Pirates Prepare for Rivalry with Quad City
Steve Robinson
Thursday May 6, 2004
So far there have been six very tightly played and very entertaining contests between 2002 ArenaCup champion Peoria Pirates and the team that won the first two af2 championships, the Quad City Steamwheelers.
The outcomes of the previous six games between these two have included one blowout Peoria fans will long want to remember and one shutout they may still be trying to forget.
Pirates fans would probably like to believe that, if history is any barometer of future events, then head coach Bruce Cowdrey’s team would likely have a victory against rival Quad City following Friday’s 7:10p.m. game at Carver Arena. The series between these two teams is tied at 3-games apiece.
Cowdrey was modest when he said, “surely, there is some rivalry to it, being the game with your closest opponent.”
Steamwheelers head coach Rich Ingold sees the rivalry -- and the game -- as more than just a contest, but also as a tool of the trade.
“This game is very physical,” Ingold said. “Bruce and I each have every intention of winning this game because it is a good recruiting tool for our teams because we each tend to try to recruit and often go after the same players.
“It’s good to have such rivalries,” he said. “It just makes games in this league that much more interesting.”
Last year, Quad City took the first game, at Moline, by a 55-52 mark on May 2, 2003. When the Steamwheelers visited Carver Arena on July 26, Ingold’s team won again, 65-42.
Intentionally or not, Ingold tacks on the obvious when he explains that, “(Carver Arena) is a hostile environment for us. They don’t like very much there.”
In case you’re wondering, the blowout was an 81-56 Peoria win on May 10, 2002 at Carver Arena. The shut-out came in Peoria’s very first af2 game, with Quad City shutting down the Pirates, coached then by Gary Porter, 41-0, at The Mark in Moline on March 29, 2001.
Pekin Community High and Eastern Michigan alum Troy Edwards will start at quarterback against Quad City.
The Traveling Trophy: The winner of each Peoria-Quad City match gets something more than bragging rights to hang on to. The winner gets temporary custody of ‘The Ruler Of The River’ Trophy. The memento was the idea of Steamwheelers owner James Foster, who commissioned a Des Moines trophy company to make a two-foot-high, glass-encased, 25-pound souvenir to go to the winner of each game until the next one is played. In the encasing are a two-story paddleboat and a black-sail-draped pirate ship racing neck-and-neck on rushing waters, to an unseen finish line.
he Graduate: Mike Souza actually has two positions to be concerned with this weekend. The first is as backup quarterback to Edwards against the Steamwheelers on Friday. But on Saturday, the California native’s other role will be that of college graduate. He will receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, completing his degree. Among the classes Souza has had his hands full with when he was not learning about the arena game were Telecommunication Economics and The Politics of Federalism.
Remember These Guys?: A number of familiar names on Quad City’s roster who were, at one time, Pirates players. Most notably, among them, quarterback Matt Pike and Ronnie Gordon, wide receiver/linebacker Charles Sheffield, defensive specialist Chazz Moore; linemen Jon Verdegan, Brandon Williams, and Bear Brown; and wide receiver/defensive back Billy Cook. In high school, Steamwheelers lineman Brandon Graves was an all-Mid-Illini Conference selection on both offense and defense.
Injury Report: Going into Friday’s game, Pirates defensive end Mike Cunningham suffered a shoulder injury against Central Valley and is listed as day-to-day. Quad City reports that fullback/linebacker Fred Barr may not play due to knee injuries, nor might wide receiver/defensive back Danny Thomas, due to a foot injury.
Steve Robinson, a freelance writer since 1984, has written about the Peoria Pirates since the Pirates were members of Indoor Football League, beginning in 1999. He covers the Pirates currently for the Bloomington IL Pantagraph.
