One-Handed Wade no match for Horacek
Kevin Sheller
Monday May 22, 2000
When the Milwaukee Mustangs went to Des Moines to take on the Iowa Barnstormers, they thought they matched up well. The previous week, Milwaukee’s defense had frustrated a good New England offense, while Iowa had come off of a 73-point explosion against the Houston Thunderbears. So it was clear to both teams that the match-up worth watching would be the Barnstormers’ offense versus the Mustangs’ defense.
It was. And 75-Barnstormer points later, the winner was clear.
So what happened to the Milwaukee defense? Two weeks prior, Wayne Wade, a defensive specialist touted by the coaching staff as a man who deserved to be in the NFL, suffered a broken finger. Lamenting a season already full of injured starters, the Mustangs bounced back by activating former Iowa defensive specialist John Fischer. He and the rest of the Milwaukee defense held the New England Sea Wolves to 45 points and an easy victory.
 Mike Horacek waits for a kickoff in Saturday`s game Image courtesy of Dave Carlson |
Wayne Wade was fitted with a playing cast and suited up to square off against Horacek, the Barnstormers’ number one receiver, while the deactivated Fischer watched from the sidelines in street clothes. The one-handed Wade struggled against his adversary, dropping a sure interception in the fourth quarter and allowing the receiver to rack up another five touchdowns, en route to a 75-55 victory.
“We really felt like Wade would match up with Horacek,” explained Frazier, “But after a certain point, I think the cast on his hand began to affect him mentally. In hindsight I should have made a switch. Obviously we made a mistake trying to use Wade as our main guy. He’s not good enough that he can play Horacek one-handed. He’s quite good, but he had a very bad night tonight. That was basically the difference in the game.”
Although the final score may have looked like a rout, the game was 47-42 going into the final quarter. Despite suspect defensive play throughout the first three quarters, the Mustangs were able to answer touchdown for touchdown, until the fourth quarter rolled around. It was then that the Barnstormers took over the game, scoring 28 while allowing only 13.
“Things fell apart,” admitted Mustang WR/LB Gary Compton, “We got some young guys. We had some blown assignments on the line. My hat’s off to Aaron [Garcia], Horacek, and those guys; you can’t expect to give them 75 points and win.”
“If it takes swapping scores for four quarters,” said Frazier, “that’s what you have to be able to do. It’s a four-quarter game 9 games out of every 10. I thought we played three.”
The Barnstormers were ecstatic over beating their division opponents. “It’s an excellent win for us over Milwaukee because we always have a tough game with them,” said Iowa head coach John Gregory, “It’s a division game so that’s important, and I think we are really starting to roll right now.”
Ironically, rolling was exactly what did not happen during an unusual play in the second quarter. Iowa decided to try an unexpected onside kick with 6:28 to play in the half. Strategically, it was certainly a surprise because the score was 28-21 in favor of the Barnstormers.
Unfortunately for Iowa, the kick struck the turf and lost all momentum around the 7-yard line. The Barnstormer players stood near the ball, waiting for it to travel the necessary ten yards. All the Mustang defenders were too far away to scramble for the bouncing ball. But as the kicker and his teammates stood there blankly waiting for it to roll three more yards, newly acquired Milwaukee Mustang Joe Carollo rumbled into the scene, scooped up the ball and bounded 9 yards into the end zone for a touchdown, stunning players and fans alike.
“We studied film on them and they were lined up 15 yards deep,” said Gregory after the game, “We just didn’t hit the ball quite hard enough.”
“It was a heads-up play by Carollo,” said Frazier, “That’s going to look funny in the stats -- a 9-yard kickoff return by a lineman.”
Unfortunately for Frazier and the 2-3 Mustangs, there was little to laugh about after Saturday night’s game. The coach is now faced with a road game in Arizona, a team that recently shocked the defending champion Firebirds in Albany by a score of 59-35. Frazier must decide whether his favorite defensive specialist, Wayne Wade, is healthy enough and effective enough to play another game with or without a cast.
Nonetheless, both the head coach and one of his veteran receivers are already looking forward to their rematch with these Iowa Barnstormers in two weeks. Said Compton, “We took an ass-whooping. We’ll get em back in a couple weeks.”
Added Frazier, “I’ll go out on a limb and say when they come to Milwaukee, I think it will be a different story.”
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
