Scope Remains A House Of Horrors For Speed
David Chappell
Monday July 7, 2003
Jumping to a quick 14-0 lead early, the Nighthawks were never seriously threatened and cruised to a 63-28 win over their archrivals from Richmond before a crowd of 4,023. The Speed dropped to 5-8 with the loss, while Norfolk improved to 7-6 and pulled to within one game of Atlantic Division leading Cape Fear.
The loss spoiled the debut of interim head coach Billy Jarvis of Richmond. The Speed were playing their third game in succession with a different coach in charge.
The Nighthawks started fast, going up 7-0 with 13:20 remaining in the first quarter on a 45 yard bomb from quarterback Chris Wallace to WR Dominic Banks in what appeared at the beginning to be a busted play. Wallace, who was named game MVP by throwing for 164 yards and three TDs, followed up quickly with a 38 yard TD strike to OS Travis Burns to put Norfolk up 14-0 midway through the first quarter. The Nighthawks never looked back.
Jarvis said getting down early hurt Richmond’s chances greatly. “We gave up three easy scores tonight,” Jarvis commented. “The first score of the game…we’re just giving touchdowns away. But I’m not taking away anything from Norfolk, because they made the plays.”
Burns, who in addition to his TD catch also gave the Speed fits with his kick returns, said it was important to make big plays and put Richmond away early.
“I try to make a big play every time I get the ball, but if it wasn’t for my teammates blocking for me none of this would be able to happen,” Burns explained.
Burns continued, “We came into the week after the loss to Greensboro and were positive all week believing we could make plays when we had the opportunities, and that’s what we did tonight. We lost the first game against Richmond with only a few seconds left, and we’ve had a couple of games like that this year. But I think that’s only making us stronger here at the end of the season because we’re trying to put teams away early, and obviously we did that tonight.”
Richmond cut the Nighthawks’ lead to 14-7 at 11:33 of the second quarter, on one of its several sustained drives of the night. This one went twelve plays and covered 49 yards, taking up 8:41 on the clock, culminating with a one yard run by FB Corey Middlebrooks.
Norfolk dominated the rest of the second quarter, getting two touchdown passes from its other quarterback Aaron Sparrow, and saw its lead balloon to 38-14 just before halftime.
For much of this phase of the game, the Speed were bottled up in terrible field possession and generated little offense due to the kicking of the Nighthawks’ kicker Stephen Scaldaferri.
Scaldaferri was quick to credit the Nighthawks’ effort to overall good team play. “This was a great, great whole team effort,” Scaldaferri said. “We’re really jelling, and had pretty close to a complete game tonight. Everybody is fighting hard and everyone wants it really bad, and things are going in the right direction for us now.”
“I think our line really dominated them up front offensively and defensively,” Scaldaferri went on to say. “Our line was hungry tonight with something to prove, and they definitely did it.”
The Speed caught a break late in the first half when they recovered a live ball off a missed Peter Martinez field goal attempt. With :04 remaining in the half, quarterback Roy Johnson hit P.J. Winston with a five yard scoring toss to cut the Norfolk lead to 38-21 at halftime. Winston and Damon “Redd” Thompson each caught seven passes on the night for Richmond.
The Speed received the second half kickoff, and took over six minutes to get to the Norfolk one and appeared to be poised to get back in the game. But this drive fizzled out without any points for Richmond, as did others in the third quarter. Jarvis said those missed opportunities were the difference in the game.
“The thing I’m upset with most is that three times in the third quarter we were in scoring territory and didn’t cash in,” Jarvis said. “We had happen what we wanted to happen. We ended the second quarter scoring, going in at halftime with a touchdown. We had the ball starting the third quarter and had a really nice drive, and got down to their one and didn’t score.”
“When you get at the one and can’t punch it in, people aren’t making plays,” Jarvis continued. “It’s down to who wants it the most. In the core there, they wanted it more than we did in those situations.”
Richmond OL/DL Al Ford agreed that the Speed did not capitalize on third quarter opportunities that could have made the game more competitive in the second half.
“Tonight we made too many mistakes, allowed too much pressure to the quarterback and had some costly turnovers,” Ford concluded. “I don’t think the final score reflected the type of ball game it was. They ran away with it at the end, but we were still in it in the third quarter but we weren’t able to capitalize on any of the opportunities that presented themselves to us.”
The Speed trailed 44-28 entering the fourth quarter. While the third quarter was a quarter of blown chances for Richmond, the fourth quarter was just down right ugly for the Speed.
