Wranglers Finally Break Streak by Beating Up Barnstormers
Mick Cornett
Sunday June 25, 2000
But happy is not the right word. Relieved is probably more applicable. This team—to a player—doesn’t seem to think it should lose any games, much less five in a row.
After the fifth loss, a close one to Arizona, Wrangler head coach Bob Cortese vowed that the streak would go no further. How he knew, or what he knew, is still a mystery. Iowa was riding a five game winning streak and had the hottest quarterback on the planet. But Cortese wasn’t guessing, he somehow knew his team was going to beat them.
How did they do it? It’s pretty simple to dissect this one. They knocked Iowa’s great quarterback Aaron Garcia out of the game (separated shoulder) in the second quarter. And the Wrangler defense not only created four turnovers, they scored three touchdowns by themselves. There were still too many penalties, but for the most part they were minor and didn’t occur on critical plays. The offense was doing well early, but when the defense started creating all the points, the offense wasn’t able to take the field very often and seemed to lose its rhythm. Indeed, the Wrangler offense went two quarters without scoring a point.
So, with good reason, there wasn’t a whole lot of celebrating in Wrangler-land. The losing streak is over but a lot of the same questions remain.
Next up is a July 3rd matchup in the Myriad against the Arizona Rattlers. It will be very interesting to see what kind of crowd shows up on a Monday night. Over 11,000 watched the Iowa game.
Mick Cornett was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
