 10:22 remaining in the half.
Davis said the defensive flurry early in the second quarter was a huge confidence builder for his squad.
“Our pass rush pressure had been missing,” Davis said. “It’s hard to win in this game when you can’t get there from a pressure perspective. Finally we got a little bit. It’s hard for that quarterback over there [Bryan Snyder] to run his mouth so much when we have our helmets in it. Where’s all that bravado [stuff] of his when he’s on the ground?”
Speed DB Richard Holland concurred with his coach. “In the second quarter, we had them pinned back on defense and made them pay,” Holland said.
The game settled down for the remainder of the second quarter, with both squads scoring two touchdowns apiece.
Cape Fear scored on a Snyder to Mitch Galloway touchdown pass and a dazzling 57 yard kickoff return by Anthony Hines. Richmond countered with another one yard TD run by Johnson, and the Speed went up by the count of 31-20 on a Johnson to Thompson 23 yard touchdown strike with :27 remaining in the first half.
Richmond had a chance to increase their lead at halftime after getting the ball right back, but Martinez missed a field goal attempt on the last play before intermission.
The Speed appeared to be poised to pull away at the beginning of the second half when Snyder was intercepted on the Wildcats’ first possession. However, Johnson lost the ball for the Speed on the very next play while dropping back to pass.
Davis lamented, “When they turned it over on the first possession of the second half, we could have really put the hurt on them. But then we gave it right back.”
From this point on, the game would remain close until the end.
After another Wilmont Perry touchdown run was offset by a Johnson to Winston touchdown pass, the Wildcats scored the game’s next two touchdowns on Snyder to Hines TD tosses. The second of those occurred on the last play of the third quarter, which tied the score at 38-38.
The Speed broke back on top 44-38 with 12:32 remaining in the game when Johnson hit 315 pound OL/TE Shalimar Jackson on a five yard toss. Jackson lumbered into the end zone despite heavy resistance from the Wildcats.
Jackson said, “We’d been practicing that play for awhile. I knew we needed a touchdown, and it was close enough to where I wasn’t going to be denied. I was determined to get in.”
Cape Fear quickly reclaimed the lead at 46-44 on Perry’s third TD run of the game, this one from seven yards out. Perry slammed in on the two point try to give the Wildcats their two point margin.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Speed resorted to some razzle-dazzle. And it worked, but not without a bit of controversy. Holland fielded White’s kickoff near the goal line on the right sideline. Holland then suddenly threw a cross-field lateral to Dashane Dennis who did well to catch it.
Dennis then appeared to be knocked into the boards around the Richmond ten yard line by Wildcats’ defenders. While a number of players seemed to give up on the play, Dennis continued sprinting down the left sideline and was awarded a touchdown at the 6:12 mark by referee Todd Reese, over the protestations of the Cape Fear coaches.
Down 52-46 after Richmond’s successful two point conversion, Cape Fear went 38 yards in five plays to take its final lead with 1:33 remaining on Russ Lingren’s two yard run and a successful two point conversion pass from Snyder to Hines.
Richmond effectively milked all but seven seconds remaining on the game clock as Johnson marched the Speed 37 yards in five plays for the game winning score.
Davis said that the timing at the end of the game broke well for the Speed.
“It wasn’t a mismanagement of time on their part,” Davis said. “We sort of got lucky in that regard. The decisions we made at the end worked out for us. We were able to go down there and put her in the end zone with very little time left.”
Former New Mexico State University standouts Jackson and Winston said that while they are new to arenafootball2 and the Speed, they learned about the intensity of the Richmond-Cape Fear rivalry quickly.
Jackson said, “This was just as big as any of the games I’ve ever played in—a real big game. It was a physical game. It was a rivalry game, and you had to be tough to play in this game.”
Winston commented, “I’ve played in some big rivalry games like New Mexico-New Mexico State, but because this one was on another level, this one sits up there with the best of them.”
Richmond LB Corey Middlebrooks, who was with Cape Fear earlier this year, said that the Speed finally put a whole game together. “We really needed this game,” Middlebrooks said. “We came out and played four quarters of football, instead of half and half, and we didn’t let down. I’m glad to have this win.”
Both quarterbacks had good outings. For Cape Fear, Snyder was 15-20 for 210 yards and three touchdowns. Snyder was intercepted twice. Johnson, playing all but the first series for Richmond, was 21-34 for 289 yards and had four TD passes without an interception. Johnson also ran for three scores.
Siegfried said both quarterbacks hung in and made plays.
“[Bryan’s] banged up,” Siegfried said. “He’s a warrior. They came after him, but that’s arena football. You’ve got to be a warrior at quarterback. He took a lot of hits, and he had a gutsy performance.”
As for the Speed’s Johnson, Siegfried said, “Johnson’s a gutsy player. He buys a lot of time for the offense and makes good throws on the run. I’ve always liked Roy; he’s a good solid player.”
Davis said Johnson benefited from good pass protection against the Wildcats’ defensive front. “We did a much better job tonight of stepping up and offering some protection for Roy,” Davis said.
For the Wildcats, Hines led the way receiving with ten catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns. Galloway and Jamie Deese chipped in with two receptions each for Cape Fear. The Wildcats played without leading receiver Matt Burstein, who was injured on the first play of Cape Fear’s last game at Rochester.
Perry rushed six times for 18 yards and had three TDs for Cape Fear. The Wildcats’ FB also caught a pass for nine yards.
Siegfried praised his star fullback after his performance against the Speed. “Wilmont’s a stud,” Siegfried said. “He played three years in the NFL and he should be in Arena1 now, but there was a contract dispute. I told him to sign the darn thing, but hopefully this coming year we’ll get him out of here and moved up to Arena1.”
Thompson led the Speed with 12 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. Winston caught six passes for 97 yards and two TDs in only his second game with Richmond.
Winston says he is still very much in a learning process with the arena game. “Coach is slowly rolling me in, and I’m still learning,” Winston noted. “Once I can react to things instead of stopping and thinking, I feel like I can do a better job. Arena ball is shorter and everything is faster, but I’m fast so that works in my favor.”
Holland believes that Richmond can use this victory as a springboard to even better things.
“This was a big game to see what kind of fortitude we had,” Holland said. “The defense stepped up big-time tonight, and the offense came through when it counted. I’m just glad we did this for Coach. Coach has been real frustrated lately because we have so much talent and we haven’t been able to put it together. I really think that this game will be the spark that we need to get on a winning streak and get into the playoffs.”
“We’re trying to get into the playoffs,” Holland continued. “We put up 60 points tonight against a good defensive program. We cut down on turnovers today. Before this game, I think we had 13 turnovers in the last three weeks. If we can negate the turnovers and play consistent defense, there’s no stopping us. We can put this thing together the whole way.”
Cape Fear returns home next week to battle the Charleston Swamp Foxes. Richmond travels to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a rematch with the Pioneers on Friday night. Davis knows that everything achieved in the big win over Cape Fear would be lost with a defeat on Friday.
“We need to move forward and focus on next week,” Davis maintained. “We need to do the same things we did this week, which is attention to detail, no assignment errors and limiting turnovers.”
“We’ll enjoy this one tonight,” Davis said. “But come Monday, this is yesterday’s news.”
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.