With 12:44 remaining in the game, Wallace hit WR Rodney Brown for a 27 yard TD to expand Norfolk’s lead to 50-28. Brown led Norfolk in receiving with three catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
Just after the one-minute warning, there was an ugly incident near the Richmond bench that threatened to get completely out of hand. Players from both teams rushed the area of the fracas, which saw the Speed’s Tim Jones and Richard Holland get ejected from the game. Fans in the area also appeared to get involved. After the area cleared out, uniformed police officers could be seen in the stands close to Richmond’s box.
Jarvis indicated that he was told by Richmond players that they were spit on during the incident. Jarvis said that whatever happened, it did not justify the Speed’s play and behavior in the fourth quarter.
“I was pleased with our effort to a point,” Jarvis said. “But when it got down there in the fourth quarter, it didn’t look like we had the focus and energy that we should have had and that’s disappointing.”
“Regardless of everything that’s happened with this team, you still should carry yourself as a professional and you should carry yourself as a winner,” Jarvis exclaimed. “You don’t listen to what opposing fans or other players are saying, you focus on the game and your assignments. It’s a matter of keeping composure and understanding what’s going on…we’re supposed to be playing football.”
Overall, the Nighthawks outscored Richmond 19-0 in the fourth quarter to secure their final margin of victory. But it could have been even worse for Richmond.
Leading 63-28 and in scoring position with nearly a minute to play, Norfolk coach Rick Frazier ignored chants of “70” by the crowd and opted instead to run the clock out rather than throwing for more points against the beleaguered Richmond secondary.
Johnson threw for 189 yards and two TDs, and ran for another, but was under heavy pressure all night by the Nighthawks’ defense. Defensive Player of the Game Quesua Wigfall intercepted Johnson twice. Ironman of the Game Chris Stahl got two of the five Norfolk sacks on the night. Stahl also had four unassisted tackles on defense.
Stahl said everything came together for the Nighthawks because they are playing well as a team now. “I was working hard all game,” Stahl said. “But a lot of people had good games for us tonight. I think everybody pulled together as a team, we wouldn’t let each other get down, so I think playing as a team is what brought us through tonight.”
“We had been looking at Richmond for a couple of weeks,” Stahl added. “We lost that one up there to them in April, and I got that [late] quarterback hit on their final drive so that kind of hurt me, so it was good to get revenge down here.”
Pressure or not, Johnson had trouble throughout the night receiving clean exchanges from center. Joel Gordon, who replaced Johnson for one series at quarterback at the end of the game, also fumbled an exchange from center. This situation exasperated Jarvis to no end.
“We’re at the end of the year here, and we’re having basic breakdowns that are killing us that should have been taken care of at the start of the year, like getting the center-quarterback exchange properly,” Jarvis said. “That’s totally inexcusable. We have to have the center-quarterback exchange—that’s basic football.”
Jarvis added, “What frustrates me the most is that in practice this past week we spent a lot of time trying to correct that problem. I reckon we’ll have to double the time this week.”
The Nighthawks continue their drive to the playoffs with a home game this weekend against Macon. Richmond starts a two game homestand against Mohegan Friday night, and hopes to learn from its defeat by a solid Norfolk squad in a hostile arena.
Ford noted, “Norfolk plays us well every time we step into Scope. We knew what we were getting into tonight. But we thought we were going to come in here and turn our season around. We’ve gotten away from being the Richmond Speed, and have just become a football team. We need to get back to playing Speed football.”
Jarvis said even in a lopsided defeat, there are positives to take into the next game. The Speed just need to make more plays.
“I feel awful that we lost,” Jarvis said. “But I look at it as situations where there were tradeoffs. Three times they scored on easy giveaways, and three times we took it down the field and didn’t come up with anything. So we have to fix that. It’s all about making plays.”
Jarvis continued, “Going in tonight, I was concerned with delay of game penalties that were killing us, and I was pleased that we got all of our offensive plays called efficiently. I thought Roy did a good job of coming over, getting the play and getting it in.”
“Defensively, we had some breakdowns in the secondary on a couple of coverages,” Jarvis indicated. “But part of that was their quarterbacks getting a fair amount of time to throw it. There’s no need to point fingers or blame any one individual. We’ve got enough mistakes to work on and everybody is involved.”
Speed OL/DL/TE Lawrence Lewis, who is from the Norfolk area, admitted without hesitation that Saturday night was not Richmond’s night. But he was quick to point out that the Nighthawks’ play had a lot to do with that, with maybe an assist from Richmond’s own house of horrors, the Scope Arena.
“That’s a great team that we just played, and they came out with a lot of passion,” Lewis exclaimed. “They are well coached and have a good organization over there. Coach Frazier coached me when I was in Arena1.”
Lewis added, “Things happen; this is arena football. A bounce here or there and anything can happen, but it seemed like the ball didn’t bounce our way tonight.”
Lewis then paused, smiled, and said, “Plus, this Scope has that nasty aura about it too…we haven’t won a game here yet.”
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.
