Inside the numbers: Pioneers vs. Steam
Michael Balakier
Thursday May 2, 2002
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers are coming off a lackluster performance against the Greensboro Prowlers in which the Pioneers played miserably, for lack of a better word, on special teams. The Pioneers are still trying to notch their first victory of the season, and hope to do so at home before going on a three game road trip. Meanwhile, the Steam continue to roll on after suffering back to back losses at the hands of Richmond. They have won their last two games over Greensboro and Louisville, respectively.
Positional match ups
Quarterback
The skinny: The Pioneers will rely solely on Tyler Tomich. Tomich is coming off a decent performance against Greensboro in which he threw and ran for two touchdowns apiece. Tomich also committed his first two interceptions of the season against the Prowlers. Roanoke will most likely go with Chris Sanders under the center. Sanders, who went 16-34 for 211 yards and 5 TDs against Greensboro two weeks ago, was named the af2 offensive player of the week for his performance.
Hidden stat: Three different quarterbacks have thrown touchdown passes for Roanoke this year. Sanders, who has only played in one game, leads the Steam with 5, followed by Jones with 4, and Al Clark with 3.
Advantage: Sanders was on fire against the Prowlers two weeks ago and should continue to have success this week against the Pioneers, despite a pesky pass defense.
Fullback
The skinny: LaMonte Coleman will be back in the lineup for the Pioneers this week. Despite only playing in two games, Coleman leads all Pioneer rushers in overall yards gained. Look for the Pioneers also to use Kevin Nagle and Elly Salamo on the ground as well. Roanoke has relied on the team of ‘A&W’ so far this year. Roger Alexander and Kenn Wojciechowski have taken most of the carries for the Steam the season.
Hidden stat: The Pioneers have scored on the ground four times this season and the Steam have scored five times. However, Pioneers quarterback Tyler Tomich has rushed for two of those four touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Steam have relied on quarterbacks for scoring all of their rushing touchdowns (3 for Al Clark and 2 for Tierre Jones).
Advantage: Oddly enough, the battle on the ground is going to be won by a quarterback. Neither teams boasts a prominent running game despite the depth that each team has at the fullback position. The Steam rank sixth in the league in rushing defense, allowing an average of only 14 yards per game as compared the Pioneers who rank 32, allowing 49.2 yards per game. Tomich has scrambled more than Sanders this year, so Tomich gets the edge.
Wide Receiver
The skinny: The Pioneers have four receivers who have caught at least two touchdown passes. Aman Abye led the Pioneers in receiving last week, pulling in 6 catches for 99 yards and one score. The Steam’s top dog is Anthony Hines, who leads Roanoke with 24 catches for 278 yards and 3TDs.
Hidden stat: Each team has 12 touchdown receptions.
Advantage: Bust. Both teams are equally talented at the wideout position. This category just comes down to whichever quarterback can hit their targets more accurately than the other QB.
Kick returns
The skinny: The Pioneers turned to Opio Gary last week to handle kickoffs. Although Gary struggled at times, he turned in a solid performance averaging just under 25 yards a return. Roanoke has split returns between Anthony Hines and Phil Taylor. Hines is averaging just over 26 yards a return while Taylor is averaging 18.4 yards a return. Both have returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
Hidden stat: The Pioneers are allowing an average of 18.7 yards per return while the Steam average just under 19 yards per return.
Advantage: The Pioneers struggled on special teams last week against the Prowlers, allowing one returned touchdown on the Prowlers first possession of the game and almost allowing another returned kickoff just before halftime. The Pioneers need to work on special teams, but a week to fix all the kinks may not be enough time. Look for the Steam to go full ‘steam’ ahead and pound their way to good field position.
Kickers
The skinny: The Pioneers’ Jimmy Kibble hit a 23-yard field goal last week against Greensboro to take him to 3-11 on the year for field goals. Roanoke’s Josh Jones is 6-16 on the year and knocked down two field goals last week against the Fire, from 23 &25 yards respectively.
Hidden stat: The Steam’s opponents are 0-7 on field goal attempts this year.
Advantage: The Pioneers struggled last week with new backup quarterback Tom Racius as the holder. If Racius struggles again this week, especially against a Roanoke team that racked up five sacks last week against Louisville, the Pioneers could be in for another long night on special teams.
What to expect
The Pioneers are coming off a very disappointing outing in which their special teams play was a disaster. For them to be successful against the Steam, they are going to have to keep the turnovers to a minimum. The keys to this game are going to be protection of the football and protection of the quarterback. Both teams are disastrous on fumbles; the Pioneers have committed 14 fumbles, 9 of which were lost, and the Steam have had 11 fumbles, 8 of which were lost. A major advantage for the Steam heading into this contest is their ability to put pressure on the quarterback. Roanoke has 9 sacks on the year, five of which came last week against Louisville, while the Pioneers have only two sacks on the year. On the bright side though is that the Steam have allowed nine sacks, so if the Pioneers are looking for a major breakthrough in their defense, this just might be the opponent the Pioneers have been waiting for. The Pioneers will be playing their only home game of the month Saturday, so the First Union Arena should be noisy and the crowd will definitely be a factor. However, the Pioneers are going to have to execute a flawless game in order to head into their road trip with a victory. If they do that, they walk away with their first victory, if they play sloppy, then it just might be time to hit the panic button.
Prediction: With sirens blazing and lights flashing, it just might be that time to hit the panic button. Steam roll over the Pioneers, 56-38 (Let’s hope my prediction is better than last week’s).
Michael Balakier first discovered a knack for writing during his senior year in high school while reporting for his school`s newspaper. Aside from being an Arenaball fan, Michael is an avid Syracuse University athletics follower, which poses a problem for him, as he attends the University of Pittsburgh. Michael plans on using what he has learned through his Arenafan experience to remain as impartial as he can during future Syracuse/Pitt events. Michael also serves as co-Editor of the af2 section of Arenafan Online.
