Early Risers Miss the Win in Tampa
Adam J Locascio
Tuesday April 20, 2004
Week after week of comeback bids coming up short, sticking around until the final buzzer finally paid dividends for the Tampa Bay Storm faithful as the defending champs overcame a 10-point deficit with 28 seconds remaining in the game to earn a split of the season’s series with the Austin Wranglers.
While the Storm’s playoff lives are still on life support, with the exception of the final 29 seconds, the outcome of the game looked, as Yogi Berra would say, “like déjà vu all over again.”
Just like the comeback bids against Georgia, Austin, and New York, this looked familiar. The Storm, somehow, had a chance to pull this one out in the waning seconds of the game. It looked like QB Shane Stafford’s lone mistake of the game, an under thrown corner-route that ended up as an interception which the Wranglers turned into seven points, was going to be the difference in the game.
But then, a funny thing happened. The Storm played a complete game in all facets. TT Tolliver chipped in with two special teams touchdowns, minus the tooth that was knocked out of his head during a collision. Stafford was able to get passes complete to five different receivers and FB/LB Umar Muhammad rushed for two touchdowns.
Then it was the defense’s turn.
With the score 52-49, the Wranglers had every opportunity to run out the clock. With 29 seconds left, Austin only gained positive yards on two of four plays including an inexplicable incompletion on fourth down that wasn’t even close to being completed and sailed harmlessly out of bounds. The Storm took over and after an Austin penalty for illegal formation Stafford completed an eight-yard out pattern to WR Lawrence Samuels who stepped out of bounds with two seconds left in the game to turn the game over to their kicker.
Someone spin the wheel and find out who’s kicking this week.
Well, today’s kicker is Ignacio Brache, newly signed to replace Matt George who broke his clavicle against the Chicago Rush.
Brache had nothing to lose in this situation. He misses, oh well. Another Storm kicker misses a field goal. And in other news, the sun came up this morning and water is still wet. He makes it and he gets 20% off his Hooters tab.
Now Hooters is a fine establishment, but what’s a Storm field goal without some drama? After watching crowds form behind the net for Wrangler K Tony Dodson’s extra points that sailed over the net and into the 200 level, Brache decided that he wanted to get into the action and clanked his field goal off the welded corner of the net and doinked his tying field goal through the irons, sending the game to overtime.
After winning the toss, Austin took over and gained five yards on three plays. Facing fourth-and-five, QB John Kaleo was flushed left and brought down by a one-armed Nyle Wiren who was playing with a torn labrum. A fumble ensued and Samuels picked up a two-hopper and bolted for the end zone, despite about 93 penalty flags lying on the turf.
Obviously, Samuels didn’t want to take any chances after having the refs take away his winning catch against the Dragons. Quite frankly, I don’t blame him.
After a rather lengthy explanation from referee Bill LeMonnier that I am sure included some kind of explanation on the thermodynamics, the touchdown stood and the remaining crowd of 87 rejoiced.
In 29 seconds, this game went from another Storm debacle to one of the most exciting games in recent Storm history, so if you attempted to beat the traffic, you missed out. My advice? Regardless of the game, park your rear in the seat and watch. Trust me, you’re not going anywhere anyway. Downtown Tampa is a mess between the construction, the one-way streets and the arbitrary cones that are scattered throughout the roads.
Plus, you never know when you’re going to witness history.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
