Storm Rains Down On Austin
David Delfeld
Wednesday February 9, 2005
Rookie quarterback Bobby Pesavento had some tough luck after suffering a knee injury early in the game. Backup John Fitzgerald filled in and had a decent game with six touchdown passes and 234 passing yards.
Tampa Bay quarterback Shane Stafford didn’t lose any steam from last week’s dominating performance against San Jose. He threw for seven touchdowns and ran one in, going 20 for 30 in passing attempts, and compiling 278 yards.
Austin’s stand-out performance was clearly WR/DB back up, Kevin Nickerson, who had an amazing four touchdown catches and 104 yards in the second half alone. Fitzgerald repeatedly connected to Nickerson, who is quickly turning out to be the "come out of nowhere" Tacoma Fontaine of 2005.
Both teams sloppily played the game; there were 23 penalties and seven turnovers between the two rivals.
The Wrangler’s sluggish offense from last Sunday’s game against the Soul seemed to be make a reappearance on the first drive, forcing Austin to try for a long, unsuccessful field goal. However, Tampa Bay fumbled the missed field goal return and the Wranglers recovered for a touchdown and a quick seven-point lead.
Tampa, being the team they are, fired right back when Shane Stafford hit Clif Dell on a 36-yard strike to knot things up at seven all to end the first quarter.
Fresh QB John Fitzgerald didn’t look so fresh early on in the second quarter when he was picked off by Jonathan Ordway. Ordway dashed 45 yards to the end zone to give Tampa a 14-7 lead.
On the next drive, Fitzgerald started clicking with all of his receivers but soon the momentum was cut off after receiver Charlie Davidson wasted the drive when he fumbled the ball on Tampa Bay’s one-yard line giving the ball back to the Storm.
Tampa Bay squandered this gift when Wrangler Angel Rubio recovered a fumble. Austin took advantage of this when Fitzgerald connected on a short 4-yard pass to brand new FB Henry Bryant making the score 14 all. With under a minute left in the first half, magician-like Shane Stafford with a move of a wand, found Dell again in the end zone from a 38-yard missile to take a 21-14 lead, ending the unusually low scoring first half.
The second half started poorly for the Wranglers. The Storm scored two touchdowns before the Wrangler offensive even touched the ball. Finally, Fitzgerald took the field, down 35-14. His drive stalled, giving the ball right back to the Storm, who returned the favor by promptly throwing an interception. In the remainder of the third quarter Austin scored two touchdowns and Tampa hit the end zone only once, making the score, 42-27.
Austin’s defense came up big to start the fourth quarter with two sacks of Stafford on third and fourth downs. Austin took advantage of this turnover on downs when Fitzgerald found Chiaverini in a heartbeat for a TD. Unfortunately, Dodson missed his second PAT paring the Storm’s lead to 42-33.
However, the two missed PATs became academic when the Storm struck again on their next drive when Stafford launched a touchdown pass to Lawrence Samuels. The game became officially out of reach on the ensuing drive when Fitzgerald threw his second interception of the day to Jonathan Ordway. Tampa Bay capitalized with a quick and easy touchdown catch, making the score 55-33. The game eventually ended at 62-45.
Next week Austin will play its first Friday night home game against former Wrangler gunslinger John Kaleo and his Los Angeles Avengers. Austin must improve on their red zone play or they will be doomed by the Avengers. Kickoff time is set for 7:30 PM CST.
David Delfeld was a writer for ArenaFan Online during the 2005 season.
