Destroyers Struck Down By Tampa Bay`s Storm
Tom Ando
Tuesday March 27, 2001
The Storm opened up the scoring 13:06 into the first quarter on a pass from John Kaleo to Tory Epps. The Storm missed the kick, and the score stayed 6-0 until the second quarter when wide receiver Darrick Branch took a harmless screen pass from quarterback Jim Kubiak and, using his athletic ability, turned it into a 29 yard touchdown and a 7-6 Buffalo lead. The lead would be Buffalo`s only one of the night, as the Storm would score with 4:29 left in the half on a pass from Kaleo to offensive specialist Harvey Middelton, and a two point conversion pass to Gunnard Twyner made it 14-7.
On the ensuing possession, Twyner and Buffalo receiver/defensive back got into a fight, and Latta was ejected. "Willie apologized to the team for putting his personal battle in front of the team, I preach against that," said Bentley of the altercation. "It was a classic example of what happens when you lose your composure, you hurt the football team, and you get thrown out of the game." With 30 seconds left in the half, Buffalo`s all-time leading receiver, Bobby Olive, scored a touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Kubiak, evening the score at 14-14 going into halftime.
In the second half, Tampa Bay came out storming, scoring on a 39-yard pass from quarterback Shane Stafford to receiver Bernard Edwards, but Buffalo would strike right back on a 37-yard pass to receiver Kenyatte Morgan from quarterback Aaron Sparrow, and the kick by kicker Murdock Proctor made it a 21-21 ballgame.
After Morgan`s score, it was all Tampa Bay until 22 seconds left in the quarter when Sparrow hit Kevin Mason on a 29-yard strike, in which Mason used his 6`4" frame to go up and get the ball. Buffalo`s scoring ended there however as the Storm would score 14 unanswered points to win 49-27, for their first pre season win in two years, the Destroyers have never won a pre season contest.
Although the Destroyers lost, most of the players and coaches agreed that the desire was there. "Our effort was good, so if we can keep that going, we`ll be fine," said a calm Bentley. Receiver Carlos James, who recorded Buffalo`s only interception, also agreed that the effort was there. "We played hard, and that was the most important thing, we have to take a look at the young guys, and we did that, and we played hard. That`s all that matters."
A couple of positions that got a lot of attention were quarterback and kicker. The quarterback battle has been going on from the start of training camp, and although Bentley hinted at a starter, the situation isn`t settled. "Every spot on that team is up for competition, going into it, we`ve made it clear that it`s Kubiak`s job to lose," explained Bentley.
 Jim Kubiak during warmups Image courtesy of Tom Ando |
Sparrow, who was last season`s af2 MVP, also threw some good-looking passes, and coach Bentley was excited about that. "Aaron`s pretty good, we`ll see more of him, he`ll start next week against Oklahoma City." Sparrow was seven of 11 for 101 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Kicking, to the naked eye, was the area that the Destroyers were the worst. Kicker Murdock Proctor missed four field goals and an extra point, not to mention his kickoffs that looked like squib kicks most of the time, and Bentley addressed this area with a lot of concern. "We`re going to take a long look at that (the kicking game) obviously. We weren`t intentionally trying to squib-kick the ball, we were trying to get it off the net, and we weren`t able to get that done, and I`m just shocked by that because Doc Proctor has been nailing the ball every time in the kicking drill that we`ve done. It`s the first night out on the town like this, so he`ll get better, or he`ll get going, one or the other."
Proctor, a rookie from Ferris State, was also disappointed. "I`m disappointed in myself, it takes time to adjust, I realize that coming from college, but I really need to get better, but it`s a building process now and next game I`ll come out a lot better," said Proctor, who never appeared calm in front of the Buffalo crowd, that and his inexperience that played a big role. "(I was) nervous, and it`s so much different, you don`t get any warm up time, you just got to be ready to go, and it`ll really help me learn and get better."
Buffalo`s best player Monday night was the former quarterback Mason. He had a game high 69 yards and six catches. Buffalo plays their second and final pre season game April 7th in Oklahoma City.
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
