Blaze Scrape Out a Win Over the Rattlers
Josh Fisher
Sunday March 11, 2007
The Blaze rallied from nine down with one minute to play to get the win. Joe Germaine found Ryan Dennard his seventh touchdown of the night with 45 seconds left, cutting the lead to two. After a Steve Videtich on-side kick recovered by the Blaze at the Utah 16 Germaine marched the team down field again. This time it was Germaine finding Orshawante Bryant from 23 yards out to put the Blaze up 75-71 with just 13 seconds left.
Sherdrick Bonner drove the Rattlers to the Blaze 13, but with just two seconds left he couldn’t orchestrate a miracle. He found Pope at the two, but the throw was low forcing Pope to the ground where he was immediately touched down by Clarence Lawson, securing the Blaze victory.
Arizona controlled the game most of the night after taking a 6-0 lead on the game’s second play. Gary Kral missed the PAT, something he would do five times on the night. Utah took a 7-6 lead on its first drive, but that would be Utah’s final lead until the 75-71 lead in the fourth quarter.
With 55 seconds to play in the half the Rattlers had built a 19 point advantage, 39-20. Utah scored its last possession of the half, then again to start the third quarter, taking away some of the Arizona momentum.
It appeared that Arizona was on its way to fourth straight win over the Blaze following the first play of the fourth quarter. With Arizona leading 52-48 Utah attempted an on-side kick. That strategy backfired as Trandon Harvey scooped it up and returned it 11 yards for a touchdown. From there the team’s continued to trade scores until the on-side recovery in the final minute.
The Blaze played without Siaha Burley and Aaron Boone, the team’s top two receivers heading into the season. In their absence Dennard came up huge. Along with his team record seven touchdowns, he tied a team record with 16 receptions (Burley). His 181 yards were the second most in Blaze history, behind the 259 Burley had against New York in 2006. Dennard, the AFL’s Ironman of the Week in Week 1, was named the Ironman of the Game. He added four tackles on the night.
The Blaze defense was ineffective all night. Bonner continually had time to throw and picked the secondary apart. He finished with 319 yards and seven touchdowns. Two Rattler receivers went over 100 yards receiving as Harvey dropped 166 yards and Pope added 107.
Arizona struggled in the PAT department all night. Kral finished just 5-of-10, one of which was blocked. The Rattlers were also 0-for-1 on 2-point PAT attempts. That’s a total of seven points left on the field in a five point loss.
Germaine was named the Offensive Player of the Game after completing 34 passes for 433 yards, both the second best marks in team history. He set a team record with 48 attempts and tied another team record with 10 touchdown passes.
Josh Fisher has been a fan of the AFL for as long as he can remember. He followed the Arizona Rattlers since they began playing. Josh works for the University of Utah
as their head statistician. He is also the media contact for Klub Boom
Volleyball Club and the head volleyball coach at Park City High School.
